DeKALB | The Rockford Rage Roller Derby rocked the Chick Evans Field House Saturday.

The roller derby team paired up with the Women’s Resource Center to show students of NIU the skills it takes to play roller derby.

With names like Killswitch and May Q. Hurt, it is hard not to be intimidated by the sport, said senior illustration major Missy Eymann.

“It was really fun, but it was scary,” Eymann said. “I was a little bit more scared before I got here, I thought it was going to be a lot more violent.”

Junior psychology major Katy Siler said she was also nervous before meeting the girls.

“I was scared at first, but they were all really nice,” Siler said.

The team’s announcer Andrew Wright aka Hurricane Andrew, explained some of the main objectives of roller derby.

“The person with the star on their helmet is the jammer,” Wright said. “The jammer is the person scoring the points and everyone wants to knock out the jammer.”

Besides the jammer there are also people called blocks, which usually consist of four people per team, eight in total, trying to block the jammer from lapping them, he said.

“You will see blockers working side by side,” Wright said. “Blockers cannot grip people, they can’t trip people, or use their elbows to block.”

Points are scored by the jammers passing the blockers multiple times in a jam game. A jam can last up to two minutes or whenever the leading jammer wants to call it off, he said.

Arianna Ortega, otherwise known as Siberian Hussy said that bouts usually last 30 minutes.

“Different players play for 30 minutes [in a bout] then we rest for 30 minutes then go out and do it again,” Ortega said.

Marina Salinas, event organizer and junior family and child studies major said she believes the event went well.

“The event was awesome. It was so hands on and empowering seeing other women being aggressive,” Salinas said. Shannon McCarty junior sociology major loved the rush of the sport.

“I thought it was an adrenaline rush,” McCarty said. “It’s fast past, but it is awesome.”