The East texas Bombers, a new female roller derby team, will host a match and concert Sunday at Kilgore Interskate. News Herald photo by JOHN HADAWAY What’s more fun than roller-skating? Roller Derby.

The East Texas Bombers women’s roller derby team plans to hold a scrimmage match and concert at the Kilgore Interskate complex Sunday evening.

Team Captain Jessica Gable, of Longview, said the event will include a concert from an East Texas band named No Due Respect and two 20-minute bouts of roller derby action as members of the Bombers team compete against each other in full-contact skating combat.

Gable, also known by her rink name “GImessurfaceup,” said she has been with the Bombers since 2008 and helped reorganize the team after returning from military training in 2009.

Starting in the early 1900s, roller derbies pit teams - primarily women - against each other on an oval track where points are scored as team members, known as “jammers,” lap the opposing team’s players. The other team members form blocking walls to prevent the opposing team from whipping their jammers around them.

Roller derbies reached the height of popularity in the 1970s, but eventually faded out of the media spotlight, making a few brief recurrences on television in the mid-1990s. Though out of the spotlight, leagues across the nation still exist and interest in the sport is growing again.

Gable, who has been roller-skating since her childhood, credits her introduction to roller derby competition to a “blind date gone wrong.”

“I was on a date. I went to the bathroom to kind of figure out what I was going to do and I saw a flyer that was drawn up in magic marker that said ‘hey we need girls for the East Texas Bombers,’” she said. “I went out and told him that I had to go. They were having practice right then so I went straight to practice.”

Gable described the atmosphere at the skating rink as “inebriating” and she knew it was where she belonged

“Everybody was skating around and checking each other with their arms and shoulders. It just looked really cool to me so I just jumped right in and gave it everything I got.”

Gable said she attended the practices until she enlisted in the Texas Army National Guard in June 2008. When Gable returned from her military training in 2009, she discovered the Bombers broke up, but that didn’t stop her. Gable said she called some of the original team members and asked if they wanted to get the team back together. The girls once again made some flyers seeking new teammates. Now, the team includes about 16 ladies from all over East Texas and interest is still growing.

Right now our team consists of girls from Nacogdoches, Lufkin, Jacksonville, Tyler, Lindale, Tatum, Carthage, Gilmer, Longview, Kilgore and Henderson... We’re kind of from everywhere,” she said. “There’s bigger teams in Dallas and Austin. There’s a team that’s starting up in Shreveport. Really, we’re the only one that’s located here in East Texas.”

Gable said the team is made up of women from all walks of life, including nurses, waitresses and stay at home moms.

“We have nurses - RNs and LVNs. We have PTA moms, a social worker, a welder, a tattoo artist and several other people with various backgrounds,” she said.

Gable is a combat medic in the Army National Guard, a licensed nurse and a mother of three. In a sport where violence on skates is a key aspect of the game, she said being a nurse can come in handy.

“That’s one of the things we joke about. We say, ‘don’t worry, we’ve got a nurse on standby’ and we all have medic bags or emergency bags in our cars,” she said. “In our drills and in our practices, we teach everybody to practice good body mechanics and stay safe. We’re not really trying to injure anybody. We always remind people to keep drinking water and take vitamins. We keep a good check on who’s not feeling well and who’s losing speed.”

The team practices about three times a week at sports and skating complexes in Kilgore, Jacksonville and Henderson. Gable said the only requirements to try out for the team are to be 18- years-old - for insurance purposes - and have a desire to have fun and give it all you’ve got.

“You don’t even need to know how to skate well,” Gable said.

The Bombers are still recruiting more members and hoping to raise enough money to join the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association, which holds large competitions across the nation. Gable said the Bombers follow the same regulations required by WFTDA. The team is planning bouts against other teams in upcoming months, including a trip to Corpus Christi to battle in their official league.

In addition to competitions, Gable said the team likes to help non-profit organizations with charity fundraisers. She said the team is participating in a cancer society fundraiser and is currently accepting donations for a walk-a-thon taking place in the fall.

“We try to get involved in those type of events to give back to our community,” she said.

Gable said the goal of Sunday’s event is to help increase the popularity of the sport and let people in Kilgore know there is a team in the area. She said the Bombers team is now large enough to be able to split in two and compete against each other in scrimmage matches, but she hopes, once they gain enough money and sponsorship, they can join WFTDA and bring a larger audience to the sport.

Pre-sale tickets for Sunday’s event are available online for $3 and tickets at the door will cost $5. The doors of the Kilgore Interskate complex, located at 2803 N. Longview Street, are scheduled to open at 6 p.m. The event will begin with a concert and the first derby bout is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m.

For more information, visit the team’s Web site at www.easttexasbombers.com.