Building the Bittersweet Bombshells

It's battle fought on roller skates.

If you haven't heard of roller derby, you're not alone. Roller derby is a contact sport, where two teams of five skaters skate in the same direction around a rolling rink track. Games, called bouts, consist of short matchups known as jams where both teams scoring skater, the jammer score points by lapping skaters of the other team. Both teams attempt to block the opposing team's jammer while helping their own jammer. The teams play offense and defense at the same time.

There are more than 1,000 amateur roller derby leagues worldwide, half of that number from the United States. Although the origins of modern-day roller derby started in the 1930s, the popularity of the sport has grown substantially within the past few years and has now reached Sweetwater County.

Roller derby is a fairly new sport to the area. The local roller derby team, the Bittersweet Bombshells, was formed in April of 2013, by Cara Kelsey and Miranda Riggs.

Cara Kelsey, a Rock Springs local, had played on the roller derby team in Laramie before starting the Bombshells in Rock Springs.

"I played in Laramie, so when I came here I was like, dude, I need roller derby. I need it back in my life," Cara Kelsey said.

Kelsey and Riggs started started a Facebook page for the team to see the interest in they were well received.

"I feel like it was more successful than I honesty thought it was going to be," Kelsey said. "Because a lot of people in this community want something new to do, but they don't like something new to do."

Kelsey was nervous she would not find any girls who were willing to jump in head first and try the sport. The core group of girls she did find though pulled through magnificently and made the group what it is today.

"It blows me away. That's a big part of our success, was our core group of girls. They were like, you know what, this is crazy, let's do it. And our community has been very supportive," Kelsey said.

The Rock Springs community and Sweetwater County as a whole has demonstrated support for the Bittersweet Bombshells in moral and sponsorships as well.

"Our sponsors have probably doubled from last year as well," team president Michelle Balzly said. "We had four or five sponsors last year, and eight or so this year."

The local community has really embraced the local roller derby team.

"We go into places, we had one girl wear a shirt she just had made with her name and number on it. she went into Wendy's one time and some guy came up to her and asked her for her autograph," Balzly said. "It's just like people have really embraced us. Like, they really recognize us."

Many people within the community have embraced the Bittersweet Bombshells, yet there are many more to expose to the sport and the newly formed, gradually seasoned local team.

This is their second season playing competitively. Their first summer, in 2013 was solely made up of practicing and preparing their team for the battles ahead.

"We practiced all through that first summer, and then waited till our next season to bout," Balzly said. "And then last season it was the first season and we didn't have one single win and then now this year, we've already got two. So it's a big step up. We've doubled everything; players, wins, all of it."

"Games, oh my gosh we've almost tripled our games," Kelsey said.

They've also doubled the amount of players they have on the team their second season around as well. They had 12 players for their last game and they have about 20 members.

"We're really lucky with our roster. I really don't know how we're doing it. We probably have one of the biggest rosters in the state, other than I would say Laramie or Cheyenne, biggest consistent roster" Balzly said.

"Because you can have 14 girls on a roster. That's the max. I think only Laramie and Cheyenne are the ones that are hitting it," Kelsey said.

"We were a little low on skating numbers last season because it is something kind of scary to jump into but since so many people came to our games and supported last season, we have so many new girls. They were like, I saw that and now I want to do it.

The more people see us play, the more players we get."

The Future

Bittersweet Bombshells plan for the future is to grow, grow in skills, numbers and fans. They hope to grow in large part so they can continue to help the community and in bigger ways.

The reason behind ticket prices is because half of the ticket sales to their partnered charity for the bout. They partnered with the Red Desert Humane Society and the Boys and Girls Club last year, both receiving about $1,200 in total. Ticket sales from their last bout were donated to a political refugee student attending Western Wyoming Community College. The Bittersweet Bombshells participated in other charitable events through out the year as well.

"We're pretty intense," Kelsey said.

"We go all out. I think we might be a little intense but we're just a group of over achievers really, and we make stuff happen," Balzly said.

The Bittersweet Bombshells' will be playing in the Roller Derby Cup at the Rock Springs Family Recreational Center, June 20-21.

Their next home game following the cup is July 18, also at the Rock Springs Recreation Center.