When she puts on her roller skates and changes into her uniform, consisting of a helmet, mouth piece, knee and elbow pads, Brooke Granger of Delcambre transforms into – a female roller derby blocker.

Granger, 20, is a member of Lafayette’s own Acadiana Good Times Rollers, which is a roller blade team made up of ladies as young as 18 to as old as 45. There are college students, teachers, nurses and mothers who make up the team.

The squad, which plays at Top Shelf Sports in Youngsville, is in its first year of existence.

Before the season began, the organization began recruiting skaters from Acadiana. They attended the showing of the movie “Whip It” which is a movie about female roller blading. Granger, with some friends, attended the movie and was handed a flier by one of the recruiters when she entered. At the time, she did not think much of it but that changed after the movie. She fell in love with roller blading and went home seriously thinking about becoming a roller blader.

She E-mailed the organization and told them she was interested.

“I had not been on a roller skates since I was 10 years old,” Granger said. “I had no idea what to expect. I was amazed.”

Granger, an all-district and all-parish performer on the basketball court, has now turned to a blocker for the Acadiana Good Times Roller. Her job is stop the roller blader known as the “jammer.” Each team has a jammer and a point is scored when the jammer makes her way through the blockers.

There are multiple two-minute sessions over two 30-minute halves. Each two-minute session there is a new jammer and new blockers.

The track is flat and there are a handful of referees watching for penalties throughout the game.

A team can score 150 points per game, depending on how good their jammers are.

The players do not get paid. They purchase their own skates, pads and uniforms. They car-pool and pay for their own gas for games that are in Beaumont and Corpus Christi, Texas; Houma; Alexandria and Baton Rouge.

This past Saturday Granger and teammates battled Spindetop Rollergirls from Beaumont. There were close to 250 spectators at the derby.

Granger returned to the rink after sitting out all of April because she injured her knee during a fall. The sport is a contact sport and injuries will occur because the players fall and get knocked off their skates.

The squad practices twice a week and they play on average two games a month. Leading up the season opener in April, Granger had to balance college at UL-L and practicing, which was hard, she said.

The season continues through Nov. 17, and the Lafayette team will play its next game on July 31 against the Crude City Roller girls in Corpus Christi. Their next home derby is not until Aug. 28.

Until then, Granger will practice twice a week, two hours a day and look forward to derby time.

“I enjoy it,” she said. “It missed the athletic competition in high school. This gives me a chance to feel it again.”