Roller derby returns to Eastern this Saturday

CHENEY – Back in the 1960s roller derby was televised into our homes and seemed hugely popular.

Viewing the Bay Area Bombers on a snowy black and white TV broadcast comes to mind.

And every so often they'd do a barnstorming tour and be live at the old Spokane Coliseum.

The sport makes an appearance again Saturday, July 13 at 3 p.m. in of all places Cheney and at the Eastern Washington University Recreation Center ice rink - minus the ice of course.

While it will not be your grandparent's roller derby, "Spectator Sabotage 2024" promises plenty of its own brand of unpredictable action according to Lilac City Roller Derby's Hannah Coburn.

Coburn - a.k.a. "Stranger Danger" when in uniform - is a nurse in real life. But when the skates, helmet and pads are worn she's 110% roller derby and jazzed to show off her sport.

Make that a passion.

"None of us are paid for this, it's just a really weird, wonderful, niche hobby that all of us have," Coburn said. "Roller derby is like such a great community."

Involved in the sport for the past six years since moving to Spokane from Alaska, Coburn decided one day to give it a whirl.

"I needed something for myself, and I needed something that gave me community and an outlet," Coburn said.

On a whim, and having watched the sport in Alaska, Coburn messaged Lilac City Roller Derby and asked if she could join?

"'Sure, we've got a practice on Saturday,'" Coburn was told. "I bought roller skates and all the gear and showed up, and I never looked back."

Coburn found a group of people that are more community than she could have ever asked for. "We've all had kids together, and our kids are growing up as best friends."

The style of roller derby that will be seen Saturday is "flat track" Coburn explained. The more traditional form of the sport competed on an elevated, banked track with side rails where sometimes a check sent an opponent tumbling off and onto the floor below.

The EWU rink has been the prefect place for the local group to perform because of its smooth floor and ample seating. It's not easy to find places that offer such a combination, Coburn said.

Like many other activities, Lilac City Roller Derby - rebranded in 2013 from Lilac City Roller Girls in order to involve men - has been trying to resurrect itself following COVID-19.

The EWU connection came during that search.

"It became really hard to find venues in Spokane that we could have games at that were affordable," Coburn said.

A teammate worked at Eastern and suggested checking out the ice rink and seeing if they would let us skate there, Coburn said.

"We actually have a really wonderful working relationship with them now where couple times a year when they call the ice for maintenance and stuff they let us skate there," Coburn said.

That Eastern connection took place a little over a decade ago and was helped along by then Roost manager, Justin Harris.

In his spare time, Harris was and still is a roller derby referee. As the yearly transition took place removing the URC ice and installing basketball courts, Harris could not help but notice what he called "That beautiful, flat, concrete and I know what that means for roller derby."

While the wheels turned slowly, they were in motion and about a year later in April 2014 the first derby game - Campus Jam - took place. Saturday's event will be the fourth time the URC has presented roller derby.

The rink and its boards are ideal for the 75-foot by 108-foot official roller derby course. There are other warehouse-style spaces that accommodate the place to skate, but not fans. The URC has close to a 1,000-seat capacity.

"I think it brings something different to Cheney and to Eastern," Harris said. The move away from ice takes place in the spring and then ice returns in July in time for a summer hockey school and for EWU's club hockey team.

"Spectator Sabotage 2024" will feature both women's and men's teams, plus an exhibition of new skaters. The main or charter girls' team is known as the "Sass" (Sasquatch), the next level, B-C, are the "Yeti's," an open gender team calls themselves "Lore" while men play under the "Abominations" nickname.

The sabotage element allows fans to buy ways to change the game, Coburn explained. Money raised will help players offset some of the costs incurred when the Lilac City teams travel for games - something they do to places like Boise and soon to New Westminster, British Columbia near Vancouver.

"You can send somebody to the penalty box, or you can free somebody from the penalty box," Coburn said. "Or flip a coin and decide if you get double or nothing on the points for that jam, and other really fun, goofy things."

Newcomers, skilled or not, are welcome and encouraged to see if roller derby might be a fit.