In Baxter Springs, Kansas, 66 Skate rink is helping the reemergence of the underground sport of roller derby.

Over the last year, the MoKan Roller Girlz have been learning the sport and competing with competitors in Tulsa, Springfield and River Valley.

The team began over a year ago when founding members (under team names) Neurotica and Loudi McRowdi approached John Mayes.

“I grew up skating,” said Neurotica. “I saw a show with some Texas girls doing roller derby and decided that’s what I wanted to do.”

She talked to her friends and found Mayes, owner of 66 Skate. He became their coach.

“These girls work really hard,” Mayes said. “They practice eight or more hours a week, so they’re pretty serious about this.”

Roller derby is a deceptively simple sport. Each team has five players on the rink at a time. The pivot sets the teams pace and three blockers spread out at the front of the field. On the first whistle, these four members, called the pack, take off.

The fifth member of each team is called the jammer. The jammer starts behind the pack and must lap the pack once. Any time they pass a member of the other team while in bounds, the team receives a point. The opposing team tries to stop the jammers by knocking them down.

The results can be debilitating, as can be evidenced player Flikin Pain. While playing against Springfield and substituting for the Little Rock team, she received a knee injury.

“They hit me and I fell,” Pain said. “Nothing spectacular. The doctors don’t know what’s wrong yet. I have to go back and probably have surgery, but it’s not that big of a deal. I’ll just skate in a brace for a while, but it will be fine.”

The MoKan Roller Girlz matches, called bouts, don’t begin until March. Until then, they are practicing hard and trying to train and gain new recruits.

“The way we have the program set up allows us to teach women how to skate,” says Mayes. “Taking the blows is the easy part.”

The Girlz can be contacted at myspace.com/mokanrollergirlz, or be found at 6:30 on Thursdays at the 66 Skate in Baxter Springs, Kan.