You might not expect Shannon Livaudais, a 22-year-old, 4’11” art history senior, to be a four-time national Taekwondo champion and ruthless jammer for Baton Rouge’s Red Stick Roller Derby.
As Shannon races around the track of Red Stick Roller Derby’s tournament, she can see her father at all of her local bouts, cheering her on while wearing a handmade necklace made with sticks painted red.
Shannon’s father, Greg, took his sons to Taekwondo after expressing interest as kids.
“Shannon joined at four. By the time she was walking, she was sneaking into the boys’ room, putting their belts on.”
Growing up in the New Orleans area and being involved in Taekwondo for 18 years, Shannon was intimidated by LSU’s large campus.
“I had been at LSU for a year and a half, and I didn’t have a thing or niche when I moved here,” Shannon said.
As she was working as a hostess at Koi Sushi one night, she had two particular customers come in.
“I sat these two girls, and they said ‘Hey, do you want to join roller derby?’ and they handed me a flyer. The next night I joined roller derby,” Shannon said.
Most parents would frown or fuss about their daughter playing such an intense sport, but Greg was more than happy, already knowing his daughter was smaller than most, but proved her strength.
“She amazed everybody everywhere she went,” Greg said, “What everyone knows about her was the intensity she had at it, and you could tell she was thinking the game.”
Growing up with Taekwondo, Shannon knew how to fight and to take a hit, essential knowledge for a sport like roller derby.
“[Most freshman] don’t realize what a contact sport is, and that’s why when you sign your papers, they have in bold and underlined: This is a contact sport,” Shannon said.
With Taekwondo, Shannon had an early understanding of how to pace herself and understand the difference between being hurt and an injury, which her father taught her.
“There’s a difference between hurt and injured,” Greg said, “You can get hit, and it’ll hurt, it’ll sting, but if you can still use that arm and that leg, you’re not injured.”
While Taekwondo gave Shannon a few advantages over the average roller derby freshman, there were a few disadvantages that accompanied it. “[Taekwondo] is an individual sport, and you’re your own worst enemy,” Shannon said, “All of a sudden you have all you’re relying upon all these other girls and also feeling all these other people that are relying on me.”
On top of being a team sport, roller derby is different in that it doesn’t offer any divisions. As a child, Shannon and her father used to play a game where they would stand around the tournament, trying to guess the next competitor.
“There are all weights and all shapes and sizes and all ages,” Shannon said. “So all those things can work with you or against you.”
But now, roller derby has become another sport for the family.
“It’s the adopted sport,” Greg said jokingly.
But, in the beginning, Shannon was worried her father wouldn’t be as involved in her newfound sport.
“He’s been my coach my whole life, and now I’m sort of teaching him about this,” Shannon said, “I found roller derby by myself and then he had to learn about all this stuff that I learned about really quickly, and he just sort of jumped on the bandwagon.”
When it was time for Shannon to choose her roller derby name, she turned to her family for suggestions.
“Everyone was trying to figure out what their names were going to be, and I spent like a week contemplating this whole big list of names,” Shannon said.
Ultimately, her decision was made for her, by a new member of her family, a roller derby teammate.
“One of the girls was like, ‘I don’t care what your name is going to be — I’m going to call you “Fun Size” because that’s what you are’ and it stuck,” Shannon said.
Her father approved of the name immediately.
“I call myself ‘Family Size’,” Greg said.
Shannon’s oldest brother, Cory, who volunteers for the team, also joined in.
“He’s ‘Regular Size,’” Shannon said.
Shannon will be traveling to Florida this weekend from June 12-14, to compete in the Beach Brawl tournament, hosted by Gold Coast Derby Grrls and will return to Baton Rouge June 20th for a double header at the Baton Rouge River Center.

Gallery • 1 Photos

Emily Brauner

Art History senior Shannon Livaudais and her father Greg Livaudais advance from 18 years of Taekwondo to Red Stick Roller Derby.