FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 12, 2006

ARIZONA DERBY DAMES TO APPEAR AT ROLLERCON 2006
Arizona Derby Dames VS Tampa Bay Derby Darlins
July 28, 2006

Phoenix, AZ – Arizona Derby Dames will appear at the second annual Rollercon, an all girl roller derby convention, to be held in Las Vegas, Nevada from July 28th through August 6th. A travel team has been assembled of the best skaters from the Arizona Derby Dames to take on Tampa, Florida’s premiere all girls roller derby league, the Tampa Bay Derby Darlin’s (formerly the Tampa Tantrums) to open the convention on Saturday, July 28th at 10:00 a.m.

Rollercon will host over two thousand roller girls, from over one hundred all girl roller derby leagues and over 300 teams from across the US, Canada and Mexico. The convention will include booths from leagues and businesses owned and operated by roller girls, live music performances each night at the famed Double Down Saloon, skating and technical workshops, banquets, inter-league bouts of teams from all over the country and other special events. With the friends, family and fans of all girl roller derby, Rollercon expects to draw four to five thousand people to this year’s second annual convention.

In the past year, all-girl roller derby has grown exponentially, thanks in part to the “Roller girls” series aired on A&E channel this past winter, featuring the Texas Roller girls. In the past six months alone, over 53 new leagues have been formed in cities across the US. Besides the US, Canada and Mexico, there have been leagues formed recently in England, Germany and New Zealand. Most leagues are part of a flat-track roller derby movement, which can be done at any roller rink. A handful of leagues, however, skate on a banked track as featured in the nationally televised roller derby of the 60’s and 70’s as well as in the Roller girl’s series. AZ Derby Dames, currently skating their pre-season on a flat track, own a banked track which they will be using for their regular season which begins fall of 2006. The track will be permanently housed in a venue owned and operated by the Arizona Derby Dames in Phoenix and will feature live entertainment and events other than roller derby.

Hedy LeMorgue, Vice President of the AZ Derby Dames and Captain of the travel team that will compete at Rollercon, says “Arizona Derby Dames will have a very visible, large presence at this year’s Rollercon. Besides opening the ten-day convention with our bout against Tampa Bay, we will also host a booth featuring Arizona Derby Dames merchandise as well as general (non-league-specific) roller derby items. FIVE Magazine, a regional arts magazine that is distributed in Nevada, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado, will be inserting their June issue, which features a three-page article about the Arizona Derby Dames, into every registration packet for Rollercon. As well, we will be distributing a free DVD of a music video of music by local Arizona musicians featuring many of the Derby Dame skaters, including Suzy Homewrecker, an internationally well known roller girl who began her career skating with the Texas Roller Derby league.” Homewrecker is a model and spokesperson for the sport and has recently been featured on the cover of International Tattoo Art magazine.
 
Veteran roller girls Suzy Homewrecker, Joan Threat, All The Way Mae and Prima Donna started the Arizona Derby Dames league in the summer of 2005. These four dames wanted a new all-girl league to take over the world on roller skates. They are accomplishing that with this league. Within a year, they have three complete teams (The Bombshells, The Coffin Draggers and The Brutal Beauties) and are adding new skaters every week; they have a banked track and a venue in which to house it (owned and operated by the league) for their first fall season; and they have the league operating as a business with a Board of Directors (the four founding members), President (Suzy Homewrecker), Vice President (Hedy LeMorgue), Business and Finance Director, Media Director, Creative Director, Fundraising and Charitable Director and Membership Director.  “This is a league run by strong women with incredible resumes, skills and passion,” says Homewrecker. “This league is already garnering national recognition and there’s no stopping our growth with the ladies we have involved. This is a very exciting time for us and all-girl roller derby in general.”

For media opportunities please contact The Arizona Derby Dame’s Media Director, Andrea Beesley-Brown at 480-628-8505.