Philly Roller Derby Juniors "has a place" for all gender identities
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The Philly Roller Derby Juniors is a tough team playing a tough sport and to be in this club comes with quirky names.
"Hi, I'm Devoida Mercy," said the coach who's also known as Faith Cortright.
Coach Beth Mast's derby name is "Teflon Donna."
These two have been coaching many of these players since they were 6 years old and in pigtails like Elena Liu.
"I saw all these really strong women beating each other up," Elena said, "I'm like, 'you really want me to do that, what?'"
From the sweet pink helmet to a black one with the words "bad blood," Elena says derby is where they feel accepted.
"I feel as a genderqueer player, [there's] a lot of discouragement in the sports community," Elena said. "Here, I can be strong. I get to play with people from different ethnicities, different ages, different genders. It's all open and I really appreciate that because no one is excluded."
"Derby has a place for everybody, and everybody has a place in derby," Cortright said.
In this high-contact sport that's mostly played and run by females, males play a different role -- like Ty-Fighter who started as a referee watching his sisters play.
At only 8 years old, he was the first wave of boys to skate for Philly Roller Derby Juniors.
The team promotes gender equality and acceptance with jerseys labeled with players' respective gender pronouns.
"For me," Ethan Garrity said, "it's really important because I started testosterone 6 months ago."
Before then, Ethan was frequently misgendered.
"She's over there," Ethan said, "and it was really hard for me because all of a sudden, I'm not focusing on the game, I'm focusing on how the other players are perceiving me."
With everyone's head in the game, there's only one title these contenders are trying to defend this summer: that's the Junior Roller Derby Association champions.
"Now that we have that championship title, it's a little nerve-wracking," Mast said, "because we feel like we have a giant bullseye on us. Everybody's coming to beat Philly."
With this All-Star line-up of some of the best athletes in roller derby, we are already looking at winners.
"You might not be the fastest, you might not be the strongest, as quirky or as interesting as we all are as human beings, it works great here," Cortright said.