They’re rolling now and began their first bouting season this year - a brand-new, all-women flat-track roller derby team based in Ithaca. Comprised of a cross-section of Ithacans from moms to mechanics, and range from lifelong athletes to those who never touched a sport in their lives.

These roller girls formed a local team after joining and practicing with the Assault City Roller Derby League since the Fall of 2007. The SufferJets are skater-owned and skater-operated. With startup funding from local businesses like the Chapter House, Korova, and Clayburg Creative they have quickly established a local presence and following.

The SufferJets take history for a ride on skates as they celebrate one of the many victories of the women’s rights movement in athletic form. Women’s suffrage (the right to vote!) was granted in 1920 with the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. This important piece of history took place right here in New York when rockin’ ladies such as Susan B. Anthony, Matilda Joslyn Gage and Elizabeth Cady Stanton took to the streets and fought for our right to vote.

The team is currently training hard several times weekly in Ithaca at both Cass Park and the Greater Ithaca Activities Center (GIAC). The SufferJets unleashed roller derby on Ithaca at Cass Park when they bouted the Syracuse Psycho Dolls (their sister team in the Assault City Roller Derby League).

How is Roller Derby Played? A roller derby game is called a bout and is comprised of three 20 minute periods. Each period is made up of an unlimited number of jams which last two minutes or less. A jam consists of two teams, five players each: four blockers and one point-scoring player, called the jammer. Blockers from both teams skate together in a pack and are continuously lapped by the jammers. Jammers (identified by a helmet cover with stars on the sides) are sprint skaters, and after their first lap through the pack they score points each time they pass an opponent. The blockers at the front of the pack are pivots and wear striped helmet covers.