A Roller Derby Revival in Saint Petersburg

Sunshine City Roller Derby versus Tallahassee Roller Derby | March 25^th 2023

How do you explain how much fun you had doing something when you are not exactly one hundred percent sure of what you just witnessed? So begins the challenge of describing my first visit to a roller derby bout which lived up to the hype and then some. Rewind a few months back to when I discovered a couple of posts on the local subreddit of upcoming roller derby bouts and from the photos I saw, it sure looked interesting.

Literally a week later, two of my concert photography buddies and I were down at the local First Friday event with our cameras having a ‘dude’s tog night’ and we encountered a couple of the skaters on the team from that reddit post and we were introduced to Sunshine City Roller Derby. We were encouraged to bring our cameras with us if we ever made it out to a bout.

It took a few months for my schedule to align with a bout night and on March 25th 2023 my friends and I attended the Sunshine City Roller Derby versus Tallahassee Roller Derby at the Youth Park Sports Complex in Pinellas Park, Florida. One of my tog friends that was with me that night at First Friday (B Man) was with me along with another friend who watched from the stands (Joe) while B Man and I were trackside with our cameras.

Prior to this bout, I had interacted with one of the team members via reddit and she introduced herself and welcomed B Man and I to the event. We told her we really had no idea what to expect and she walked us through the game play rules, and where we could and could not be during bout action. The bout is played on an open air rink that has actual track-side seats right there where the action is happening, as well as areas where you can bring your own chair or as mentioned, there are bleachers.

The teams began to form up on the track and they began their warm up, practicing their team moves and periodically coming back to the bench area to let the speed skaters warm up and buzz around the track a few times. Soon the bout began and I was so busy clicking away that two hours melted away in the blink of an eye. The bout was segmented into quarters and with a halftime youth dancing demonstration by a local based Highlands Dance Group before the match began again for its second half.

At the intermission, B Man and I met back up and exchanged our observations so far regarding angles and such as well as a couple of instances back and forth between us each saying “hey look at this shot!” as we each did a quick run through of the first half shots. We began the second half sitting right at the penalty box so we had a great view of each starting jam as well as an angle that offered some of what I thought were the best shots of the night.

There was scoring, there was cheering from the fans and from the players trackside waiting their turn to go in. There were collisions, there were breakaways, there were game face sneers that turned to smiles between combatants, while the referees worked out some penalty situation and the match was halted periodically. Then once the refs signaled ‘ready’, the game face sneers and collisions returned.

At one point during the bout B Man and I even heard the visiting coach yell to one of her players who was helping an opposing member up after a hit, “DON’T APOLOGIZE!, You’re supposed to hit her!” That was awesome we agreed with Joe at a post bout meal the three of us shared afterwards.

There is definite strategy involved in the game play, which was evident as the speed of the players constantly changed throughout the bout. Those were my three takeaways as I try to describe my thoughts, the sport is based on speed, strategy and brute force. If I was not glued to my camera lens I probably would have come out of the experience much more knowledgeable to explain how the scoring system works. For now photos will have to do the talking for me.

In the end, the bout result was a decisive win for the home team, but I honestly still do not know the sport enough to explain the rules and the scoring to anyone else. All I can say is I had a great time out there, the competition was serious, the skaters put their all into the bout and certainly have the passion and drive to make their sport entertaining for us fans as well, of which I like how many of the players have funny entertaining pun names.

I asked B Man to summarize in a sentence how he would describe the evening and his response was “A captivating display of strategy, teamwork, elite skill and talents showcased before a unique and dedicated audience.” I took that to mean he wants to go with me again for their next bout on Saturday, April 22nd as I know I certainly look forward to seeing another bout and learning more about the sport. Check out information about the league and their bout schedule at: https://sunshinerollerderby.com/

More photos from the game by Randy Cook

https://sunshinerollerderby.com/