Moab is a celebrated destination for mountain biking, rock climbing, canyoneering, rafting, and hiking. A new sport has recently been added to that list—Roller Derby! Indeed, Roller Derby, but not your mother’s derby featuring the rough and tumbled she-bullies of 1950’s television. Instead, the latest incarnation enjoying resurgence in recent years is one of incredible skill, agility and strategy. But, it is still considered a contact sport!

Since 2001, when the new-and-improved version of the sport sprung up in Austin, Texas, over 700 leagues have formed across the USA and around the world. Because this version of Roller Derby is played on a flat track, match ups (called ‘bouts’) can be played on any surface, making it easier for teams to practice and compete in a variety of existing community venues. The first World Cup was held in 2011 in Toronto, Canada, with some 13 teams competing under the rule set of the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA), the governing body of the sport.

Roller Derby is a point game, with two teams of five on the track, playing both Offense and Defense at the same time. The game is won by scoring the most points, and only one team member, the Jammer can score points for her team. Donning a star-clad sewn cover over her helmet, the Jammer tries to get through and lap the pack. When she does, she scores a point for each of the opposing team’s blockers that she passes after the first initial pass.

Meanwhile three Blockers and a Pivot (whose helmet sports a cover with a wide center stripe) must block against the opposing team’s Jammer and help their own Jammer get through the pack and into scoring position, all at the same time. The Pivot, like an on-the-track coach, calls various complex plays and controls the speed of the pack.

Contact is highly regulated and referees hand out penalties for hits and blocks that violate the strict WFTDA rules of engagement.

A spectator sport like no other, Roller Derby is fast moving and promises never a dull moment. It has risen in popularity in part because all body shapes and sizes have their advantages and disadvantages on the track, explains Jessica O’Leary, captain of the Moab Roller Derby team, who started the local league this fall after moving back to Moab from Las Cruces, NM, where she began her derby career.

“There are advantages to being tall and big and able to hit hard, but there are also advantages as well to being small, fast and agile on the track,” said O’Leary. “An incredible community of acceptance has formed around the sport, which draws all types of women in. You don’t have to fit into a particular mold to build your skills and get really good,” she added.
O’Leary has seen how participation in a team sport like Roller Derby has proven empowering for adults, and it’s also a great workout, says newbie Liz Lightner, an avid rock climber and cyclist who got on “quad skates” for the first time since she was a child.

“Roller Derby is an evening and winter sport that provides great cross training for many of the other sports that we love in Moab like biking, climbing, skiing and river sports,” Lightner said.

O’Leary, Lightner and others have launched the league in Moab to compete regionally in the Four Corners area, with the goal of earning WFTDA certification and someday becoming nationally ranked. The league has one team thus far, and is designed to grow. Practice times are currently Thursdays at 7:30 pm and Sundays at 5:30 pm at the Center Street Gym. Women age 18 and older are welcome to come and skate, helmets and pads recommended.

To kick off the season and introduce Moabites to modern day Roller Derby, the local league will host nearly a dozen teams from across the Four Corners region for the first ever Moab Midwinter Mayhem on Saturday, January 21st at the Grand County Middle School Gym. Doors open at 4:00 pm and the public is welcome to watch newbies scrimmage, with the highest caliber of play in the final challenge bout starting at 6:00 pm. Tickets are just $5.

Teams are expected from Provo and St. George, Utah, Grand Junction, Durango, Pagosa Springs, Salida and Cortez, Colorado, and Los Alamos and Albuquerque, New Mexico.

For more information, contact moabderby @gmail.com or visit www.moabrollerderby.com and be sure to mention you read about it in Moab Happenings.