Twenty years since roller derby first reached western Virginia, the sport continues to thrive in Roanoke.
Twin Valleys Roller Derby holds games at the Berglund Center. And this summer the league won the Contenders Cup tournament in Dallas.
It’s the final game of Twin Valleys Roller Derby’s 2026 season.
The Mountain Mayhem – the league’s B-team, made up of slightly less experienced skaters – is taking on the Carolina Bootleggers, from Raleigh, North Carolina. Tonight, its coaches are Cathy Cockrell and Mary King – two longtime skaters who sometimes go by their skate names – Tarhellion and Psycho.
Cockrell first found roller derby in 2008 — just two years after the Star City Roller Girls and NRV Roller Girls took root in Roanoke and Blacksburg.
“And I haven’t quit since," Cockrell says. "It’s community for me. I actually took a job in North Carolina in March, and I am driving back and forth because of this community.”
King came a few years later, in 2011, after hearing about roller derby from a co-worker.
“I was talking about something sports-related — I can’t remember — and I may have gotten a little angry at work," King says. "And they were like, you should do roller derby. I was like that sounds amazing. I went to one practice and I was hooked. “
Star City and NRV were fierce rivals for years, until roller derby’s novelty wore off, and the leagues were getting fewer skaters, and smaller audiences. They merged, and became Twin Valleys Roller Derby.
Although the sport of roller derby contracted, it never went away. Largely due to it meeting that need for community. And because the skaters did all the work themselves to make practices and games happen, the infrastructure needed for the sport remained in place.
Take Sweet Baby Ray, aka Rachel Hall, the league’s PR director. She handles sponsors, social media, the public. She joined the league in 2021.
“I just love the people," Hall says. "It’s a really unique culture. I always grew up playing sports, but the culture is unique for roller derby. It’s very centered around women. You don’t see that in many sports. It’s always like the alternative to men’s sports.”
And derby has given Hall skills she’s applied elsewhere in life, too.
“In general I can be shy or sort of a little bit of a pushover, and derby has taught me to take up space, and take command," she says.
Or take Kristen Powell, who skates as Black Bolt,
“Really the community, it’s just incredible," Powell says. "I’ve never found a more accepting group of people. It’s a great space to be yourself without judgement.”
Powell works as a lab tech for Norfolk-Southern, and manages social media for the roller derby league. And during the game against the Bootleggers, they won MVP as jammer – a nimble, fast skater who scores the points.
Powell has been playing for 12 years, but still managed a first-time feat: “I’ve been trying to get an apex jump, that’s like when you jump through the center of the track to stay inbounds. I finally got a good one in a game tonight. So that was really exciting, but it was one of those moments where it was like, 'I have to or I’m gonna die!'”
King, who coached the game, skates with Twin Valleys A-team, and was one of the players that won the inaugural Contenders Cup in Dallas this summer. They defeated teams from Fort Myers, Florida, Nashville, Tennessee, and New Orleans, Louisiana. Then, in the final, they beat longtime rival River City Roller Deby – the Richmond team.
The tournament was a high-water mark for Twin Valleys. But for King, there’s something alluring about coaching, too.
“You run through stuff in practice, and you do it over and over and over again, and they get it," King says. "And you’re like, that’s awesome. And then when you see them execute without hesitation in a game, oh my god. It’s like a body buzz. I just can’t stop screaming. There were so many times, just beautiful. Offense. Grabbing a bridge. Beautiful walls. They’d hit out on the side. Beautiful.”
Twin Valleys Mountain Mayhem defeated the Carolina Bootleggers, 200 to 59.
After the game, both teams took turns skating a lap around the track to slap fans’ hands and then to skate through a makeshift bridge made by the other team linking hands. Then they gathered for a group photo, and headed to the after-party.
