Ottawa Valley Roller Derby (OVRD) is a flat track

roller derby Roller derby is a roller skating contact sport played by two teams of fifteen members. Roller derby is played by approximately 1,250 amateur leagues worldwide, mostly in the United States. Game play consists of a series of short scrimmages (jam ...

league based in

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, Canada. The league was created from a merger in 2018 between two local leagues that had been formed in 2008: Rideau Valley Roller Derby and Capital City Derby Dolls. The originator league joined the

WFTDA Apprentice Program The Women's Flat Track Derby Association Apprentice is the program affiliate of the Women's Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA). In operation from 2009 until early 2019, the Apprentice Program served to onboard new member leagues into the WFTDA. ...

in 2011, graduating as a full member of the Women's Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA) in June 2012. The league consists of eight teams: Ottawa Valley All-Stars (A); The Party Line and ByWard B (B); East Block, Centre Block and West Block (home teams; the Slaughter Squad ( MRDA-aligned); and Ottawa Junior Roller Derby (

Juniors Junior or Juniors may refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * ''Junior'' (Junior Mance album), 1959 * ''Junior'' (Röyksopp album), 2009 * ''Junior'' (Kaki King album), 2010 * ''Junior'' (LaFontaines album), 2019 Films * ''Junior'' (1994 ...

History

In January 2018 Rideau Valley Roller Derby merged with the Capital City Derby Dolls, announcing the news and rebrand as Ottawa Valley Roller Derby on Facebook.

History of Original Leagues

Rideau Valley Roller Derby

The Bytown Blackhearts hosted their first bout in Ottawa in January 2009 against the Sexpos of

Montreal Roller Derby Montreal Roller Derby is a women's flat-track roller derby league in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Montreal Roller Derby became the first non-U.S. Women's Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA) member league in January 2009. In 2019, Montreal Roller De ...

. By June 2011, the league was known as "Rideau Valley Roller Girls" and hosted the first Canadian Women's Roller Derby Association East Tournament, losing in the final to the Forest City Derby Girls. By late 2011, Rideau Valley bouts were attracting up to and over 1,000 fans per game. In January 2011, Rideau Valley was accepted as an apprentice member of the Women's Flat Track Derby Association. Rideau Valley skater Soul Rekker was selected to skate for

Team Canada Canadian National Team or Team Canada may refer to: Canada at multi-sport events * Canada at the Olympics * Canada at the Paralympics * Canada at the Commonwealth Games * Canada at the Pan American Games Canada's national sport teams * Canada me ...

at the

2011 Roller Derby World Cup The 2011 Roller Derby World Cup was an international women's roller derby tournament organized by ''Blood & Thunder'' magazine. Teams of amateur skaters from around the world were fielded to compete for their respective nations. The inaugural 20 ...

in December 2011, and was later joined by leaguemate Semi Precious (Hanna Murphy). Murphy and Soul Rekker returned to their national team for the

2014 Roller Derby World Cup The 2014 Roller Derby World Cup is an international women's roller derby tournament organized by ''Blood & Thunder'' magazine. Teams of amateur skaters from six continents compete for their respective nations. The 2014 Roller Derby World Cup is ...

. In April 2017, Rideau Valley rebranded as "Rideau Valley Roller Derby" to put more emphasis on the sport and to better respect its members. At the end of 2017, Rideau Valley featured the Vixens A-team and Sirens B-team, and three home teams, the Slaughter Daughters, Riot Squad and Prime Sinisters.

Capital City Derby Dolls

Formed in 2008, the league was made up of the Dolly Rogers (A), Dollinquents (B), Cupquakes, Cannon Dolls, and the Beauty School Dropouts (home teams). Renée Labrosse (derby name The Big Labrosski) and Ashley Ronson (Watcher Ash) from the league were selected for

in 2016, for the

2018 Roller Derby World Cup The 2018 Roller Derby World Cup was the third international women's Roller Derby World Cup, taking place on February 1–4 at EventCity, in Manchester, United Kingdom, with 38 teams competing. An international roller derby tournament, it was orga ...

roster.

WFTDA competition

Rideau Valley Roller Derby gained full membership of the WFTDA in June 2012, and were represented in WFTDA competition by their charter all-star team, the Rideau Valley Vixens. 2012 was the final year that the WFTDA used geographical regions for organizing rankings, and Rideau Valley was placed in the East Region. In August 2014, Rideau Valley became the first team from outside the United States to take first place at a WFTDA Playoff tournament, when they defeated

Bear City Roller Derby Bear City Roller Derby (BCRD) is a flat track roller derby league based in Berlin. Founded in 2008, Bear City is a member of the Women's Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA). History The league was founded as the Berlin Bombshells, although it n ...

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

at the Division 2 Playoff in

Kitchener-Waterloo The Regional Municipality of Waterloo (Waterloo Region or Region of Waterloo) is a metropolitan area of Southern Ontario, Canada. It contains the cities of Cambridge, Kitchener and Waterloo (KWC or Tri-Cities), and the townships of North Dumf ...

. Rideau Valley then played for the Division 2 Championship in

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the List of muni ...

on November 2, 2014, losing to the Detroit Derby Girls. In 2015, Rideau Valley was the tenth seed at the Division 1 Playoff in

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

, but lost their three games to

Sun State Roller Girls Sun State Roller Derby is a women's flat track roller derby based in Brisbane, in the Australian state of Queensland. Suns State was established in 2007 and has been a member of the international Women's Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA) si ...

Stockholm Roller Derby Stockholm Roller Derby (STRD) is a women's flat track roller derby league based in Stockholm, Sweden. Founded in 2007, the league currently consists of four teams which compete against teams from other leagues and the league also has their own g ...

and

Ohio Roller Girls Ohio Roller Derby (OHRD) is a women's flat track roller derby league based in Columbus, Ohio. Founded in 2005, the league currently consists of two mixed teams which compete against teams from other leagues. Ohio Roller Derby is a founding member ...

and finished in tenth place.

Rankings

References

{{Ontario Sports, state=collapsed Roller derby leagues in Canada Sport in Ottawa Roller derby leagues established in 2008 2008 establishments in Ontario