The USA Roller Sports National Championships cap off a month of competition at the Reno-Sparks Convention Center this weekend with the roller derby championships - and we have a local team competing for the title.
Carson Victory Rollers (CVR) co-founder "Stiletto Strangler" says the event is a great way to bring attention to roller sports within the community.
"It's awesome," she says, "It's really cool to get something like this in our town because we don't really have anything like this."
Stiletto is one of the longest-tenured roller derby skaters in northern Nevada. She says she's been in the game for almost 17 years, and she co-founded CVR back in 2012.
At that time, she says the local derby scene looked a lot different than it does now.
"It just got more athletic," Stiletto says. "There's more strategy involved. There's less fake fighting and elbowing."
Stiletto's teammate "Slaughter" says she's glad she won't have to travel this year, unlike last year's event.
"I hate flying and it's in Nebraska," Slaughter says, "(The) weather's not it for me."
CVR squared off against the Satellites in a co-ed match-up on Sunday morning as part of the round-robin championship tournament. Despite Carson's best efforts, they lost to one of the best teams in recent memory.
CVR blocker "Backlash" says the game proved how resilient the team is in spite of the result.
"Not one of us slowed down," she says. "We hit it hard. We support each other. We communicated very well."
The Victory Rollers field three teams - one each in the Open, Women's, and Junior divisions.
The team holds practices at the Carson City Community Center every Tuesday. Kids practice at 6:30 p.m. and adults follow suit at 7:30.
Stiletto says anyone is welcome to join the team.
"We accept any and all walks of life," she says. "We want everybody to join roller derby."
To learn more about the Carson Victory Rollers and how you can support the team, check out the CVR website.
