Story by: Cameron Short

MONTEVALLO, Ala – Eliza Noel never planned on coming to Montevallo. After graduating from high school, she was going to attend the University of Alabama in Huntsville to stay close to home. But just eight weeks before classes started, her friends convinced her to switch schools and move to central Alabama. Leaving behind loved ones along with a passion of past – roller derby.

Growing up in Huntsville, Eliza knew about the roller derby league that was in her hometown and was interested in how to get involved. Roller derby is skate racing with obstacles. She was first introduced to this sport by a family friend when she was 8 years old.

“My parents were extremely supportive of me playing”, Eliza said. “It was my mom’s friend that actually got me into the team, so she loved that I was a part of it.”

She practiced two to three times a week to prepare for tournaments, which sometimes meant competing out of state.

Rules of roller derby – In terms of the competition, each team has 10 people on a track, where restricted areas are marked for all players. Both teams consist of four blockers that play defense and try to keep the opponents from passing and jammers have to make it through the blockers to get points for their team. For every person that you pass at the jammer position, you get a point. The game itself consists of four 2-minute quarters.

Rolling Back In – Eliza enjoyed the sport and bonding with her teammates. Together, they earned a second place finish in one of their tournaments. But then they got news that their little league for the Rocket City Rebels, would soon be disconnected from the adult league. (Their league has since been revived.) But that wasn’t the only bad news Eliza would receive. Around this same time, she was also diagnosed with epilepsy.

“When I first received the news about it, I kind of joked around to comfort the fact of it”, she says.  But once she was told she couldn’t participate in roller derby anymore, the joking stopped. With the possibility of it affecting her ability to play and could potentially lead to hurting others, she didn’t take it very well. Her main concern was that lots of her friends were involved in playing along with her and ended up feeling left out. She wasn’t concerned about her wellbeing, she just wanted to continue the one thing she enjoyed. Eliza told me, “It was more than just a way to participate in the sport, Eliza says. But it was my main source of staying connected with my friends after school.”

Looking back a decade later, Eliza says she still wonders what life would look like if the league hadn’t closed. She says she would probably have stayed in the Huntsville area and would most likely not be a student at UM.  Luckily it’s only a bittersweet kind of thought.

“It was fun while it lasted because I got to make more friends, but I don’t think it was such a good idea for me to have started at such a young age”, Eliza says.

After life put the brakes on roller derby, Eliza was able to continue being active and not let her diagnosis control her life. Over the years, Eliza has gone on to play other sports, such as basketball, tennis and soccer. She even tried karate for a little while.

Eliza didn’t fear experimenting with new things after receiving epilepsy. Eliza says epilepsy still affects her ability to wake up early and causes some schedule difficulty here and there for things like school and work. Thanks to medications and other changes to her lifestyle, Eliza doesn’t let epilepsy limit her future. She told me, “It was kind of surprising to see how far I’ve come in terms of dealing with my diagnosis, thankfully I get better with it as time goes on.”