Hammer City Roller Derby: Rebels on wheels

Hamilton's league is a pioneer in the sport’s resurgence in North America over the last 20 years and continues to provide a community for many seeking one in the city.

Those who pull on roller skates and take to the oval flat track describe roller derby as playing chess while having bricks thrown at you. There is the strategy and then the pain.

Hammer City Roller Derby, a multi-team league and development program in Hamilton, is celebrating its 20^th season this year. It’s a pioneer of the sport in Canada – the first modern-era roller derby league in Canada, which debuted on July 22, 2006, when founder Lasha “Whiplasha” Laskowsky and a group of skaters held the first bout in Canada. 

Roller derby is a full-contact sport defined by strength, speed, agility, and tactical teamwork but it’s also an inclusive community for those who never quite found their place, are new to the city, or who always wanted to play sports but never found the one for them. 

“I absolutely love it. Everyone is so supportive. It’s just this supportive group of misfits,” says Robin Matthews-Osmond, aka Drrrty Bird on the track, just before she heads out to the oval for a scrimmage with Guelph’s Royal City at Eastwood Arena in early March. 

Each player has a derby name and number on the back of a black and yellow HC jersey. There are definitely creative names here, from the descriptive Crash N Bleed and Daily Bruise to the punny Ghoul Next Door, Snow Fight, and Terror Bytes.

There are hard crashes to the concrete floor as the teams gear up for the launch of their season in April. Players wear plenty of gear, from elbow and knee pads to wrist guards, and, of course, helmets. But there is nothing protecting back sides or hips. There is a wide range of skill level on display, from players that glide with the smoothness of a speed skater on ice to those who seem to have to concentrate on staying upright.  

But that’s just fine here.

Roller derby is the sport for people who don’t like sports, says Danielle Lamon, D-Maulish when she puts on the skates. 

“It’s just one of the most accepting kind of communities I've ever really been involved with. I was not a sport person until I got involved. It’s unlike anything else I've ever encountered, to be honest, and it’s all grassroots.”

Matthews-Osmond joined Hammer City about a year ago at the age of 45, with a bad knee and never having been on skates.

“I always loved the idea of roller derby. I grew up as a punk rock riot grrl and it just seemed so fun. But I’m not athletic at all,” says the Paris resident.

After meeting a Hammer City player, she enrolled in the league’s foundations program to learn to skate. She fell a lot.

“You have to be willing to make a fool of yourself,” she says. There were times she wondered what she was doing. She’s hurt herself many times but she doesn’t regret a second of it. 

“I just kept saying to myself that I’m a tough bitch and I can do it,” says Matthews-Osmond, who is a civilian spokesperson with the Brantford Police Service. She’s now encouraging her 18-year-old daughter to join because it’s been life-changing for her. 

“It’s good for my kids to see their mom out there doing something she’s not the best at but having a ball doing it.”

All about Hammer City

Originally dubbed Hammer City Roller Girls (the name changed in 2017), HCRD was just the second international member to join the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA), the international governing body of the sport that includes 420 member leagues around the world. HCRD is now among about two dozen Canadian teams that play in the WFTDA. Among 140 teams in the North America northeast division, HCRD ranked 84^th in early April.  

Hammer City includes about 75 skaters, coaches and volunteers involved in three levels: the elite WFTDA charter Hammer City Eh! Team, the Hammer City Dundurn Hassle, both of which compete against other leagues in Canada and internationally, plus the Pier Pressure rookie team. (HCRD also had a junior program for a number of years but that hasn’t been running since the pandemic.) 

HCRD’s nine-week skating foundations program teaches beginning skaters who are 18 or over. The program ends with a skills assessment to graduate to Pier Pressure, where skaters learn game play and derby skills. The league even operates a gear-lending library to offset the upfront costs of equipment. 

Players pay monthly fees ($30 for Pier Pressure and $50 for Dundurn Hassle) to cover arena rentals, registration in tournaments, and other costs. 

“We do try and keep it as affordable as we can,” says Sarah Nagus, who sits on the league’s board of directors. “We also have a Rolling Forward program, so if you're not able to pay your dues, you can approach the board, and some people will choose to pay extra, or some people will have a sponsorship program and some of that money can go towards your dues if you're not able to make the monthly payments. That way it is inclusive. And no matter you know what your life is looking like, we still want you to be able to play. We don't want money to be a factor.”

As a player-led, DIY league, even the newbies have to take on at least one committee role and that grows to two committees in a player’s second year. There are committees for fundraising, community events, merchandise and membership, along with the board of directors. 

Hammer City has been bounced from home to home over its existence. After several years headquartered at Eastwood Arena on Burlington Street, structural issues with the roof meant the facility closed in March. That left Hammer City scrambling again for a new place to practise and play.

Before Eastwood, the league spent several years in the expansive space that was once a Target at The Centre on Barton. But when that was converted into retail space again, Hammer City was left homeless once more. Before that, the league was headquartered at the Caledonia Fairgrounds.

After working with the City of Hamilton, HCRD has secured space for home games this season at Coronation Arena in west Hamilton. 

How the game is played

Roller derby sees two teams of 15 play for two 30-minute periods. Playing in two-minute rounds called jams, teams earn a point every time their free skater, called a jammer, laps a member of the opposing team’s four pack skaters, called blockers. The blockers work together, both to impede the other team’s jammer, and to help their own jammer keep moving.

So, skaters slam, push and jump over each other, using their hips, chests, legs, shoulders and butts.

Tripping, using elbows or hitting a player’s back is illegal. Violations result in 30-second penalties, during which time a team plays short. 

All kinds of skaters are needed on a team, from the fast and agile – think crossovers and running on their toe stops to gain speed –  to the walls on wheels who stop their opposition in their tracks or knock them out of bounds. 

Stories of derby: The Blocker

Danielle Lamon (aka D-Maulish) had an ignominious start to her roller derby life, breaking her ankle on her first day on skates in 2015. 

“And everybody was like, ‘Oh, she's not coming back.’ But the thing is, I didn't have a job yet, and I dropped all this money on this new gear, and it was like, I gotta go back.”

The Newfoundland native had just moved to Hamilton with her husband and was looking for a way to meet people. So when her ankle healed, she was back at the learn-to-skate program in April 2016.  

She was inspired to give the sport a try after watching a friend play for Nickel City Roller Derby in Sudbury, where her husband is from. 

“She has a great derby name, Wounder Woman. So we're sitting there and we're waiting for the bout to start, and I said to my husband, ‘Do you think, because I don't have a job yet and we don't have a lot of friends, it might be a good way to meet some people?’”

He agreed and she checked her phone to see if Hamilton had a league. She emailed to ask if there would be an intake of new skaters soon. Before that Sudbury bout was over, she had her answer. 

In 2023, Lamon was named to the B roster for Team Ontario, which she jokes “means I don't suck at this, I guess. I’m not terrible at it.” But she says she is constantly learning and improving. She’s always competed as a blocker but now she’s working on jammer skills, too. 

Lamon, a university administrative assistant who wears No. 709 in honour of Newfoundland’s once sole area code, prides herself on being able to take a hit, especially from someone who is skating fast.

“Let me tell you, it's really weird to have a reputation, especially for me, because I'm a marshmallow, but I have this reputation for being this hard hitter and like a fridge on the track. I like being hit and being able to stay standing. I love it when someone hits me and falls over when they bounce off of me.”

She shows a video of a group of awkward, struggling skaters fighting to stay on their feet that cuts to that same group just a year later confidently playing roller derby.

“I sucked so bad at the beginning,” she says, pointing herself out. She tells new skaters about her journey when they get down on themselves. 

“If I can do this, you can do this. Trust me, all you need is the practice. It takes time. It takes dedication. It takes effort. But if you put in the effort, you play, you just keep going, keep doing it, keep getting better, and someday you end up on Team Ontario somehow.”

Stories of derby: The official

Virginie Corneau learned to skate through Hammer City and played a couple of seasons before transitioning to being an official. She officiates in Hamilton, but also in Kitchener, Waterloo, Niagara, and Toronto and travels further for tournaments. 

It’s a fringe sport and no one has grown up playing it, they says. And there are nuanced rules, so there is a lot to learn. 

“It's a complicated game in a lot of ways. And it's a game where there are some parallels that can be drawn to other sports, but not always. So it's a steep learning curve in that, in the sense that it kind of is its own thing.” 

Roller derby requires many officials to call, count and time penalties, tally the score, track the jammers, make sure the pack stays together, and start and end jams. If a match is fully staffed with all the skating and non-skating officials, there are 17 positions. But it’s rare to have that many officials available, so jobs get combined. 

After the pandemic, Corneau decided not to return to playing but also didn’t want to give derby up entirely.

“For me, we're not from Hamilton, and basically our social group is mostly attached to roller derby. That’s really our community in this city,” she says.  

She and her partner moved to Hamilton in 2015 and they both work from home. He’s a software developer and she’s a freelancer bookkeeper in the media production industry.

“It's easy to feel small in a new city and you don't know anyone, especially making friends as an adult. Roller derby is a good place to find friends.”

Stories of derby: The Jammer

Sarah Nagus, whose derby name is Marshmallow, craved an inclusive sports league, because sports wasn’t always that for her growing up. 

“So that's really what I was seeking out, just a really nice community, mostly for women, that I could join and have fun. I was very lucky to find that in Hamilton,” says Nagus, playing her second season this year. 

“It doesn't matter who you are, where you're coming from, there's a space for you, and everybody is really open to making friends and supporting one another. If you've never skated before, it doesn't matter, everybody is there to help you learn to get better.”

Nagus, a Kincardine native, who moved to Hamilton for a job with a credit union, plays as a jammer. She’s agile but not sturdy enough to stand her ground, she says. 

“When I started with the learn to skate foundations, I mean, I couldn't stop. My idea of stopping was skating in a circle until I slowed down enough. But then we were playing full games within eight months.”

Future Hammer City games

Pier Pressure will take on Toronto Roller Derby Toxins and HCRD Dundurn Hassle will play Toronto Roller Derby on May 24. Next is June 14, when HCRD Eh! Team will play Hogtown Horror and Dundurn Hassle will tangle with Hogtown Debu-Taunts. Finally, on Aug. 16, Pier Pressure will compete with Durham Region Select and HCRD Eh! Team will play PARDy Animals. All games will be played at Coronation Arena, 81 Macklin St. N., Hamilton.

A league of their own

The Women’s Flat Track Derby Association, which oversees 420 leagues worldwide, has garnered plenty of attention over the last number of years for two reasons. The league and its executives have been strong and outspoken advocates for trans women in sports, who have been the targets of the most alarming attacks on progressive policies playing out in the cultural war happening in the U.S. to date.

In response to the president’s executive order banning trans athletes, the WFTDA issued a statement doubling down on its commitment to inclusion: “any person of a marginalized gender, regardless of presentation or the gender they were assigned at birth, is welcomed and encouraged to participate in the WFTDA in any capacity, including skating on a WFTDA charter team or holding elected office. Participation as a volunteer or employee is open to individuals of all genders.” 

The association was also widely praised for its return-to-play protocols during the pandemic that garnered appearances on podcasts and headlines such as: “Women’s Roller Derby Has a Plan for Covid, and It Kicks Ass” in Wired.

Barely two weeks into the shutdown, the player-run association called upon its members with expertise – infectious disease specialists, infection prevention nurses, biostatisticians, and epidemiologists. Close to two dozen athlete-experts from six countries collaborated on a 27-page document with seven tiers that had clear, measurable criteria for moving forward – and back – depending on local conditions. 

The plan served as a template for leagues around the world.

The history

The history of roller derby is a roller coaster.

Roller derby was born in 1935, at the Chicago Coliseum with event promoter Leo Seltzer who was looking for something exciting to attract Depression-era crowds. Building on the concept of once-popular dance marathons, thousands turned out to see two two-person teams of a man and a woman skate around the track tens of thousands of times over weeks to cover the 3,000 miles from New York to Los Angeles. These derbies were staged around the country. A five-day roller-skating derby was held at the Canadian National Exhibition in 1940. 

Needless to say, it was a repetitive marathon on wheels and Seltzer soon took the advice of a sportswriter who wanted to add full contact to amp up the thrills.

The modern concept of roller derby debuted a few years later. It first appeared in Hamilton sometime in the 1930s, according to a web page hosted by Hammer City Roller Girls, the original name of the HCRD. 

The Canadian Roller Skating Association formed in 1961, later becoming the Canadian Federation of Amateur Roller Skaters in 1973 and Roller Sports Canada in 1995.

But it was in the U.S. that roller derby became a sensation in the 1930s and 1940s. Bouts between professional teams all over the U.S. were broadcast and roller derby was even featured in movies. But faster than it rose, interest in roller derby was waning by the mid-50s. In 1959, Seltzer’s son Jerry took over and he ramped up the drama and entertainment with scripted fights, staged rivalries, and other theatrics, while convincing local TV stations to air videotaped matches. 

Tens of thousands of fans flocked to arenas around the country to watch men’s and women’s bouts where feuds unravelled over weeks and full-team brawls were frequent. Popular players were either framed as heroes or villains and the biggest were featured on magazine covers.

But a combination of league competition, high overhead and then an ill-advised merger, eventually led to the downfall of professional roller derby in the mid-1970s. Attempts were made at revivals in the 1980s and 1990s but none were enduring until a group of riot grrls in Texas got together in the early 2000s to build a league that played the sport in a serious, authentic, and athletic way. 

They borrowed from the drag world, incorporating campy, sometime violent derby names into their personas and generally holding on to their rebel trappings, including a fondness for elaborate “boutfits,” and a feminist and punk sensibility. 

GALLERY: Hammer City in action

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