Today we’d like to introduce you to Yellow Rose Derby Girls. They and their team shared their story with us below:
In 2013 our founder, Kari Malone, AKA Texas Thai Foon, decided that after playing derby for many years, she wanted to start up a league closer to home. She worked hard with other derby skaters in the area to start up a whole new league for the Houston area and decided upon the name of Yellow Rose Derby Girls. Our jersey colors are, of course, yellow and black. The intention of the league was to be an opportunity to generate a positive image of strong, capable women in our community. The league encouraged athleticism and personal growth in a supportive and positive environment.
We celebrated our tenth year in 2023, and in these past ten years, we have grown our league and the derby community a hundred times over. We still cherish the original intent of being a place of strength and family to our skaters and always want to see them succeed. Our passion is nurturing skaters who either want to play the game or want to simply have an active outlet of their everyday lives. We take pride in the way we train our skaters both new to skating and those who have been on skates for many years.
We are proud members of the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA). The WFTDA is the international governing body for the sport of women’s flat track roller derby and a membership organization for leagues to collaborate and network through sanctioned gameplay. We have played games all over Texas and into Louisiana and Arkansas as well. We have in turn hosted teams from all over Texas and Louisiana as well.
We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
The startup of our league required a lot of manpower and sweat equity from the founding members. But their commitment to getting the league running, growing, and thriving set the stage for well-trained skaters and leaders to step up each season since then. It took an entire season for our conversion to a 501c3 to complete but we successfully did so a few years after inception.
We are lucky enough to have found practice venue where we can be indoors, but in 2017 our facility was damaged due to Hurricane Harvey, so we were out of a practice space for a while until the area and facility was back up and running.
As with everyone, COVID-19 hit our league hard. Our sport is full contact, so we took the situation very seriously and followed all guidelines set out by the CDC and WFTDA. In doing so, we could not gather to host practices, games, or anything of social nature. During this time there was a huge change in the lives of many skaters, some had to move away, and some needed to step away from the game for various reasons. However, our league persevered, we held virtual training sessions and happy hours to keep the since of community alive when folks needed to feel connected. When it was safe to do so, we came back to the sport slowly and cautiously, and we are happy that we came through the other side fully functioning and continuously growing.
Thanks – so, what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
We are a flat-track roller derby team based in the Stafford area and our home games are held at the Fort Bend County Fairgrounds in Richmond, TX, our next season will start in May of 2024. We pride ourselves on not only being a strong, athletic group of skaters, but also a place where everyone feels welcomed and included. There is a place in our league for everyone from skaters, referees, officials, and volunteers. Our league is completely run and managed by our own skaters, and we do our best to help and support the communities we are in.
What matters most to you?
What matters to us is creating positive image of strong, capable skaters in our community. The league continuously encourages athleticism and personal growth in a supportive and inclusive environment. We also take the safety and training of our skaters very seriously. Our league uses a series of levels during training so that the skater feels confident in their growth, and everyone stays safe. We do not want anyone to progress too quickly into a full-contact sport, which could lead to injury to themselves or others, or it could frighten the skater away from the sport entirely.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.YellowRoseDerbyGirls.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/YellowRoseDerbyGirls
- Facebook: facebook.com/YellowRoseDerbyGirls
Image Credits
Hung Troung
Mica Boet
Rhode Island Red
Paola Mcleod
Bryan Anderson
