Iowa City—January 9, 2012— The Women’s Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA) is proud to announce today that the Old Capitol City Roller Girls have been accepted as a member of the WFTDA, the national governing body for women’s amateur flat track roller derby in the U.S.

As a new member of the WFTDA, the Old Capitol City Roller Girls join the ranks of over 75 all-female, skater-owned and operated leagues nationwide that have united to lead the growing sport of women’s flat track roller derby. WFTDA member leagues engage in sanctioned interleague play, including regional and national tournaments. Old Capitol City Roller Girls will be a Class B member in the North Central Region.

Old Capitol City Roller Girls has an exciting season scheduled for 2012, including numerous WFTDA bouts. Their first bout of the season is February 4, 2012 when they will take on the Minnesota Roller Girls All-Stars. Their first home bout scheduled for March 10, 2012.

About the WFTDA
Founded in 2004, the WFTDA promotes and fosters the sport of women’s flat track derby by facilitating the development of athletic ability, sportswomanship, and goodwill among member leagues. The governing philosophy is “by the skaters, for the skaters.” Women skaters are primary owners, managers, and operators of each member league and of the association. WFTDA’s operational tasks include setting standards for rules, seasons and safety, and determining guidelines for the national and international athletic competitions of member leagues. All member leagues have a voice in the decision-making process, and agree to comply with the governing body’s policies. For more information, visit www.wftda.com.

About Old Capitol City Roller Girls
Old Capitol City Roller Girls are ecstatic about their graduation to full member status. They work hard as a league and look forward to being a part of this opportunity. They will continue to work in tandem with the WFTDA founding ideology working by the skaters, for the skaters, as well as remaining active and devoted to their communities. They look forward to the challenging and exciting experiences this season has in store.

The Old Capitol City Roller Girls could not be more pleased about the 2011 season–ending at 11 wins and 1 loss–and we can’t wait to see what 2012 holds for us.

Last season started out strong, with a decisive win over the Quad City Rollers.  However, the memorable win over Mad Rollin’ Dolls Unholy Rollers was the spark that inspired us to set our expectations and goals even higher throughout the season.  The Unholy Rollers were a formidable match for OCCRG–a strong lead in the beginning fueled an intense game; point for point until the last jam, with only one OCCRG blocker still on the track, OCCRG pulled out a last-minute 2-point victory.

This victory early in the season gave us the drive and the enthusiasm to pour even more work and effort into our training.  Many of our skaters attended training and skating conventions throughout the year to learn more about strategy and skill.  Several skaters went and skated with other teams both in practice and in bouts to gain more experience to bring back to the league.

The 2011 season however, had its challenges as well.  Our bout against the Minnesota All-Stars on June 11th was a reminder of how far we’d come, but more a reminder of the path ahead.  OCCRG is currently undefeated among all the teams in Iowa, but the 2011 season extended beyond the borders of our state to the fierce competition that exists at the highest levels of play.  The Minnesota bout was not discouraging, nor was it embarrassing to lose to one of the top 15 teams in the nation.  However, it gave us a great deal of information on what we need to work on to become a competitive league not only regionally, but nationally.

After the MNRG bout, OCCRG had a month and a half of recouperation before the last three bouts of the season, in August, September, and October.  We worked hard and trained harder to be prepared for those bouts, but we kept our eyes up, focusing on future challenges.  This 2012 season we are taking on more challenges, more experienced teams, traveling further throughout the Midwest, and expanding our derby horizions.

Since our final bout of last season, we have continued to practice.  We skated through November, and took December to cool our wheels, however, through a fantastic partnership with Fit2Live in Iowa City, we have maintained our fitness by training twice a week.  This week marks our first skating practice of 2012.  We have also accepted almost 30 new and transfer skaters to our league, and are excited to whip them into shape!

The 2012 home season will kick off on March 10th–our first home bout of the season–against the Minnesota Roller Girls’ current home-team champions, the Rockits.  We’ll be releasing the entire season schedule soon, but be on the look-out for pre-season events, giveaways, season tickets, and a whole lot more.

*Added to our schedule, we will play the Minnesota Rollergirls All-Stars in our first bout of the season on February 4th. We will be traveling to the Roy Wilkens Auditorium in St. Paul, Minnesota. We’re excited to kick off our season against such a great league. We encourage any and all fans to hit the road with us  for a fantastic bout!

Want to get more involved?  Sponsor us–email ofx911@yahoo.com.  Volunteer at our bouts and events–email oldcapitolcityrollergirls@gmail.com.  Information about press passes and events–email lisame93@gmail.com.  We also still have bout dates to fill–schedule with us by emailing toxicsugar16@yahoo.com.