Belmont Hot Broads: Coolest Teacher Hobby Ever

It must be cool knowing your 7th grade Life Sciences teacher goes home and becomes an elbow-jabbing fighter on wheels with a partner nicknamed Daangerous.

Shayna "Pigeon" Meikle went counter-intuitive, picked her nickname because "it's an underestimated bird." But once she straps on her crash helmet and cheetah-print roller skates, she is ready to get her derby on.

Meikle is coach of Belmont Hot Broads, the fourth and newest edition to the Long Beach Roller Derby League, which since 2009 has brought a competitive, all-girl roller derby culture to popularity in Long Beach.

"Roller derby is such a complex game. It’s the only game where you’re playing offense and defense at the same time,” says Pigeon, who is soon moving to Belmont Shore.

The sport consists of two teams, four blockers and one jammer (the player that sports a star cover on her helmet) from each team. The goal is to get the jammer and move as quickly as possible while practicing offense and defense simultaneously. 

Belmont Hot Broads' first game was in June, which led to a solid victory against the Terminal Island Tootsies.

Despite sustaining several injuries ranging from broken legs, ripped tendons and most recently, a broken rib--Pigeon is far from leaving this “extreme team sport.”

Pigeon has lived and breathed sports ever since she was young. During college, she remembers going to a bar in Santa Cruz with her pals, and a bartender told her to try out for a new roller derby league. At that point, Pigeon had never heard of roller derby. She forgot about it until a friend coaxed her into giving it a try.

Before she knew it, Pigeon was the youngest member on the Santa Cruz Derby Girls league at the age of 21. Because she was the youngest member on the team, she decided to name herself “Pigeon”--all derby girls have got to have a nickname--because it complemented her personality and experiences.

“I thought of pigeon as underestimated in the bird world. I like the name because it’s cute and simple. I’m not into those violent names,” says Pigeon.

Pigeon admits that at times, it was difficult to fit in--especially since she was playing with women older than she in her league. But with time, everything fell into place as soon as she put her skates on and proceeded to the battlefield-er, rink. 

After playing roller derby in Santa Cruz, Pigeon was accepted into the teaching program at Cal State Dominguez Hills, and decided to move to Long Beach, where roller derby had a home. In September, Pigeon started teaching 7th grade life science full-time at a school in a poor neighborhood of Bell. She is working on getting her credentials by the end of next summer.

In some kind of throw-back to the era in which it was born--the 1950s, when women were called "doll" and "gal" and "dames"--roller derby skaters frequently refer to themselves as "girls." Pigeon enjoys training her girls and collaborating with co-coach Shyrell “Daangerous” Hopwood and preparing for upcoming competitions. With varied personalities and skating backgrounds, the two women make quite a dynamic duo. Daangerous is a skilled speed skater, often wowing others with her agility and strength to lead, support and train "girls" to step outside of their comfort zone.

Practice and teamwork are key ingredients for any team. Belmont Hot Broads practice on Wednesday and Sunday evenings from 6:30-8:30pm at the Queen Mary Dome, where they conduct warm ups, laps, and scrimmages, and practice games to beef up confidence and skill.  

For Pigeon, roller derby has been a huge part of her life since she started playing in Santa Cruz and later, Long Beach. She can often be seen doing a lot of aggressive street skating in skate parks in Long Beach and participating in a plethora of outdoor physical activities. She also holds private lessons for those interested in learning how to skate or roller derby.

“Every league is different, depending on how many girls
they have," said Pigeon. In Santa Cruz, we had 60 girls try out and we only took five or six. In Long Beach, it’s an open door policy. You can come in and you don’t have to know anything. We’ll teach you to skate. You don’t have to have prior experience,” said Pigeon.

Pigeon considers herself a “Moxi for life”. She has worked at Moxi Rollerskates and considers it her second home.  Although Pigeon does not reside in Belmont Shore, she plans on moving there soon because she enjoys the friendly and upbeat nature of its residents. 

Free roller derby training lessons are usually held Saturdays at 1pm at Moxi by the Beach located at 700 E. Shoreline Village, Long Beach, CA 90802. Anyone interested in learning roller derby can stop by Moxi Roller Skates and rent roller skates for $10 an hour.

The next roller derby competition will be held Friday, November 11 at 7 p.m. against the 4th Street Retro Rollers at the Long Beach Rollerdome. Check out Belmont Hot Broads’ Facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/pages/Belmont-Hot-Broads/157581230975732 for more information.