Carson City's own Victory Rollers leading the charge for their community

They may hit hard on the court, but the Carson Victory Rollers have a soft side, too.

"We're the sweethearts of the leagues around here," said CVR Events Coordinator Crystal Blackeye. "Sometimes they get into it with each other, but the other teams mended their ways because of us and became legit."

A hometown, homegrown sports team started from the ground up, the Carson Victory Rollers (CVR) have represented the Nevada state capital at bouts and in scrimmages for five years now.

"We managed to put it together and then grow it, mostly because moms skate," Blackeye said. "Just being a group of a lot of local moms has made it successful. We have girls now that come down from Reno and Tahoe to skate for us."

League Marketing Manager Julia Alty was attracted to Carson City because of the Victory Rollers.

"Through this game I have fallen in love with this city, and I can't picture myself living anywhere else," Alty said. "I discovered this city because of this sport, and I feel like I have a community because of both the city and the sport."

Currently the roller derby league has 45 skaters, including skating referees and non-skating officials, Blackeye said.

"We have this huge pool of girls," she said. "On any given night, we've got somewhere between 10 and 30 girls out on the track."

Players meshing together on the court are an eclectic mix of backgrounds and experience levels, too.

From salaried professionals to blue collar wage-earners, fresh meat to stale meat — the different between rookie and veteran — the skaters have one thing in common: Roller derby.

"We've got younger, we've got older, we've got everything in between," Blackeye said. "We've got people from different backgrounds — nurses, speech pathologist, state workers — we're all across socioeconomic status. We will welcome anyone, short or tall, big or small, everyone is welcome to play and there's a place for them here."

But the CVR isn't just for the moms. Their kids can and do get into the action through the Junior Victory Rollers, Alty said.

"Moms and their kids come together," she said. "It's like a bonding thing for them."

The juniors team was started four years ago in response to growing interest among the children of players. Youth as young as seven years old were skating for the juniors when it was first started, said Blackeye. The minimum age to join is now 10 and goes up to age 17.

The juniors are a coed team, Blackeye said, unlike the adult Victory Rollers who compete in bouts as an all-female program.

Blackeye and Alty said CVR strives to put forward family-friendly entertainment that is a departure from other roller derby eras.

"It has moved away from the underground subculture that was a resurgence in the early 2000s, where it was just anarchy, fun, and do whatever we want on skates," Blackeye said. "It has moved more toward the athleticism now, and if you look at derby that has been chronicled since the resurgence, you can see that change on our uniforms."

Today's CVR skater wears a full compliment of protective gear, from a helmet to mouthguards, elbow and knee pads to shin guards and gloves. For as much as athleticism is now the focus of modern roller derby, Alty said, so is an athlete's safety.

"If you leave your mouthguard at home, you have to sit out," Alty said. "You're not allowed on the track without it. We're about safety and rules."

The dynamics of modern roller derby have similarities to other male-dominated team sports like football, rugby and hockey. There are plays designed to help a team's jammer get free of blockers, as well as defensive plays meant to prevent the opposing jammer from getting through.

The jammer is a solo skater who tries to lap the team. Each time this happens, the jammer's team scores a point. The object, then, is two-fold: try to score and try to prevent scoring.

"There are a lot of parallels to other sports, like football, including forming a defense and setting up plays," Blackeye said.

Old school roller derby, she said, resembled less sport and more sensationalism.

"It was wildly athletic stunts, but a lot of them were stunts," she said. "Roller derby then was fake fighting and big dramatic moves like WWE. Then it moved to like real fighting and crazy antics, but nothing was staged or theatrical, to what you see now which is modern roller derby."

Today's roller derby is organized, going from fringe to mainstream, and is more sport than show.

"We are about uniformity, athleticism, and community works across the board," Blackeye said. "It's one of those things that is getting more and more mainstream."

Roller derby, she said, is a uniquely American sport that began a century ago as a distance event. By the 1920s, it had changed into derby-style full-contact competition.

"It had a tough time existing for a while, but it's a century-old sport," Blackeye said. "It is American born, and we crush it because we're Americans."

And the Victory Rollers are crushing roller derby in Northern Nevada not only because of their play on the court, but also for their contributions to the Carson City community.

Helping to raise money for important local programs and organizations, CVR began making community fundraisers a priority in 2014, Blackeye said.

Charity is now part of its modus operandi.

"When CVR was first started, we made a decision about what kind of team we wanted it to be," Blackeye said. "We decided that, because of our juniors and because we love the community that we are in, we wanted it to be a family-friendly community-oriented team."

This means holding special scrimmages and fundraisers to generate money for the Carson-Tahoe Foundation, Food For Thought, Moms On the Run, the Carson City Rotary Club, Lone Mountain Veterinary Hospital, Carson Animal Services Initiative (CASI), and the Carson City Parks and Recreation Department, among others.

CVR's next community event is a rummage sale March 25 at the Carson Mall, Alty said, also featuring a wine walk. Half the proceeds from the wine walk tickets will be donated to Food For Thought, which focuses on ensuring area school children receive nutrition.

"We have a code of conduct, and we are charitable and good-natured," Blackeye said. "We are like girls scouts and boy scouts on skates. We want to serve not only our team with pride but also our city."

That community pride is reflected in the unique relationship CVR has with the Consolidated Municipality of Carson City, Blackeye said.

"We've got something special with our city that not many other leagues have," she said. "The city actually granted us $7,000 in 2015 to buy a sport court so we can set up anywhere, lay down a track and play roller derby."

This means being able to take roller derby to other communities and represent Carson City wherever the CVR goes.

But grant money aside, Blackeye said, the connection with Carson City is much deeper than a portable track.

"We've got this special connection with our city," she said. "A lot of us have lived here a long time, we were born and raised here."

Blackeye said CVR skaters take the pride they have in their community very seriously, and it shows in the cohesion they display both on and off the court.

"We are tied together no matter what. We are all Carson Proud," she said. "Before there was a hashtag, there was a sentiment and I love that about our community. We made a community within a community, a microcosm of a community."

CVR's first bout of the 2017 season takes place April 1 in Roseville, CA, against the Auburn Outlaws. The league has three away bouts before its first home bout on June 3 at the Marv Teixeira Pavilion.

To learn more about the Carson Victory Rollers, visit the league on Facebook here or on its web page here.