About Peach State Roller Derby

Peach State Roller Derby (PSRD) is a 501c3 non-profit, amateur sports organization serving the greater Cobb County, Georgia area. PSRD is a WFTDA (Women's Flat Track Derby Association) ranked team in the North America South region. 

OUR HISTORY

Peach State Roller Derby was first established as The Marietta Derby Darlins (MDD).  (MDD) were formed by two women, Rachel Sellars (Rosie the Regulator), and Amy DeLoach (Annie Ouchley) in April of 2011. Rosie and Annie met while skating with the Rome Rollergirls (Rome, GA), and decided that they wanted to start a new roller derby league closer to their homes in Cobb County, Georgia. Samantha Perry (Vexing Violet) met Annie at an Atlanta Rollergirls workshop and the three of them began skating together at a local rink twice a week to recruit while working on creating an organizational structure. Together they created a Facebook page and made flyers to distribute all over Cobb County. They decided on the name “Marietta Derby Darlins” as Marietta is the largest city in Cobb County and they liked the way it sounded. Over the next few months they assembled a small group of women who were meeting and skating together during open sessions. Along the way a former speed skater became interested in working with the league and teaching women how to skate. With his help, MDD was able to secure an outdoor practice venue and created a practice structure. Annie and Rosie had been bouting skaters with the Rome Rollergirls and had bouted with the Savannah Derby Devils, so they headed up the training and assessing of roller derby skills. In October 2011, the Marietta Derby Darlins held their first assessment session and had 20 skaters regularly attending practices. With enough skaters who had passed the WFTDA minimum skills assessment to form a team, the Marietta Derby Darlins began scheduling the first bouting season.

The 2012 inaugural bouting season included scrimmages against the Columbia Quad Squad Miss B-havers and the Rome Rollergirls, as well as bouts against the Scenic City Rollers, Greenville Derby Dame’s Bad News Babes, Dunlap Darksiders, and Tragic City Roller’s Plan B. MDD also hosted the very first home bout in the Cobb County Civic Center against the Torpedo Bay Rollergirls. At the conclusion of the first season, many skaters found that the commitment to play was too much for them to balance and MDD went into the off-season with only 8 active skaters. During the off-season MDD leveraged accomplishments into recruiting several new skaters and securing an indoor practice space. In 2013 MDD competed in a total of 11 bouts and scrimmaged with the Rome Rollergirls, Muscogee Rollergirls, Richland County Regulators, and Classic City Rollergirls. MDD also successfully hosted and produced four home bouts and earned a profit at all four.

MDD began the 2014 season with the announcement that WFTDA accepted the league as one of 22 new Apprentice Leagues, and only 12 of which are in the U.S.  During this apprenticeship a partnership with the Rome Rollergirls (founded April 2, 2010) evolved into a merging of the two leagues to create one larger, regional league: Peach State Roller Derby (PSRD).  PSRD established an Allstar team comprised of players from Rome and Marietta.  The Rome Rollergirls and the Marietta Derby Darlins continued to compete as home teams.  

In June of 2015, Peach State Roller Derby was officially accepted as a full WFTDA member league.  The Allstar team served as the official charter team for the league and competed competitively with other WFTDA member leagues.  In September, 2015 the league announced the name change with a new website and logo.

Between 2015 and 2018 PSRD competed in over 30 games.  This experience and momentum lead to their climbing of the WFTDA rankings in 2019, an incredible undefeated season for PSRD. They had very high expectations for their 2020 season and were ready to continue the winning streak but unfortunately for PSRD and the roller derby community at large, COVID-19 happened. PSRD was forced to cancel the 2020 season and by following WFTDA's "return to play" guidelines, did not return to competitive play until 2023.  

While they (un)patiently waited for the eventual return of roller derby, PSRD started working on 3 very important initiatives: write a new mission, vision, and values; create  a comprehensive training plan incorporating the new WFTDA guidelines; and embody an anti-racist organization, starting with a new code of conduct.

As the work of the committees progressed, and the values, mission, vision, and Code of Conduct were crafted, it became apparent that a logo change would be imminent. The team worked closely with designer Selena Benally to create a logo that better represented their shared values of Teamwork, Community, Diversity, Inclusivity, and Camaraderie.  They believe this is just one small action towards living those values. 

As a result PSRD underwent a major rebranding and retired their previous logo represented with a white woman squeezing a peach and adopted a more racially inclusive and gender neutral design of a roller skate wheel.  They rolled out the new branding and quickly started recruiting guided by their values and a very helpful training curriculum developed during the hiatus.  

PSRD approached 2023 as a year of rebuilding and reinforcing values both on and off the track.  While efforts were made to continue to serve the greater northwest suburbs of Atlanta, GA, PSRD decided  go back to their roots and to focus their recruitment efforts, training, and events to the Cobb County and closely surrounding areas with one primary team. This smaller footprint gives PSRD the opportunity to gain a sustainable audience and allows for other teams and leagues to develop in those areas at a greater distance.  PSRD no longer recruits, trains, or holds events in Rome, Georgia as part of this change and are not affiliated with any teams developed in that area.

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