Jenni Carlson's Q&A with Brooke Burleson

By Jenni Carlson Comments 1
Published: November 7, 2009

Jenni Carlson: First of all, I have to ask about your roller derby name.

Brooke Burleson: My skate name? My skate name’s Sally Strych9.

More Info

Oklahoma Victory Dolls’ Roller Derby Mash-Up

Inaugural Tequila Mockingbird Benefit Bout

→ When: 6:30 tonight

→Where: Miles Roll-A-Way Rink, 5800 NW 36th Street

→Tickets: $10 in advance, $12 at the door; children 12 and under free with a paid adult.

All profits will benefit Tahirah Johnson, a.k.a. Tequila Mockingbird. She was paralyzed two years ago during a roller derby bout in the Chicago area. She now lives in Oklahoma City.

→Coming Sunday: Pile-ups happen all the time in roller derby, but one of those routine moments turned tragic for Tahirah Johnson. Read how this feisty fighter is now battling to walk again.

JC: How’d you come up with that? I’m sure there’s a fun story.

BB: No, there’s not. (Laughs.) I don’t have a really good story. I needed something fast, and I was looking through some old World War II nose-art books, and I saw a plane called Strychnine. I was like, "Strychnine? Strychnine? What goes with that?” Susie? There was already a Susie in the league. Sandy? That’s my mom’s name. Sally? Sally. Sally Strych9. There we go.

JC: Perfect, right?

BB: There’s some great names in our league. My name’s not one of them. (Laughs.)

JC: Are there rules behind picking them?

BB: There is a worldwide database. You don’t take somebody else’s name in the world, so it’s kind of hard. You don’t take somebody else’s name, and you register your name. You just try not to pick anybody else’s name.

JC: Talk about this event you’re doing tonight as a fundraiser.

BB: Tequila Mockingbird has been a friend of ours. We heard about her right after her injury, which happened a little over two years ago when she skated for Windy City (in Chicago). Whenever we found out she was moving here ... we contacted her. We brought her in, made her an honorary Victory Doll. Throughout this past season, every raffle that we’ve done, all the money has went to her. And it’s not been a lot. It’s been a few hundred dollars. So, we wanted to do something that made more of an impact. Even if we only raise a few thousand dollars, it’s a few thousand dollars more than she had before. Any little bit helps.

JC: What did she say when you guys told her you were thinking about this benefit?

BB: She’s just so grateful. She’s like, "I can’t believe you guys are doing this. You don’t have to do this.”

JC: Injuries are part of this sport. How much do you think about that?

BB: We don’t. You can’t. I’ve had more injuries than every single person on the team added up. More surgeries. More injuries. (Laughs.) I am the most accident-prone, so if anybody, I should be in a bubble.

JC: Not exactly a good thing for a roller derby player.

BB: I’m always the one. If it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen to me. And I’ve only managed to miss one bout in my entire three-and-a-half year derby career. Don’t know how.

JC: Last thing, I have to ask you about this new roller derby movie, "Whip It.” Thumbs up? Thumbs down?

BB: I think it’s great for our sport because it’s going to advance us just to get it out there in the mainstream. Is it true to what our sport is? Eh.

JC: It’s Hollywood.

BB: We don’t stop and elbow somebody in the chest and in the nose. There’s no elbows to the nose and blood going everywhere.

JC: But it makes good movies.

BB: It makes great movies. But the girls in the movie have been great. They’ve been great at promoting the sport of roller derby. We got a huge amount of e-mail and people interested in the sport.

Want to know why Brooke Burleson needed a donut after her first roller derby practice? Check out my blog at NewsOK.com.