Love team sports? Even if you’re not a skater, the Morgantown Roller Vixens want you.
If you’re ready to bust out of pandemic isolation into full-contact team competition, the Morgantown Roller Vixens may be just the thing for you. The team is building its post-pandemic roster now and taking on both skating and non-skating members.
“We have 25 or 30 active members right now, some skating, some doing behind-the-scenes work,” says Blas—that’s short for Bohemian Blasphemy, Team Captain Beth Garbutt’s derby name. “Two of our newbies just passed their minimum skills test last night, so that was exciting. We’re slowly getting back to normal.”
Whether you were named Most Likely to Skate Across the U.S. in high school, you picked up quad skating during the pandemic, or you’d just like to be part of a fun, fast-paced sport as an official or volunteer, now is a great time to join.
MRV has been around since 2010. It’s part of the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association—teams compete on the flat, as opposed to banked tracks. It’s also a WVU club sport, one of the first roller derby teams to be associated with a college in the U.S. When competition is in full swing, the team competes in West Virginia and surrounding states.
As a WVU club, MRV is well-stocked with loaner equipment for potential players who aren’t ready to make an investment. So if you’re derby-curious, all you need to get started is a mouth guard—you don’t even need to know how to skate.
“We welcome everyone, whatever the background—if you’ve played sports, if you haven’t. We’ll teach you everything,” Garbutt says. “An 8-week intensive gets new players on board with the minimum skills: We teach you how to safely and properly fall and how to safely and properly take hits and give hits.”
Garbutt encourages potential referees, non-skating officials, scorekeepers, and others to get in touch, too. “If you aren’t into the contact aspect, there are many other roles.”
Learning more is easy. “Message us on Facebook, and you can come watch a practice,” Garbutt says. This spring, the team is practicing at the Mylan Park Expo Center Tuesday and Thursday evenings, 7–9 p.m.
And be thinking about your derby name.
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