That lifetime passion for skating displays itself during a break at the scrimmage. Kelli skates round and round the roller derby track. Forward, backwards, sideways. It all looks easier than walking for Kelli. The smooth, fast, and quiet gliding appear as if the skates hardly touch the floor.
Kelli stays on the sidelines after the break. She injured herself in practice a few weeks ago and needs to sit out the scrimmage – a bitter blow that she told me about before the scrimmage.
“I tore a ligament in my ankle doing baseball slides in skating practice three weeks ago. And I was very, very upset. I could feel and I could hear it so I just sat there punching the floor and swearing and saying I can’t believe I just did that. I’m a fighter, and I was out on one skate last Thursday when they were practicing. I had a crutch in one arm and a roller skate on my left foot. But I’ll have to be coaching at the scrimmage, pushing them and keeping them motivated.”
She coaches and yells to her blocking and jamming teammates as skaters fly around the track and regularly fall, sometimes nearly into the cheering fans downing hot dogs and Cokes while sitting on the Coliseum floor as close as they can get to the skaters.
Kelli’s boyfriend Nathan Theriault of Nashua, who encouraged her to join the team, watches from the stands right behind her. Kelli tells me, “He loves having a roller derby girl on his arm!” Her eight year daughter Alison McKenzie, nicknamed Mini KrushHer, can’t wait until she’s old enough to be on a team.
Kori is back at her desk Monday morning dressed in jeans and a feminine shirt quietly taking orders from customers. Strong in mind and muscle, she remembers the Saturday night skate to The Who’s “We Won’t Get Fooled Again” with Dee Stortion, Mizz Dizzastah, Rumble Pie and the rest of New Hampshire Skate Free or Die Rollergirls. “Roller derby helps me relieve stress and get positive,” Kori says. “You can do something, be someone you’re not in every day life.”