Electric City Roller Derby officially became a league in January of this year. “We’ve been working really hard to rebuild Derby after COVID dissolved the previous league,” explained Roxanne Gray.
Electric City Roller GrrrlZ brought roller derby to Great Falls from 2010 to 2020. However, they struggled to survive the impact of COVID. Last year the league worked to recruit more people but was not large enough to get off the ground. In an effort to recruit more members and revive the league, they decided to become an open-gender league and changed their name and logo to Electric City Roller Derby.
“I did not know how to skate when I started,” explained Roxanne. “We have a few that were with the original Electric City Roller GrrrlZ before it dissolved. They’ve worked hard to help breathe life back in. We have people that came in with skating skills already and we have skaters that didn’t know how to skate before they joined.”
The league currently has about 30 members of varying skill levels, including three male skaters. This incredible group of very diverse people includes people from 20 years old to those of them in their 40’s. Each of them has a fun “Derby name” they use while skating as was explained by Roxanne “Spindy Hopper” Gray.
The practices are closed sessions, however, they will be having two bouts in Great Falls at the Pacific Steel arena at the Montana Expo Park. These bouts will be on August 24th and then one on October 19th and they would love to see large crowds watching and supporting them at that time. The Electric City Roller Derby League will also be in the 4th of July parade handing out flags and always looking forward to meeting people.
Although they are not traveling out of state at the moment, two skaters will be traveling to Rock Springs, Wyoming, to help The Copper City Queens from Butte fill their rosters.
The league is still rebuilding and looking for more ways to give back to the community. “It’s been a big effort to get things back ready to be able to play and start giving back,” explained Roxanne. “We still need to build our ability to pay for things like bouts and practices. We are working on selecting a nonprofit to partner with.”
For more information on The Electric City Roller Derby, please email ECRDerby@gmail.com or find them on Facebook and let them know you found them in The Great Falls Gazette.
Author: Karen Anderson
Karen is the Editor-in-Chief overseeing all news operations at Foxys Publishing Co. She also loves photography and spending time with her dogs.
