And the latest news is that Denver's second roller derby team, the Denver Roller Dolls, won a bid to host the 2011 WFTDA Championships, dubbed the "Continental Divide and Conquer."
The nationwide tournament will take place November 11-13, 2011, at the 1stBANK Center in Broomfield. "We have so much roller derby in Colorado, we could theoretically have a lot of our teams participating in the tournament," says Dolls' spokeswoman Andrea "Kendra Blood" Hill. "And otherwise, they'll have an opportunity to see some really great derby."
"It's kind of a gift for the new leagues in Colorado," she adds, "that they'll be able to see some of the greatest derby in the world."
The Dolls submitted their bid to host the tournament this past spring, Hill says. "We had co-hosted the Western Regional Tournament in 2009 with the Rocky Mountain Rollergirls," she explains. "So we decided we wanted to give it a shot to hold the big one."
After winning the bid, the Dolls' next task was to come up with a cheeky name for the tournament. Hill says they settled on "Continental Divide and Conquer" because "we wanted something geographic that also had that little bit of an edgy feel."
While the WFTDA will help organize the tournament, the Dolls will be responsible for much of the management, Hill says, including lining up halftime entertainment and coordinating sponsorships and vendors. But the league, which is consistently ranked in the top ten in the country by the Derby News Network, is up for the challenge. "We're dedicated to making this a pretty big deal," Hill says.
For more on Denver roller derby, check out our feature story, "Denver's roller derby rivalry could start the sport rolling across the country."
