Sunshine City Roller Derby is one of Pinellas County's premier teams

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Roller Derby is played by about 1,250 amateur leagues worldwide, mostly in the United States. The Sunshine City Roller Derby is one of Pinellas County's premier roller derby teams. 

Roller Derby is a full contact and very athletically involved sport played by two teams of 15 members. The game is a point-based game, so the team with the most points in the end wins.

Each team has four blockers on the track and one jammer. The jammer has to fight their way through the pack, lap everybody and fight their way through again. On the second pass through every opposing team member they pass equals one point. 

"Roller derby was really appealing to me, because it was the first place that I had gone that was all women were there was no cattiness or cutthroat environment, it was very empowering and welcoming," said Meggin Mahair, also known as "Punish-her" with Sunshine City Roller Derby. 

In roller derby nicknames are very important, because it becomes their alter ego or a superhero name as they describe it. 

"It's like a chance to turn off real life, just cut loose and get to be that person that you didn't know you could ever be," Mahair explained.