Fayetteville Roller Derby is finishing up their season with a doubleheader against Cape Fear Roller Derby at the Crown Arena, 1960 Coliseum Drive (the building with the tin dome beside the theater), on Saturday, Aug. 24 starting at 5 p.m. Tickets are $14. Home team tickets purchased cover admission for both games. The night begins with the Fayetteville All Stars taking on the Cape Fear Roller Derby out of Wilmington, NC, and ends with a match between the FRD Ritzy Rollers and FRD Wreckers. For those unfamiliar with roller derby, it’s an aggressive marriage of rink skating and football. Here’s a breakdown of how roller derby works.
Playtime
• (2) 30-minute halves, broken down into 2-minute “jams” or plays
Players and Positions
• Each team is allowed 5 players,
• 1 Jammer (offense) designated by a star on their helmet
• 3 blockers
• 1 pivot blocker (defense) designated by a stripe on their helmet
• A pivot blocker can become a jammer, switching from offense to defense
Goal of the game
• Get the jammer around the track as many times as possible before the 2-minute jam ends
While some may have grown up watching “bank track,” most roller derby teams now compete on a flat track.
“We play on a variety of surfaces, not polished concrete… sometimes we’re on sport(s) court floors, sometimes it’s a skating rink, so that's a wooden floor and sometimes it’s a basketball court. That's the great thing about flat track [be]cause we can play anywhere that’s a smooth surface. We put a rope down to do boundaries and that gets taped over. That becomes our boundaries, and we can feel that with our wheels,” explained DanniBanannie, league secretary and training board member.
Fayetteville Roller Derby is as much a community staple as the International Folk Festival, with over 15 years in the community. The league is more family than competitors and it’s apparent in the way they talk about not only their teammates but others. Psycho, the league's recruitment chair said, “This is my 11th season with the league. I started in 2013… The hardest thing [about roller derby] is myself. I’m really hard on myself about it. Even after 11 years, I don’t feel like I’m very good. But the thing I love most about it is the family,” she said. “When I moved here, I didn’t have anybody and now me and SheHulk have been friends for 10 years. I really feel like this is my family here. And they always got my back. She (SheHulk) used to babysit for me when I took college classes.”
SheHulk, league President and training committee member said, “I’ve been on the team for 10 years now. I started when I was 19… we started 15, 16 years ago. There were actually two leagues at one point. I actually started on the other league and they kinda fizzled out and I transferred over here,” she said. “I grew up playing sports. When I moved to Fayetteville, I wanted something to do. I was looking for a softball team, literally anything. Then I saw an ad on Facebook that said ‘come play roller derby.’ I was like, Ok, and I’ve been doing it ever since.”
Fayetteville Roller Derby is actively recruiting new members. Members “pay to play” and are responsible for the purchase of equipment. Fayetteville Roller Derby is inclusive and openly invites anyone who identifies on the female spectrum to come out and try out.
One's ability to skate should also not keep them from trying out. Many members admit that roller derby was their first time skating, or they had very little track time before jumping headfirst into the sport. There are also non-skating positions for those who are quad-impaired or just can’t physically skate.
“Our open recruitment starts Aug. 26. There will be a practice Monday of that week and that Wednesday, as well as the following Monday and Wednesday. Anybody can come on any of those days if you want to learn how to skate with us. We’ll teach you everything… I’m primarily a blocker. I got one or two good jams in me [be]cause I have asthma and fun hurts my lungs,” Psycho said of the upcoming recruitment.
Make sure you follow them on Facebook to stay up to date on games and recruitment opportunities at https://www.facebook.com/fayettevillerollerderbyfans. Tickets for the upcoming doubleheader can be purchased at Ticketmaster.

(Photo:From left to right: Psycho, Hannabanannie and SheHulk, members of the Fayetteville All Stars Roller Derby team, pose for a photo during practice. Photo by Amber Little)