C-17 pilot 'Mauls' competition

Published June 24, 2011
By Master Sgt. Mary Hinson
307th Bomb Wing Public Affairs

JOINT BASE CHARLESTON, S.C. -- There's one C-17 pilot here who is used to hard landings. Not while flying the Globemaster III, but during rough-and tumble matches as a member of the Ashley Riverdolls roller derby team.

Capt. Molly Sanford, a mild-mannered, traditional reservist with the 315th Airlift Wing, is also "Molly Mauls-A-Lot," the fast-skating, hard-charging roller derby jammer.

"I watched the movie 'Whip It' and Googled roller derby," Captain Sanford said, explaining how she got involved in the fast-growing sport. She learned the local Lowcountry Highrollers Roller Derby League was holding tryouts a few months later. She attended the tryouts and skated right onto the Ashley Riverdolls team.

"She is new to our team but we are excited she is a Riverdoll," said the Ashley Riverdolls' team captain Leslie Jones, who is known on the track as Sexual Chocolate. "It is really exciting to play with her. She's a great player; she has the drive and initiative to take on this sport."

The goal of roller derby is simple: a team tries to get their point scorer, or jammer, to pass the pack of blockers as many times as possible during a jam in order to score a point. The pivot defines the pack of skaters, making sure that the bunch stays together instead of being stretched out. The blockers ─ there are four including the pivot─ try to clear the way for their jammer or block the other team's jammer from getting past the pack. At the end of the bout ─usually two 30-minute periods ─ the team with the most points wins.

The Pennsylvania native has already experienced many unforgettable lessons in her 10 short months as a Riverdoll, including the time one of the league's top blockers checked her right off the rink.

"I went flying 10 feet out of the track into the other team," Captain Sanford said with a smile. "And I got up and got back on the track as fast as I could. You just get up and keep going."

Roller derby participation and the Air Force Reserve seem worlds apart, but for Captain Sanford, there are similarities.

"Quick decision making is a must in both," she said. "As a pilot, you time manage, get the plane off the ground, get the mission done." In roller derby, "there's a lot of strategy when someone comes to block you...at that moment you got to make a quick decision."

In both situations, you "work smarter, not harder," the captain added.

Captain Sanford enjoys the physical nature of the sport, but it's the interaction with her teammates that keeps her coming back.

"A lot of women who play are moms," she said. "We have a lawyer, professors who teach at MUSC [the Medical University of South Carolina], nurses...and a lot of college girls."

"Everyone is so talented in different ways and bring different mindsets. It's like a big group of sisters who don't fight."

They save the elbows for the competition.