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Fair Woodmere resident plays roller derby
When Woodmere native Marcie Osterer showed up to her first Long Island Roller Rebels roller derby practice at United Skates in Massapequa she was overwhelmed and had no idea what she got herself into.
“I saw girls who were such intense skaters,” Osterer said. “I felt like they had skills that I would never attain.”
Osterer, a 2004 Lawrence Woodmere Academy graduate, first joined the league as a non-skating official in January 2010 and helped out at roller derby bouts by maintaining the penalty box or keeping score.
The Long Island Roller Rebels league began in 2005 and currently has more than 40 members that are split up into two teams, the All Stars and the Rock-A-Betty Bruisers. The league trains at least twice a week in Massapequa and frequently holds scrimmages on Saturdays at Skate Safe in Old Bethpage.
In November 2010, Osterer tried out to be a member of the team and was accepted as “Fresh Blood” the league’s name for a first-year player. She spent the following five months training for a skills test, an assessment in which members have to prove they can perform basic skills such as skating at a decent speed, hitting, blocking, stopping and jumping.
Osterer passed the skills test last month and has become known as “ShadowboxHer” and a member of the Long Island Roller Rebel’s newest team, the Rock-A- Betty Bruisers.
She came up with her roller derby name by taking the advice of veteran skaters who advised she incorporate something from her life before roller derby.
“Karate has always been a big passion of mine and I’ve done it all my life,” Osterer said. “One day my instructor was talking about shadow boxing and it was then that I came up with ShadowboxHer.”
When it came time to choose an assistant captain, the Rock-A-Betty Bruisers felt Osterer would be a great fit, despite the fact she has only been playing roller derby for a short time. “It says a lot about what my teammates think,” Osterer said about the position that includes wearing an A on her uniform, demonstrating leadership, forming rosters for the games and ordering uniforms.
