Santa Cruz Derby Girls

History and league structure

SCDG was founded as "Santa Cruz Rollergirls" when Robin "Robin Yo' Life" Hoff (having skated with Seattle's Rat City Rollergirls), and Vanessa "Haley Combat" Schuetz (having skated with Oakland's Bay Area Derby Girls), started the Santa Cruz Rollergirls after posting recruiting notices online in 2007. In early 2009, the LLC known as Santa Cruz Rollergirls was dissolved, and a majority of the skaters moved on to establish the Santa Cruz Derby Girls as a non-profit roller derby league. In September 2010, Santa Cruz Derby Girls was accepted as a full member of the Women's Flat Track Derby Association. The league moved into the newly inaugurated Kaiser Permanente Arena in 2013, with a then-record (for the league) crowd of 2,178 who saw Santa Cruz defeat Las Vegas' Sin City Rollergirls 153-124. In 2015, SCDG returned to the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium, where they had previously played in 2010.

Santa Cruz Derby Girls has a three team home league that competes for an annual championship, comprising the Organic Panic, Redwood Rebels and the Steamer Janes. The Steamer Janes won the inaugural home championship in 2015. Santa Cruz's all-star travel team, the Boardwalk Bombshells, represents the league in WFTDA-sanctioned play.

The Santa Cruz Derby Groms are the league's junior roller derby affiliate, and were established in the summer of 2009. Most members range from the ages of 10 to seventeen and are split up into two teams, the Sugar Skulls and the Bumper Scars. They played full positional derby with no hitting until 2012, when a full contact team (the Gromshells) was established.

WFTDA competition

Santa Cruz was initially placed in the WFTDA's West Region, and did not qualify for West Regional Playoffs during this time. In 2013, Santa Cruz qualified for WFTDA Playoffs for the first time. Ahead of the season, the WFTDA announced the creation of a divisional ranking system for rankings. Santa Cruz was initially ranked at the lower end of Division 2, but throughout the season improved their rankings and eventually entered Division 2 Playoffs in Kalamazoo as the top seed. Santa Cruz defeated the Sac City Rollers of Sacramento 230-185 to win the tournament and earn a trip to the Division 2 championship. At the 2014 WFTDA Championships in Milwaukee, Santa Cruz eventually fell to the Jet City Rollergirls by one point, with a final score of 195-194.

In 2014, Santa Cruz qualified for Division 1 Playoffs for the first time, and entered the Sacramento tournament as the sixth seed. After being upset by lower-ranked Tampa, Santa Cruz finished the tournament in seventh place with a 171-122 win over the Kansas City Roller Warriors. Santa Cruz returned to Division 2 Playoffs in 2015, and as in 2013 was a top seed, with an overall ranking of 42 in June. In Cleveland, an upset loss to Demolition City Roller Derby knocked Santa Cruz into the third place game and out of contention for WFTDA Championships; they defeated Houston Roller Derby 154-141 to claim third. For 2016 Santa Cruz bounced back to the Division 1 level, and as before was the sixth seed at their tournament, this time in Columbia, South Carolina. And, as in 2014, Santa Cruz again finished their D1 tournament in seventh place, this time by defeating the host league Columbia Quadsquad, 174-141.

In the community

As dedicated members of the Santa Cruz community, the Santa Cruz Derby Girls volunteer hundreds of hours each season at numerous events and fundraisers in the Bay Area. In addition, each Santa Cruz Derby Girl home bout features a local non profit or charity which receives a portion of proceeds from that bout.