Angel City Derby Girls

Angel City Derby Girls
Angel City Derby est. 2006
Metro area Los Angeles, CA
Country United States
Founded 2006
Teams Hollywood Scarlets
Rocket Queens
Shore Shots
Road Ragers
Rising Stars
A-Listers
Blockbusters
Track type(s) Flat
Venue Culver City Veterans Auditorium
Affiliations WFTDA
Org. type 501(c)3 NPO
Website www.angelcityderby.com
Angel City (in gold) take on the Carolina Rollergirls at the 2011 Dust Devil tournament

The Angel City Derby Girls (ACDG) is the original women's quad-skate flat track roller derby league based in Los Angeles, California. Founded in 2006 by a collective of skaters, the league is composed of nearly 200 members divided into four teams (and referees) who skate on a flat track and compete against teams from all over the state of California, the Western Region, and the world. The league is skater-owned and operated, "by the skater, for the skater," a completely do-it-yourself, volunteer-feuled effort by the women (and men) involved in the organization. Angel City is a member of the Women's Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA).

Teams

The league currently consists of four adult teams (age 18+): the Hollywood Scarlets (WFTDA internationally competitive charter team), the Rocket Queens (internationally competitive B team), the Shore Shots (western region travel team) and the Road Ragers (local travel team), who compete against teams from other roller derby leagues.[1] Members training to be placed on any of the four teams participate with the Rising Stars and Fresh Meat programs, or may join the league's popular fitness program, Angel City Fit Club.[2]

In 2015, Angel City rolled out Angel City Junior Derby (ACJD) for girls ages 7-17.[3] ACJD features two teams, the A-Listers and Blockbusters.

Angel City Derby is also home to a number of certified skating officials and non-skating officials (NSOs). The crew is called Parks & REFreation.

Team history

Angel City was the second roller derby league in Los Angeles, after the Los Angeles Derby Dolls, and the first to play on a flat track. ACDG played their first game on June 30, 2006 at World on Wheels in Los Angeles, and played its first full competitive season in 2007, based in a warehouse named "Heaven's Gate." Angel City initially had 3 home teams: the Berzerkers, Shore Shots and Block Steady Crew, and a travel team called the Road Ragers competing against other WFTDA travel teams.[4] The home teams were dissolved after the 2008 season and changed to structure consisting of an A and B level travel team (the Hollywood Scarlets and The Rocket Queens, respectively).

In 2010 and 2011, the league saw a growth in membership and began to build out the program to include a sub pool of Rising Stars. The continued growth lead to the addition of a C level team to the A-B structure, and the team was called the Road Ragers (in homage to the original name of the travel team that would eventually become the Hollywood Scarlets). In early 2011, the league moved its training into a warehouse in South Central Los Angeles, nicknamed "the Ascot." The securing of a consistent training space allowed for even more league growth, and by the end of 2012, the league moved into a larger, nicer warehouse facility in Gardena. ACDG currently trains at that same facility, now called Angel City Headquarters (or "HQ").

In 2014, yet another team was added to the structure, the Shore Shots (in homage to the disbanded home team), competing at the same skill level as the Rocket Queens. The teams are no longer denoted by an A-B-C level, and instead by the level of competition they face: International (Hollywood Scarlets), Regional and Local.

In 2016, the league announced that the growth of regional level play of the Rocket Queens and Shore Shots had grown so competitive that a single tryout would be held for the top skaters to qualify to travel as the International Travel B team alongside the Hollywood Scarlets. The Hollywood Scarlets and newly restructured Rocket Queens will travel to the Big O Tournament in Eugene, OR and to the Rose City Rollers' Hometown Throwdown tournaments in Spring 2016. The Shore Shots will remain regionally competitive in the West and the Road Ragers will remain locally competitive in the Los Angeles/Southern California area.

Internationally competitive play

ACDG was one of the first leagues in Southern California to become a member of the Women's Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA).[5] The Hollywood Scarlets represent Angel City at the WFTDA competitive level and play for international rankings in the organization. The WFTDA-level travel team was originally called The Road Ragers, but was re-named and re-branded at the beginning of the 2009 season. The Scarlets qualified as the tenth seed for the WFTDA West Region Playoffs in 2009, taking eighth place;[6] They next qualified in 2011 again as tenth seed and finished in ninth place overall.[7] In 2012, they qualified for the West Region Playoffs as the #8 seed and ended the tournament in the same position.[8]

In 2013, the Scarlets enjoyed a meteoric rise in the rankings, paralleled with the WFTDA's shift from a regional structure to a division-based structure.[9] The Scarlets qualified for the 2013 WFTDA Playoffs ranked #5 globally. With the withdrawal of the Oly Rollers from the Playoffs, they entered the Women's Flat Track Derby Association Division 1 Playoffs in Richmond, Virginia, as the top seed.[10] They left as a #3 seed and qualified for the 2013 WFTDA Championships in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for the first time in the history of the Angel City Derby Girls.[11] The Scarlets matched up against Rocky Mountain Rollergirls in the first round at Championships and after defeating them 298-228, moved on to play the Denver Roller Dolls but lost in the second round of the bracket and were knocked out of the single-elimination style tournament.

In 2014, the Scarlets ranked #7 globally, entering the Division 1 Playoffs in Salt Lake City as a #2 seed and leaving at the same position, qualifying them for the Championship Tournament in Nashville, Tennessee.[12][13] They matched up against the 2013 Championship runners-up, the Texas Rollergirls in the first round of the tournament. This was the first time the team from Angel City played against the heralded "godmothers of roller derby" and Texas was victorious.

In 2015, the Scarlets entered the competitive play season with their most aggressive games to date. They defeated Santa Cruz Derby Girls, Arizona Roller Derby, Tampa Roller Derby, Atlanta Rollergirls, and Jacksonville RollerGirls in the Spring, and moving into summer bested Rocky Mountain, Minnesota RollerGirls and long-time rivals at B.ay A.rea D.erby Girls, but fell to Texas and London Rollergirls. They entered the 2015 Playoff cycle at #8, placing them in Omaha in the #2 seed position where they again faced Minnesota for the chance to take on the perennial champions in the final game, the Gotham Girls from New York.[14] Though Gotham was victorious, Angel City's Scarlets scored more points on the team than any team had during the course of the season's play, and qualified for the Championship in Saint Paul, Minnesota. At the 2015 Championship the Scarlets met the Rat City All-Stars in the first round, and after defeating them, faced London in the quarter-finals, where London edged out a win.[15]

The Scarlets start the 2016 season squarely in the #6 rank worldwide, and are scheduled to play Texas, Denver, Victoria (Melbourne, AUS), Rose City Rollers (Portland - the 2015 WFTDA Champions), Rat City (Seattle), Bay Area, and Terminal City Rollergirls (Vancouver, BC).[16]

Hollywood Scarlets WFTDA rankings

[17]
Season Final ranking[18] Playoffs Championship
2008 6 (W) — —
2009 8 (W) 8[6] DNQ
2010 12 (W) DNQ DNQ
2011 9 (W) 9[7] DNQ
2012 8 (W) 8[19] DNQ
2013 5 (D1) 3[20] 6[21]
2014 7 (D1) 2 9[22]
2015 6 (D1) 2 5

References

  1. ↑ "Teams". Angel City Derby Girls. Retrieved 25 February 2016.
  2. ↑ "Angel City Fit Club". Angel City Derby Girls. Retrieved 25 February 2016.
  3. ↑ "Juniors". Angel City Derby Girls. Retrieved 25 February 2016.
  4. ↑ Zach Behrens, "Angel City Derby Girls Open Their Season", Laist, 20 May 2007
  5. ↑ "January 2011 Featured League: Angel City Derby Girls", WFTDA, 4 January 2011
  6. 1 2 "Derby on the Rocks 2009 Western Regionals", WFTDA
  7. 1 2 "Bridgetown Brawl WFTDA 2011 West Region Playoffs", WFTDA
  8. ↑ "2012 West Region Playoffs". WFTDA. Retrieved 23 February 2016.
  9. ↑ "Additional Details Published About New WFTDA Divisions and Ranking Systems - Latest News - Women’s Flat Track Derby Association". Wftda.com. 2013-01-04. Retrieved 2016-02-22.
  10. ↑ "2013 Division 1 Playoffs". WFTDA. Retrieved 23 February 2016.
  11. ↑ "2013 Championships". WFTDA. Retrieved 23 February 2016.
  12. ↑ "2014 Division 1 Playoffs". WFTDA. Retrieved 23 February 2016.
  13. ↑ "2014 Championships". WFTDA. Retrieved 23 February 2016.
  14. ↑ "2015 Division 1 Playoffs". WFTDA. Retrieved 23 February 2016.
  15. ↑ "2015 Champsionships". WFTDA. Retrieved 23 February 2016.
  16. ↑ "Hollywood Scarlets". Angel City Derby. Retrieved 23 February 2016.
  17. ↑ "2016 International WFTDA Playoffs and Championships - Women’s Flat Track Derby Association". wftda.com. Retrieved 2016-02-22.
  18. ↑ "Current Rankings", WFTDA
  19. ↑ "Bay of Reckoning", WFTDA
  20. ↑ "2013 D1 Playoffs: Richmond", WFTDA
  21. ↑ "2013 Championships: Milwaukee", WFTDA
  22. ↑ "2014 Championships: Nashville", WFTDA
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Friday, February 26, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.