Issue link: http://maconmagazine.uberflip.com/i/1534028
April/May 2025 | maconmagazine.com 51 A N O T H E R R E S U R G E N C E The approach is working. Despite the toll of COVID, the team is stronger than ever. Their upcoming April match is their first "home bout" – meaning, they'll play locally in Warner Robins. Their roster is finally filling up. "We could go worldwide," said Queen B, who noted that the WFTDA championship this year is in Austria. For now, they tend to travel just in the southeast region, working with teams from Georgia, Alabama, Florida and so on. But the opportunity for growth is palpable. Sweet Amnesia is hopeful: "This is another resurgence, I guess." That revival involves bringing on new recruits. As the women jammed in practice, one skater was outside the action, cautiously skating up and down in a straight line outside of the track. Sidney Dempsey doesn't have a quirky derby name yet – she's still in training. But she's already excited: "There's not a lot of female-led sports where people are actually interested. It just seems like this is just really a good opportunity for women to come together." Dempsey feels supported as she's eased into the sport. "My whole family just keeps saying that it's a rough sport and people just keep getting hit. But the more I watch it, the more I'm interested. I think RIGHT Trainer Laurel Cordell, AKA Dr. Who's Yer Mama, spars with Esther Lee, known as Kimchi Kollider. " I n e v e r p l ay e d s p o r t s i n s c h o o l . I w a s a n e r d - b ra i n k i d . S t a r t i n g h e r e , i t w a s l i ke , h o l y c ra p , I ' m a n a t h l e te ." everybody's nervous to get hit and to go down, but they teach you how to fall safely." The team tends to have eclectic backgrounds that brought them to derby and gave them the spark of inspiration. "Everybody on the team is from different places," said Dempsey, who is from California. She first learned about the Derby Demons while working in eye care, when a team member was her patient and brought it up spontaneously. Originally from Louisville, Ky., Kimchi came to the area as a Mercer University student, "and then I just never left." She said that growing up, "I never played sports in school. I was a nerd-brain kid. Starting here, it was like, holy crap, I'm an athlete." She says a lot of the skills the Derby Demons learn on the track can get transferred to life lessons in leadership, making executive decisions, and gaining confidence. Sweet Amnesia comes to Macon by way of Maine. Her telling is colorful and involves cost of living and escaping the cold northern weather, but also, "My mom was a teacher who read 'Gone with the Wind' one too many times. It's her favorite book." She was attracted to the diversity of the team, featuring engineers, doctors, parents, and recent graduates all in one. "It's a place for a lot of strong-minded, highly educated women." For their leader, Queen B, the team comradery is part of a long journey. "Originally, I was going through a divorce and it was a looking-to-find-myself type of thing." She paused. It's clear, like the others on the team, that she has been found. "And Derby is a family, it's a tribe, you know what I mean?" She neatly summed up the culture of derby, a sport as unusual as the odd little warehouse where they practice at the edge of Macon's most iconic park. "It brings together the most eclectic group of weirdos, in the most loving term." Support the Middle Georgia Derby Demons by following on Facebook and Instagram. Besides fans and fundraising, the team looks for non-skating volunteers to keep points and penalties straight – a perfect task for a sports buff.