Our League
TRD Mission
TRD History
Our mission is to play a competitive sport that improves our members’ individual athletic ability, self-discipline, and character all while promoting the sport of roller derby in the Tampa Bay area and
providing entertainment for our fans. The league is also dedicated to providing community outreach
through events, appearances, and charity partnerships.
Tampa Roller Derby was founded in September of 2005, originally named Tampa Bay Derby Darlins. Born from the vision of one woman: Angela Kroslak (aka “Dee Bauchery"). Dee imagined Tampa Bay being home to an amazing roller derby league and set out to make it happen. After countless hours of phone calls, internet research, and visits to local roller skating rinks, Dee was able to find a place to host practices and bouts, as well as enough committed skaters to start a league. In October of 2005, a relationship began between United Skates of America and the newly founded Tampa Bay Derby Darlins ("TBDD"). TBDD was committed to growing the league in membership and fostering the confidence, belonging, and improvement of its members. In 2012 TBDD revamped its image, name, and logo to “Tampa Roller Derby” and introduced our standing mascot: Frank the Flamingo. In 2018 we opened our doors to all genders and had our first open gender team in league history. This eventually led to the open-gender policy that is held by all Tampa Roller Derby home teams today.
Today, TRD has three home teams, Black Widows, Cigar City Mafia, and Switchblades. As well as four travel teams that compete regional and nationally, Tampa Tantrums, Death Rollers, Bruise Crew, and Sea Sirens. TRD is a skater owned and operated organization, for the skater by the skater. Tampa Roller Derby is also home to Tampa Bay Junior Derby for ages 8-18.
TRD competes regionally and nationally in the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association. The WFTDA is the international governing body for the sport of women’s flat track roller derby and a membership organization that represents more than 400 leagues on 6 continents. The WFTDA sets the international standards for rankings, rules, and competition each year, and provides guidance and resources to the sport of flat track derby.
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TRD Values
Dedication - The dedication of fans, community, and league members are the driving force behind our success and allows TRD to be self-owned and self-managed.
Athleticism - Roller derby requires athleticism and provides an outlet for fostering athleticism. TRD enables self-identified athletes of all levels of ability, age, and body types to train and play
this sport.
Empowerment - We empower our members by providing varied opportunities for personal growth. We foster individual empowerment through commitment to skate training, responsibility to teams, and work within the TRD community.
Entertainment - The sporting aspect of Tampa Roller Derby entertains our fans, which is critical to the generation of revenue to meet our goals and to increase the popularity of the sport. In return this helps with fostering a sense of community.
Community - We strive to be responsible members of each of the various communities that we belong to and on whom we rely for our success.