Country United States Track type(s) Flat | Founded 2006 Venue Asheville Coliseum | |
 | ||
Metro area Asheville, North Carolina Teams All-Stars (A team)
French Broads (B team)
Mad Divas Junior Derby | ||
The Blue Ridge Rollergirls (BRRG) is a women's flat track roller derby league based in Asheville, North Carolina. Founded in 2006, Blue Ridge held its first competitive season in 2007, joined the WFTDA Apprentice Program in 2010, and became a full member of the Women's Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA) in March 2012.
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Structure and history
After first organizing in 2006, Blue Ridge held its first public games on June 30, 2007 at Carrier Park in Asheville, drawing over 300 fans. By 2012, Blue Ridge was drawing up to 2,000 fans to games at the Ag Center.
Blue Ridge Rollergirls is composed of two teams, the All-Stars travel team, and the French Broads, the BRRG B team (named for the French Broad River that flows through Asheville). Members of Blue Ridge formed a junior roller derby branch, the Mad Divas Junior Derby for girls 12-17.
In November 2012, the WFTDA announced that Blue Ridge would be the host league of one of its four International Division 1 Playoff tournaments, held in Asheville on 20–22 September 2013.
WFTDA competition
Little over a year into WFTDA membership, Blue Ridge qualified for WFTDA Playoffs for the first time, qualifying for the first-ever Division 2 Playoff in Des Moines, Iowa. The third seed at Des Moines, Blue Rudge won their first-ever WFTDA Playoff game 188-120 over Duke City Derby (Albuquerque), and followed that with a semifinal, 179-170 victory against Treasure Valley Rollergirls (Boise), thus earning a trip to WFTDA Championships later in the year. In the Des Moines final, Blue Ridge fell 2018-113 to Jet City Rollergirls (Everett, Washington) to finish in second place. At Championships in Milwaukee, Blue Ridge won the third place game against Sac City Rollers (Sacramento) 215-188. In 2014, Blue Ridge was ranked at 41st place when tournament seedings were determined, but after a high-ranked team declined their invitation to Playoffs this allowed Blue Ridge to compete at Division 1 Playoffs instead. As the tenth seed in Sacramento, Blue Ridge lost all their games and finished in tenth place.
After missing WFTDA Playoffs entirely in 2015, Blue Ridge bounced back in 2016, entering the Division 2 Playoff in Wichita as the seventh seed. After opening Wichita with a win over tenth seed Carolina Rollergirls, Blue Ridge followed with rankings upsets over #2 Houston Roller Derby and #3 Nashville Roller Girls, before losing 146-123 to Brandywine Roller Derby to finish in second place. Blue Ridge jammer Dr. Octopushy was named MVP of the tournament. This time around a second-place Playoff finish allowed for the possibility of making the D2 Championship game, which Blue Ridge did after defeating Calgary Roller Derby Association in their opening game, 225-183. This set up a rematch of the Wichita final, and this time Blue Ridge defeated Brandywine 257-188 to win the Division 2 championship.
In the community
The league fosters community outreach and gives a portion of the proceeds of each bout to a western North Carolina charity. Charities supported include The Animal Compassion Network, Care Partners Children's Fund, Skye, RAINN, and Interlace.
The league prepares for bouts with acupuncture sessions, and features synchronized yoga on skates during its warmup laps.