Posted May 7, 2014
“Cutthroat” isn’t a term that most would describe blonde-haired, soft-spoken, kind-hearted high school sophomore Shelby Bacon as. But out on the roller derby track, there’s a fiery competitiveness that demands to be seen. Slamming the opposition off the track by hip-checking them in mid-jump is one of her favorite moves, an expertise that leaves opposing teams shaking in their skates. Cutthroat she is when it’s go time.
The fifteen-year-old Denver Online High School student has competed the last two years on the Rocky Mountain Roller Punks team. While none of her other family members compete in sports, she seems to have caught on quickly. “My coach thinks I’m more of a versatile player,” Bacon said. As a result, she’s played all three positions on the team: a “jammer” who tries to get through the pack of nine other girls to score points, a “blocker” who stops jammers from getting through the pack, and the “pivot” who is the team’s leader.
The team travels monthly to compete in bouts and tournaments, many times in other states like Washington, Florida, and Arizona. While their team competes locally in-state, she said, “None of the teams here want to play us because we always beat them,” acknowledging their commitment to frequent and challenging practices as the team’s key to success. “We have transfers from other states come in because we have such a high reputation,” she said about outside competitors coming to try out for their team. In last year’s national competition of junior teams, Bacon’s tough gang of girls skated and fought their way into sixth place. Bacon also earned Most Valuable Player three times in bouts throughout the year, once as a blocker and twice as a jammer.
While on the track Bacon might wear the facade of a fighter, it was freshman year at a traditional school that proved truly cutthroat. “I was getting bullied a lot,” Bacon said, a time that sent her and her family seeking alternative options. That’s when her family found Denver Online High School. Though the transition to this new schooling option was not under the most desirable circumstances, she says it now enables her to focus more on her passion of roller derby. And passionate she is with huge goals, saying, “Derby is going to the Olympics. I want to try out for Team U.S.A. after high school.”
Roller derby is currently being considered for inclusion in the 2020 Olympics. Until then, Bacon said she wants to attend a culinary school, likely Escoffier in Boulder, after high school graduation. “As a kid, I use to cook with my aunt, my mom, and my grandma,” she said. To start her on the track of maybe one day owning her own restaurant, another goal of hers, she is also currently taking a culinary arts course for college credit with Denver Online’s school partner, the Career Education Center Middle College of Denver. While she loves to cook, she admitted that ultimately her culinary vocation would simply help fund her derby career, saying, “It would help me pay for my expensive roller derby gear.”
No doubt, both sports and school can be cutthroat at times. But it’s how we roll with the punches, or hip checks maybe, that life throws our way that ultimately shows our character. While most high school students aren’t fighting their way through a mob of competitors on skates, many high schoolers find times when they are fighting their way through a tough high school experience. Denver Online High School aims to bring those students onto its team and consistently mentor, coach, and educate its team members into becoming a force to be reckoned with, both within academic and extracurricular activities. Because while we might not all be able to cut it on skates like Bacon, with the right team, all students have the ability of becoming their own story’s MVP.