From an idea formed in September of last year, a roller derby team that is the first Black team in the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association is heading to Sweden to compete in the world championships.
The Black Derby Collective’s stated objective is being “intentional about building sustainable infrastructure while centering equity, visibility and empowerment for Black skaters. BDC values collaboration across the wider Black derby community, complementing the work of groups like Black Diaspora Roller Derby while pursuing a distinct competitive path through sanctioned play.”
This week in Malmö, Sweden, at the 16-team WFTDA Championships, the BDC will have its biggest stage to amplify its goals.
The BDC started with Ima BlowbyYa, aka Avonya Anderson, was working with the WFTDA on recruiting new members, got interest from a few skaters on setting up a team. After getting approved and submitting all the paperwork, “I said, ‘Hey, you know, I’d like to join.’ And so I just put my name in the hat to be a part of it.”
She then recruited a coach fairly easily — BillyMo, aka Ron Anderson, is her husband.
“I know a lot of the skaters that are on the team,” BillyMo said. “And so it just became natural. I’ve been coaching for a long time, and this is a positive movement, so it just kind of was natural for me to just put my name in the hat as well.”
Skaters for the BDC are across the country, so film study and remote meetings are the way that they prepare for tournaments and qualifying events that earned them the points needed to reach the world championships. Showtime, aka Ashley Hatcher, is based in Eugene, Oregon, and competes for a local roller derby team to stay sharp for when she’s able to compete for BDC.
“When Black Derby Collective got set and started posting on socials, I went, ‘This is exactly what I've been looking for. This is that family I’ve been looking for and that kind of dynamic,’” Showtime said. “We’re all great athletes from all over the country and taking that challenge of coming in together and fighting to be the best has been such a great opportunity.”
“… The hard part is when we are all at home,” Showtime added. “The second that the collective is together, I feel like everything just clicks into place. We do have struggles when it comes to strategy, and we do have the struggles of trusting each other because we don’t get to practice and skate together all the time. But the feeling of our culture and the collective once we are all together kind of makes up for the loneliness you’re feeling at home.”
Black Derby Collective advanced to the world championships by winning two roller derby tournaments that it was able to enter, sweeping all five games to qualify for the playoffs in May. In the South Region playoffs, where the top two teams qualify for worlds, BDC came away with a gold medal and a ticket to Sweden. It would take five more wins in Malmö for the team to be crowned world champions.
“Most of them are pretty experienced,” BillyMo said of his skaters. “I tell them all the time when we get together, ‘I’m not here to coach you. I’m just here to give you those reminders.’ … We do have a strategy committee that meets once a week, and we watch film and discuss things there, and then we kind of disseminate that to the team. So hopefully the team is doing their homework and doing their part and reading these strategies and watching the films themselves. Then when we come together, it feels natural.”
“It wasn’t handed to us, you know,” Ima BlowbyYa added. “A lot of people think that when you make teams like this, it’s a super team. You’ve got the superstars; you should be winning. BDC from the moment that I joined has worked hard for every little piece and has had the same struggles as some teams have had. It may look easy on the surface, but you don’t know the behind-the-scenes work that our founders had to do, that our skaters had to do.”
That work which has gone into forming a team that stands for more than just sports is important to all of its skaters as well.
“Black athletes all over the world are fighting for this attention,” Showtime said. “Even if we go into our niche kind of roller derby community, it became a big thing where not a lot of people who look like us are doing it, so let’s collectively get together and let’s do this. … BDC has helped me learn and grow into that Black amazing skater that I knew I could be. It’s truly hard to come up with words for because of how important it is to all of us, and how being this representation across WFTDA, across the roller derby community is huge. And our success is a big deal, and we want to be loud and be proud about it. And other Black skaters in the country deserve to be proud and confident and loud about it.”
The chance to compete and coach in the world championships comes at a great personal connection for Ima BlowbyYa and BillyMo, who have been involved in roller derby for two decades starting in Bakersfield, California. When they both got involved in the sport, they were the only Black skater and coach around.
“The tenacity I think this team has, and how proud we are to be a part of something that’s making history, and not giving a damn about everything else is, to be frank, I think is really awesome, and it makes me really proud that I’m a part of it,” BillyMo said. “Once the world sees this, that it lets other folks know, ‘There’s leagues out there that’ll accept me and this is something that I can do and I can be a part of.’
“Every time we get together it’s like I want to start crying just because I’m seeing all these beautiful Black people, and I’m in my comfort zone. It’s just an awesome feeling.”
