Minnesota Roller Derby


Minnesota Roller Derby is a women's flat track roller derby league based in Saint Paul, Minnesota, in the United States. Founded in August 2004 as Minnesota RollerGirls by the Donnelly sisters, MNRD was one of the first 30 members of the Women's Flat Track Derby Association by early 2006. Today the league has over 80 skaters playing on four home teams as well as their All-Star team, which has qualified for WFTDA Playoffs every year since its inception.

League and business structure

Since 2005, the league has played and practiced at the Roy Wilkins Auditorium in Saint Paul, with capacity for up to 4,000 spectators for roller derby, and average attendance ranging between 1,800 and 3,000 fans at MNRG events. MNRG claims to be the first league in the country to have a professional space for practices and bouts.
Minnesota Roller Derby is a limited liability corporation composed of volunteer skaters aged 18 years and older and other volunteers. No skater or volunteer associated with the Minnesota Roller Derby is paid, nor do they profit based upon level of involvement or upon team wins. Proceeds raised by the league pay for practice space rental, legal and promotional fees, as well as traveling costs to play other WFTDA members in other states and in other countries. The remainder of the revenues are donated to a variety of local charities, with a general focus on organizations that benefit women.
In 2011, Minnesota began the DebuTaunts training and recreation program as a way to bring additional skaters into the league. By 2015, almost all new skaters in the league had spent at least one session in the recreation and training program. In 2016, the DebuTaunts began regularly bouting against regional opponents including Chippewa Valley Roller Derby and the Roller Underground Dirty Ores, and by 2019 the DebuTaunts program was re-envisioned as a primary "on-ramp" into Minnesota Roller Derby. In 2018, the league also began a junior roller derby program, the Minnesota Frostbite, bringing its training resources in line with other top-tier roller derby leagues.
In November, 2015, the Minnesota RollerGirls were the host league for the 2015 International WFTDA Championships at the Roy Wilkins Auditorium, and in May 2016, Visit Saint Paul named the Championships as their 2015 Event of the Year. The Minnesota All-Stars also competed at the tournament, losing their sole opening round game, 185-173 to Texas Rollergirls of Austin.
The Minnesota RollerGirls were ranked ninth in the world, as of September 25, 2016.
In August 2019, the league adopted its current name as Minnesota Roller Derby, "to better reflect the organization’s membership and community".

Home Teams

Minnesota Roller Derby is composed of four home teams: the Atomic Bombshells, the Dagger Dolls, the Garda Belts, and the Rockits. The Silver Bullets, which competed only in the league's inaugural season, were reorganized and re-themed as the Rockits for the 2005-06 season and have remained the Rockits ever since. Each team has a maximum of twenty players. The four teams play against each other at home, with these games comprising the home season. Every MNRG home season concludes with a championship game, with the winner receiving the championship trophy, known as The Golden Skate.
In 2018 a new trophy for the winner of the third-place game was unveiled. The inaugural Bronze Bearing Trophy was won for the first time by the Garda Belts.

Travel Team

The Minnesota All-Stars are the league's charter all-star interleague team. This team of elite skaters, drawn from the home teams, trains together year-round and travels for sanctioned WFTDA bouts throughout the year.
The Minnesota Nice are the other half of the All-Stars program. The league's B-team are both a pool of dedicated B-team skaters and a backup personnel pool that the Minnesota All-Stars can draw from in the event of an injury or a skater leaving the program due to pregnancy or employment opportunities outside the Twin Cities. The Nice also travel to tournaments and plays in national- and international-level B-team competitions.
Separate from the charter program, the Minnesota Windchill recreation and training program maintains a bouting-ready team which plays smaller leagues and B-teams throughout the Upper Midwest.
Minnesota was one of the pioneers of the "wall" technique of blocking, where blockers engage the jammer as a unit rather than individually. Their tenacious defense has earned the nickname "the Great Wall of Saint Paul."

WFTDA competition

The Minnesota All-Stars have qualified for WFTDA Playoffs and/or WFTDA Championships every year since the first Championship, the Dust Devil tournament, in 2006, at which they placed fourth overall. In 2007 and 2008, as members of the WFTDA's East Region, the All-Stars competed at the annual WFTDA Eastern Regional Tournament without advancing to the Championship.
Starting with 2009, MNRG qualified for the WFTDA North Central Regional Tournament for all four years, advancing to compete in the WFTDA Championships in 2010, 2011 and 2012. MNRG hosted the 2009 North Central Regional Tournament, the "Brawl of America", at Roy Wilkins Auditorium, at which they came in ninth place.
Minnesota has a long-standing rivalry with Chicago's Windy City Rollers, and in June 2012 the two teams played to a rare tie in WFTDA-sanctioned play. The tie resulted from a scorekeeping correction made well after the end of play, avoiding a potential overtime jam which ordinarily would have settled the score. In the 2013 revision of the Rules of Flat Track Roller Derby, it was specified that the score at the time the game-ending whistle is blown, once confirmed by the officials at the end of game time, is official and that scorekeeping errors must stand if any are discovered after the official final score is recorded.
In 2013, the Women's Flat Track Derby Association realigned its competitive divisions to emphasize teams' win-loss record and difficulty of opponents rather than organizing by regions. The Minnesota All-Stars competed at Division 1 Playoffs during the era of the Divisional system.
In 2018 the league declined invitation to the WFTDA Playoffs in A Coruña, Spain, citing the cost of air travel to the city.

Rankings

SeasonFinal rankingPlayoffsChampionship
20066 WFTDA—4
200711 WFTDAR2 EDNQ
20084 E11 EDNQ
20097 NC9 NCDNQ
20102 NC2 NCR1
20112 NC2 NCQF
20122 NC1 NCQF
201317 WFTDA4 D1DNQ
20147 WFTDA3 D1R1 D1
201512 WFTDA3 D1R1 D1
201610 WFTDA2 D1R1 D1
201717 WFTDA4 D1CR D1
201817 WFTDADNPDNQ

Although the Minnesota home teams occasionally play against other leagues, the majority of their bouts are played by their all-star interleague team.

MNRD in the community

Minnesota Roller Derby has been featured in numerous local media outlets, such as the Star Tribune, the Pulse of the Twin Cities, vita.mn, Minnesota Public Radio, and the City Pages, and were briefly featured in a Coca-Cola/NASCAR national ad campaign.
Minnesota Roller Derby is sponsored by a variety of local and national companies, including: The Onion,
Minnesota Public Radio 89.3: The Current, Ultra Creative, Archetype Design, Saint Paul Athletic Club, Fiant Dental, and Pizza Lucé, among others.
Minnesota All-Stars Lynn "Juke Boxx" Klass and Melissa "Medusa" Arnold represented the United States on Team USA at the 2011 Roller Derby World Cup. In 2014, Juke Boxx returned to the Team USA roster, joined by Dana "Second Hand Smoke" Noss, for the 2014 Roller Derby World Cup.