Having just held our first even annual general meeting as the Lethbridge Roller Guild, it became very apparent just how much work a small handful of dedicated people have put into making this sport a reality in our city.

Just looking at the committees involved, there have been fundraisers, promotional recruitment events and campaigns, community involvements and a steady open-door policy in which people who want to learn to play can come participate as fresh meat.

Single-handedly, a guild has been created, the sport has been learned and made official and the dames have still found the energy to teach anyone who wants to join the art of roller derby.

The city has been incredibly responsive, with about 600 showing up to our first-ever home bout in October and nearly 700 to our second in January.

Local businesses and even individual community members have offered their support and planning seems to be on a roll.

Now we are all beginning to feel the concrete get pulled from under us. With limited available spaces and times, the team has been unable to practise regularly, or keep up with the amount of interested women and youth who want to get involved. It’s frustrating, to say the least.
This sport has helped our league make remarkable bonds with teams from neighbouring cities, specifically Medicine Hat’s Gas City Rollers.

Yet with the tragic collapsing of Central Neighbourhood Hub building, there is limited space in either town for a bout or joined practice.

The team has plans in the works for the creation of a youth league, offering a positive recreational opportunity for our city’s young people.

Unlike its past reputation as a brutal, underground entertainment piece, roller derby has evolved into a sport that promotes confidence, teamwork, relationship building, strategy and good old-fashioned competition. It is a sport that teaches women (and in other cities men) to feel good about themselves without having to fit any sort of mould.

The Deathbridge Derby Dames currently consists of women ages 18-55. Unique as they come, we have single mothers, bisexual, lesbian and straight, married and single women of all shapes, sizes and backgrounds. We have insurance brokers, speech therapists, students, teachers, medical professionals and everyone in between.

Something is growing in our city and aside from my bias I can see it’s contagious. But we need help. Whether it be a space to practise, donations or ideas we need our city to have our back so we can continue to be a positive addition to Lethbridge.

For more information please follow us on Facebook, Twitter or by emailing deathbridgederbydames@yahoo.ca.

Thank you, Lethbridge, for supporting your local derby guild.