This is one of those times when I get to say, "I knew her when." It was 2002 when I met the woman who now calls herself Brew HaHa! We first crossed paths because she was one of my roommate's best friends. Even then, she was known for florescent hair, an abundance of tattoos, pride in her Latin heritage, a love of dark metal music and a willingness to kick any ass that clearly needed it.

So when I heard in 2005 that Brew HaHa! was helping to found a roller derby league in Salt Lake City, it made perfect sense; she fit my mental image of a derby player as an eccentric tough-girl. I wasn't too surprised that a handful of our mutual acquaintances were recruited to join. But what has surprised me is that this sport has turned out to be far from a passing fad.

The league known as the Salt City Derby Girls (of whom Brew HaHa! is the president) may have started off with a couple of bouts at the Hollywood Connection Family Fun Center in 2006, but it seems like every time I blink or take my eyes off them for a minute, they've grown exponentially.

The rest of 2006 saw them create four home teams: The Sisters of No Mercy (that's Brew HaHa!'s team), the Leave It to Cleavers, the Bomber Babes and the Death Dealers. They also moved their games to The Olympic Oval. In 2007, they started competing against teams from other cities.

In 2008, they joined the Women's Flat Track Derby Association (the national governing body for women's amateur flat track roller derby). By the end of last year, they were holding their games at The freakin' Salt Palace. Clearly, this derby thing is a big deal.

And like most things that get big, other people want to get in on the action. Three other leagues have now sprung up in northern Utah. Last year, the Davis Derby Dames (who formed in Layton in 2006) split apart to form the O-Town Derby Dames and the Junction City Roller Dolls, both based in Ogden. Also last year, some former SCDG members created Wasatch Roller Derby, based in Salt Lake and Park City.

Another new step is that the SCDG will host its first double header game this Saturday. Death Dealers will face off against Sisters of No Mercy, and then the Leave It to Cleavers will play the Bomber Babes. The reason? Like many SCDG projects, Brew HaHa! heard about double headers, and thought it would be a fun experiment.

"We've never had one before, and it's not uncommon. A lot of leagues do them," she told me at a scrimmage last Thursday. "It's our very first time, so we just thought it'd be kind of fun." As we talk courtside, girls exit and enter the rink of the Taylorsville Rec Center. The Bombers are wearing white shirts, and the Cleavers are wearing red. Gradually, some black-shirted Sisters and some purple-shirted Dealers arrive; they'll be battling it out for the second hour of the scrimmage.

I've had the rules of derby explained to me before, but it's been a while, so Brew HaHa! refreshes my memory. Basically, the girls on one team are supposed to get good at skating together in a pack so they can keep a girl from the other team from getting past them.

The girls who are blocking the path are called blockers, and the girl who's trying to jam her way through is called a jammer. She wears a star on her helmet so you can tell who she is. And then there are pivots, who lead the pack and set the pace.

The fun for many spectators comes when a jammer gets blocked so hard that one or more girls take a tumble -- especially in the short skirts and fishnets that so many derby girls wear.

The outfits are part of what drew Brew HaHa! to the derby. "Originally, it was such a DIY sport, and all the pictures you saw were tattooed chicks with colored hair and all that punk rock stuff," she says. "So I was just like, 'Yeah, it'll be fun to do it on the weekends once in a while.' I didn't really realize what it would entail."

SCDG girls put in a minimum of five hours of practice each week, says Brew HaHa!, plus fundraising, advertising and working as support staff at bouts if they're not playing. It's a real sport that requires dedication, but the nicknames and costumes and all-girl environment help it keep its sense of fun, individuality and camaraderie.

In addition to her day job and her derby responsibilities, Brew HaHa! is in two bands. She's the singer for a five-piece, all-Mexican black metal band, in which she's the only woman. She also plays bass and sings backing vocals for The Derby Misfits, an all-girl band that covers songs by The Misfits with the lyrics changed to be about roller derby. Her teammate, Nyda the Dead, is the guitarist, and their first show will be at the afterparty for this Saturday's double header.

Before I leave, Brew HaHa! introduces me to some of the players for other SCDG teams.

Movin' Violation is co-captain of Death Dealers, a team she wanted to join because she liked the name. Now playing her third season, she's the SCDG's head of compliance and is on its all-star team, The Salt City Shakers. She says she's always played sports but thought roller derby would be more interesting than basketball or softball. "You don't realize what you have to do on skates until you get knocked over," she says, adding that one of her favorite things is knocking girls into the audience.

Brutal Strudel joined the SCDG in October and is a blocker for the Leave It to Cleavers. She's enjoying being on a team with lots of veterans; loves the contradictory image of the sweet '50s housewives who turn violent on the court; and relishes the idea that playing derby gives her enough of a workout that she doesn't have to go to the gym.

Spank E. Ham is a blocker for the Bomber Babes who joined the SCDG in November because she had fond memories of playing roller hockey. Brew HaHa! teases her a lot about wearing skirts to her knees, but she's gradually gaining confidence to wear shorter ones. Her team is struggling a little, though, because they've lost some players this year.

In a phone call the next day, I learn a little about why. Medusa Damage is a former Bomber Babe who this year became the co-founder of a new league, Wasatch Roller Derby. The other founder is Honey Delunatic -- also a former Bomber Babe.

Medusa Damage declines to get into details about their departure, but says it comes down to individual preferences. "It's derby," she says. "It's like a bowling league. You don't like one bowling league, you go to the next one."

Unlike the SCDG, there are no set teams in Wasatch Roller Derby. With about 16 players, the whole league is about the size of a single SCDG team. For each bout, they draw names out of a hat to pick teams. As a federally recognized nonprofit, they put a big emphasis on charity.

"We are playing as one team to try to keep our camaraderie, and then we're trying to promote our travel team that'll play out of state and go for national rankings," Medusa Damage explains.

At each bout, the teams choose names inspired by the charities they're benefiting. At a benefit for Primary Children's Hospital, the teams were the IV Leagues and Suture Fancy; at Derby for Diabetes the girls were known as the Carbo Killers and the Sugar Slashers.

There's also less of a time commitment required for Wasatch Roller Derby, says Medusa Damage, commenting that their bouts are also their fundraisers. They have a great group of volunteers who work as support staff, she says, which often includes employees of the charities they are helping. Their next bout, in Park City on June 20, will benefit Friends of Animals.

Diverging opinions also account for the existence of two leagues in Ogden. As the story goes, SCDG player Vega Death became injured in 2006, and after she recovered, she founded the Davis Derby Dames in Layton so she could play closer to home. In June, 2008, that league split, becoming the O-Town Derby Dames and the Junction City Derby Dolls, both headquartered in Ogden.

Pepper Diamond explains in a phone call that she co-owns the O-Town Derby Dames with Twisted Violet. The Dames have bouts about once a month, and they have three teams: Ladies of Capone, Sailor Marys and Sucker Punch Sweethearts. When I comment on the 1940s vibe, Diamond expresses a love for rockabilly, old school pinups and retro style. She says she also puts a big emphasis on healthy living among the players, discouraging smoking and spending a lot of time in bars.

No drugs is one of the rules, she says, explaining that she tells girls, "You're not contracted to our league. If you feel like our league's not working out for you, then there are three other leagues in Utah; check 'em out. But if you're going to put your time and effort in our league, then you need to go by these rules."

While O-Town does some charity work, like a recent benefit for Big Brothers Big Sisters, Pepper Diamond explains that their funds are constricted because they're still paying off the purchase of a skate floor which they assemble and tear apart for each bout on the carpeted Ogden Eccles Conference Center floor. She says they've now got the assembly time down to a few hours. Now that's some dedication.

Purple Haze is a Salt Lake resident, but she joined the Davis Derby Dames in 2007 because their practice schedule was easier for her. When the league split, she went with Junction City, and is a member of their all-star team.

"Basically there was a difference of opinions and we weren't having games so we decided that we would start Junction City, and it's been a great success ever since," she says, explaining that the Dolls are co-owned by Slayer Cake, Hannah Bull, Colonel Skirts and Zelda Cruz, who are all co-presidents who vote on major decisions.

"It's been a great self-confidence booster," Purple Haze says. "Roller derby is just something where it doesn't matter how big or how small you are; you can find a position and you can totally own it."

Brew HaHa! says that she considers JCRD to be a sister league to the SCRG, and the two leagues' all-star teams will face off on Sept. 12.

In derby land, you see, that's how you show your love for your fellow leagues -- by offering the chance to shove each other to the ground. Many players praise the camaraderie and the increased confidence they gain from the sport, but they also say they use it to work out aggression.

"There's no way you can't," says Brew HaHa! "You have to have that fire." Apparently, a little humility doesn't hurt, either. As she thinks back about how the SCDG has gone from skating in a parking lot in 2006 with 25 girls to having their own practice space with 60-some-odd members, Brew HaHa! says, "People always come up to me and go, 'Aren't you amazed,' and I think, 'No, not really.' I still see so much to be done."