Hartford Area Roller Derby
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Hartford Area Roller Derby or H.A.R.D., is a women's 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 the
Hartford Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since the ...
,
Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...
area. Founded in 2011, the league is a member of the
Women's Flat Track Derby Association The Women's Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA) is the international governing body for the sport of women's flat track roller derby, and association of leagues around the world. The organization was founded in April 2004 as the United Leagues Co ...
(WFTDA).


History and structure

Hartford Area Roller Derby was founded as the third modern-day roller derby league in Connecticut in 2011 by Danielle "Diesel N’ Gin" Paine, who had previously played roller derby with
Pioneer Valley Roller Derby Pioneer Valley Roller Derby (PVRD) is a roller derby league based in Northampton, Massachusetts. Founded in early 2006, the league was the first in the new flat-track roller derby movement that featured both women's and men's teams. The league ...
and Central Mass Roller Derby. H.A.R.D. held its first public games in May 2012 at Nomads Adventure Quest in South Windsor, where they still play as of 2021. By July 2012 H.A.R.D. was drawing hundreds of fans to its home games. In January 2013 H.A.R.D. became a member of the Women's Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA) Apprentice Program, graduating to full membership in the WFTDA in December of the same year. In January 2016 H.A.R.D. was granted 501 (3)(c) status. H.A.R.D. is represented at the WFTDA level by their A team, the Hartford Wailers, named after the former local National Hockey League team, and the league's B team is the Hartford Banshees (formerly known as the Beat City Bedrockers). League members pay dues towards membership, with new members partaking in a "fresh meat" training program.


WFTDA rankings

Even though H.A.R.D. gained WFTDA membership in December 2013, they did not earn their first WFTDA ranking until 2015, debuting at #200 overall.


In the community

As a non-profit organization, Hartford Area Roller Derby holds regular community fundraising events and offers an annual scholarship to graduating high-school seniors. H.A.R.D. is dedicated to building roller skating skills, creating a local roller derby community, establishing positive relationships within the community, and promoting teamwork, respect, and empowerment of women and nonbinary individuals. Some charitable efforts include an annual "Polar Run and
Pub Crawl A pub crawl (sometimes called a bar tour, bar crawl or bar-hopping) is the act of visiting multiple pubs or bars in a single session. Background Many European cities have public pub crawls that serve as social gatherings for local expatriates an ...
" from 2013-2019 to benefit the local women's shelters Interval House in Hartford and Prudence Crandall Center in
New Britain New Britain ( tpi, Niu Briten) is the largest island in the Bismarck Archipelago, part of the Islands Region of Papua New Guinea. It is separated from New Guinea by a northwest corner of the Solomon Sea (or with an island hop of Umboi the Dam ...
. H.A.R.D. has also designated the Prudence Crandall Center as its beneficiary should the league ever need to dissolve. Members of H.A.R.D. also took part in fundraising scrimmages in 2013 to benefit the Sandy Hook School Fund. H.A.R.D has participated in Red Cross blood drives, "Rebuilding Together - Manchester" events, Ellington's 1st Annual PRIDE, among other things.


References


External links


Official Website
{{Connecticut Sports Roller derby leagues established in 2011 Roller derby leagues in Connecticut Sports in Hartford, Connecticut Women's sports in the United States 2011 establishments in Connecticut