Well, those terms might not sound familiar just yet, but with roller derby quickly gaining notoriety in popular culture San Diego Derby Dolls founder Bonnie D. Stroir is betting people will be much more familiar with the sport soon. She’s been involved in roller derby for six years now and founded the San Diego league in 2005 after competing with the LA Derby Dolls for two years. However, her initial involvement with the sport came almost as a fluke when an article about an Austin, Texas team caught her attention several years ago.

“You can call it coincidence, I call it synchronicity,” Stroir said. “There was just like a series of magical events that took place. I’m pretty sure it was the first issue of Jane magazine that had, ironically enough, Drew Barrymore on the cover of it and a tiny little article about roller derby in it. I don’t know, something about it clicked. I was like, ‘this is something I want to do’ and I was actually making plans to move to Austin to be a part of it.”

Stroir, while getting ready for her big move, said she did some research and found out about an LA league that was just starting up. Rather than packing up and moving her entire life to Texas, she commuted from Oceanside to LA for two years before starting the San Diego league. With guidance from the founders of the LA Derby Dolls and several responses to her Craigslist posts, the SD Derby Dolls were born and have been thriving ever since.

“I’m pleased to report the sport’s been growing and getting better and better all the time,” Stroir said. “I’m actually progressing every year [because] there’s new strategies being developed and new skating techniques, so even though it’s been a long time it still feels brand new every year.”

Stroir said that, since it’s a newer sport, roller derby is still finding its identity. She said the closest thing she’d compare it to is the Ultimate Fighting Championship. She wasn’t initially a fan, but after studying its history she found parallels between UFC and roller derby, being a new, constantly evolving and community-oriented sport. What made UFC take off, she said, was having a few influential people with a lot of vision invest some time and money. She thinks the same thing can happen with roller derby.

For now, the SD Derby Dolls are doing well on their own. The league has four teams: San Diego Hard Corps and Diego Rollers, two home teams of up-and-coming skaters; The Wildfires, their flat track traveling team; and The Swarm, their banked track team. Not all leagues have the luxury of playing both flat and banked track roller derby because having a banked track can create problems with cost and space, and Stroir said the Dolls are the only league proficient in both.

“Each of these leagues is a skater owned and operated grassroots effort, and a lot of them can’t afford the cost of housing and having this huge banked track,” Stroir said. “While I would have the whole world play banked track and I would give a banked track to every league if I could because it’s faster, it’s more exciting, it’s more fun to watch … it’s a big heavy burden to bear. So we’re going to continue to have a team that plays flat track that travels just because you want to play against other people in the community and have as much of a challenge as you can.”

One thing even roller derby novices recognize about the sport are the clever surnames adopted by skaters like “PT Bruiser” and “Buster Teethin.” Equally as attention grabbing as the alter ego personas – if not more so – are the ladies’ eclectic uniform choices, typically involving ripped fishnet stockings and really short shorts.

Players coming up with their own names is a tradition that’s been carried on from the earliest days of the sport. Stroir said she took on a skate name when she started, but said it doesn’t mean as much to her as it can to the other girls.

“Some people get really excited. They like having a different name so they can be a different person, but I really try to integrate the things I love in roller derby and take it with me in my everyday life,” Stroir said. “If you’re not happy with the role that you play in your day-to-day life, it’s like an excuse to be the person that you want to be.”

Stroir stresses that beyond badass nicknames and shorty shorts there are some really dedicated athletes who take their sport very seriously.

“We play by the rules and we definitely train … for different kinds of situations so that if you find yourself falling it’s not just a random accident, you have some kind of muscle memory of how to react,” Stroir said. “But the fact is, any sport is subject to injury and … we have them. It’s part of it and it’s a big test of your will every time, you know, ‘can I heal and come back or do I let this be the thing that knocks me out?’”

For Stroir it’s been six years and she hasn’t been knocked out yet. If anything she’s even more determined to have roller derby be recognized as a legitimate sport.

“I’ve always been kind of mentally preparing myself for the day it’s a professional sport, and I believed in that right from the beginning,” Stroir said. “Even now a lot of people don’t necessarily see it, but I know it’s coming. And so I’ve always just kind of taken the kitsch and alter ego side of it in stride. It’s fine for now but not forever.”

Along with providing good exercise, Stroir believes competing in roller derby offers some therapeutic benefits, and considers it a positive outlet for natural aggression.