Cindy Panagiotes AKA HeLLen Bed

Cindy Panagiotes and her evil alter ego HeLLen Bed are gearing up for the Central Mass Roller Derby&rsquo;s season opener April 11 at Roll on America in Lancaster. We sat down with HeLLen to talk derby and learn more about her evil ways...

Name(s) &hellip;&nbsp;Cindy Panagiotes AKA HeLLen Bed

Home &hellip;&nbsp;Central Mass born baby! But currently living in New Ipswich, NH.

Passion &hellip;&nbsp;Roller Derby!

How did you get in to roller derby?&hellip;&nbsp;I watched a reality show on A&E in 2006 called &ldquo;Rollergirls&rdquo; and I was like &ldquo;I HAVE TO DO THAT!&rdquo; Later on that year some friends and I went to see The Boston Derby Dames play and I really knew then that Roller Derby was my thing. It was what I was born to do and all my clothes made sense.

How did you think come up with your name Hellen Bed?&hellip;&nbsp;I had a ton of names that I was considering and had a blast trying to find just the right one. I wanted a name that was &ldquo;cheeky&rdquo; and made people laugh but also didn&rsquo;t want my 8 year old niece telling everyone at school that her auntie was &ldquo; Queen Laqueefa&rdquo; (ya&hellip;that was one of the names I considered.) So out of the blue a dear friend of mine (Larry) who passed away a few summers ago said &ldquo;oh, you HAVE to be HeLLen Bed!&rdquo; and I was like PERFECT!

What&rsquo;s your favorite thing about derby?&hellip;&nbsp;The &ldquo;family&rdquo; that we have. I have been involved in this for about 3 years or so and it doesn&rsquo;t matter where you go, if you meet a fellow &ldquo;Derb&rdquo;&mdash;male or female&mdash;you just know you have that family bond, a connection that only you as a skater understands.

Do you like to make people cry?&hellip;&nbsp;Cindy hates to make people cry but her evil twin HeLLen LOVES it! She can be such a hateful bitch.

What&rsquo;s the most risqu&eacute; outfit you&rsquo;ve ever worn on the track?&hellip;&nbsp;Wow, That&rsquo;s so funny you asked because last night at practice I wore tights and without even realizing it, they were transparent and well, it wasn&rsquo;t pretty. So I had to slip SOMETHING on over them but the only thing I could find was a pair of men&rsquo;s BVD&rsquo;s with &ldquo;I hit girls&rdquo; written on the back that I made as a joke for one of the guys on our mens team. Sexy!

What are you most excited about this upcoming bout on Sunday?&hellip;&nbsp;I know this will sound bad but I really can&rsquo;t wait until it&rsquo;s over and I don&rsquo;t mean that in a bad way. I just know once we get the first one under our belt that we will have some sort of idea what we are in for and every bout after Sunday will just get better and better.

You are the co-owner of Central Mass Roller Derby, as well as a player. How do you balance both?&hellip;&nbsp;It really isn&rsquo;t easy but I am getting better at it. The one thing is,&#8232; is that I am surrounded by amazing people that have helped make this &#8232;league what it is today and what it will be in the future. I couldn&rsquo;t &#8232;do it without them.

How do you think Drew Barrymore did portraying a derby girl in Whip It?&hellip;&nbsp;I think she did pretty good but her character was kind of like a &ldquo;stoner&rdquo; and well, I cant imagine playing Roller Derby on &ldquo;the weed.&rdquo; AND she wore her helmet wrong! That girl could have really damaged that pretty face! But that&rsquo;s just my opinion.

Do you ever feel the need to throw down if a girl is being a little too pushy on the track?&hellip;&nbsp;Of course! And if any skater says that they don&rsquo;t feel that way they&rsquo;re crazy! Many times I have wanted to retaliate but thinking and doing are two totally different things.

What&rsquo;s the craziest thing you&rsquo;ve ever done on a pair of skates?&hellip;&nbsp;It might not be THAT crazy but I did skate the &ldquo;bowl&rdquo; at Subliminal Skate Park over the winter and LOVED IT! Getting in was easy and once I got the hang of it, it was amazing.