Derby Name: Public Jenemy #01
Real Life Alias: Jenna Cucco
Freshie Year: 2013-2014
If there was ever a skater whose derby name did not exactly fit her real life persona, it’s AllStars Co-Captain Public Jenemy. She is, quite possibly, the kindest and happiest person you will ever meet. But on the track she’s a fierce competitor who will give it all and you will understand why her name suits, even if it isn’t exactly the name she originally imagined when she started derby.
Jenemy didn’t consider herself an athlete before she started roller derby, even though she played soccer all through childhood and through high school as well as lacrosse in high school. She was on 6 intermural teams in college, even though she never played in a single game, but she hasn’t looked back since she started roller derby. In her first bout she got lead in the first half, though the second half showed the harder side of derby. But it was worth all the effort she spent late at night in a farmhouse on the top of a very rural mountaintop skating in the basement hallway focusing on her transitions. Working at derby – the drive to get better – is half the fun for her, and something that was missing from her previous sporting endeavors.
Her derby career started out less auspiciously than some, with an ankle injury during her first bout against Star City in Roanoke Virginia, but it has only grown since then. And Jenemy will be the first to tell you that all the hard work really pays off. It has earned her the auspicious helmet covers, the two positions she likes the most of Jammer and Pivot. She has also shown her love of derby to lots of new skaters through fresh meat programs, and taken two littles (who absolutely adore her) Bullyt Bri and Beast of Eden. Her “derby wife”, Grey Helmet, popped the question last year in Savannah in a very fun surprise before the whole team. She will be marrying her real life sweatheart this year as well, at the Jersey Shore where she is from and her love of derby began. Three generations of her family decided to go see a bout after seeing a flyer on the boardwalk and that was when she knew she needed derby in her life forever.
Outside of derby Jenemy is committed to giving back to the community. She works for Habitat for Humanity of Catawba Valley at their Community Outreach Coordinator and does a little bit of everything for them it seems, including getting derby girls down to help build houses. She can speak a little Spanish, but only to her three dogs and little kitten. When she was little she wanted to be lots of different things along the way, but we can see the ballerina in her skating style as she uses some very fancy footwork to sneak through your line.
Buy this lady a grilled hotdog in the peak of summertime, and make sure you give her ketchup to put on it (actually, just give her ketchup, she can show you how to eat anything properly with ketchup). But be careful, she might already have snuck through the line and skated away while you were queued up at the grill waiting on the dog.
Photo Credit: KGB Photography
Way to go, Jenna!