Meet Yvette YourMaker

Posted on March 25, 2009

By Holly Hitsville

Yvette YourMaker plays for The Windy City Rollers (WCR) All-Stars as well as WCR’s The Fury. After a 20-year hiatus from skating she met a roller derby godfather at a party and the rest is history.  I recently chatted with Yvette about the early years of rolling, the infamous party, and roller derby burnout.

Describe your skating and/or athletic background before roller derby.

I was at the Roller Rink most Friday nights when I was 11.  With the goal of couple-skating with my junior high crush, I learned to skate backwards well enough to not mortify myself by falling.  At age 12 I moved on to dances on Sunday nights at the juice bar and didn’t look back until 20 years later when I tried out for roller derby.

How long have you been playing roller derby and when did you start skating for the WCR and WCR All-Stars?

My first season was in 2006 and I started with the All-Stars at the end of that year.

What made you want to become involved in roller derby?

I have a roller derby godfather.  We met as the loners because each of us were at a friend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend’s birthday party.  At the time, he was the roommate of a captain of the Manic Attackers (a WCR home team.)  We hit it off over Maker’s Mark and raunchy jokes.  He said roller derby and I would fall in love.  Try-outs were in a few weeks and I showed up.

Is it challenging to bounce around from playing with your intra-league team, The Fury, to bouting with the WCR All-Stars all within the same season?  What’s the biggest difference in your playing style between the two teams?

We have tons of talent and leadership from each of the four home teams on the All-Stars.  The challenge is to seal our direction by gelling as a unit.  We all love to play together and I think that makes the transition easier.

I find myself “directing traffic” as well as basic communication with The Fury.

What do you think was the hardest lesson the WCR All-Stars learned from their defeat at Nationals?

There’s no shame in losing to the Gotham machine, but losing to them (again and again) hit home that we need to be more equipped to adjust.

Do you ever get burned out on derby?  If so, is their anything in particular that you do to reignite your passion for roller derby?

Instead of getting tired of playing roller derby I more get blue from missing out on the other priorities and interests in my life.   I think catching a bout or re-watching an old one is the quickest spark to firing up roller derby higher on my list of priorities.

When you hear the name Detroit Derby Girls what comes to mind?

Big, solid hits!

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