Grand Raggidy Roller Derby is a women's flat track roller derby league based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Founded in 2005, the league is a founding member of the Women's Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA).
History The league was founded as "Grand Raggidy Roller Girls" by Tricia "The Vindicator" Woolfenden and Katy "Shutter Speed" Batdorff in 2005. The first public game for Grand Raggidy was held in April 2006 with over 2,000 fans in attendance at the DeltaPlex Arena. Since as far back as 2009, Grand Raggidy has held its home games at Rivertown Sports, with exceptions in 2013 when the venue was flood-damaged.
Four of the league's skaters appeared as themselves in the movie Whip It!: Dot Matrix, Shutter Speed, Tamara Hurtsworse, and Jackie Daniels, who was recruited after skating for the mixed-league "Team Awesome" in Los Angeles.John Serba, "Grand Raggidy Roller Girls featured in movie 'Whip It'", Grand Rapids Press, 1 October 2009
In 2015, Grand Raggidy updated its name from "Roller Girls" to "Roller Derby", as part of its tenth anniversary season and recognizing the contributions of its members.
WFTDA competition
The league qualified for the 2007 WFTDA Eastern Regional Tournament; they were seeded eleventh and lost in the first round to Gotham Girls Roller Derby, 206-47. They qualified again the following year,Melissa Faliveno, "Once upon a time at Derby in Dairyland...", Isthmus, 15 October 2008 going 1–3 on the weekend and finished in tenth place. In 2009 Grand Raggidy qualified for the newly created WFTDA North Central Regional Tournament, seeded seventh, but lost all their bouts to finish tenth.
After missing WFTDA Playoffs from 2010–12, Grand Raggdiy qualified for Division 1 Playoffs in 2013, and went 1–2 as the tenth seed in Fort Wayne and finished in ninth place courtesy of a 186-134 victory over Bleeding Heartland. In 2014, Grand Raggidy competed at Division 2 Playoffs in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario as the tenth seed and went winless to finish in tenth. Grand Raggidy missed Playoffs in 2015 but returned to Division 2 in 2016 as the tenth seed in Lansing, Michigan, but again went winless and finished in tenth place.
Rankings
SeasonFinal ranking"Current Rankings", WFTDAPlayoffsChampionship200627 WFTDA"12/8/2006 WFTDA National Rankings", WFTDA Archive.org [version of 23 February 2007]—N/A200724 WFTDA"Current WFTDA Rankings", Derby News Network, October 2007R1 EDNQ2008NR NC10 EDNQ200910 NC10 NCDNQ201012 NCDNQDNQ201111 NCDNQDNQ201215 NCDNQDNQ201356 WFTDA9 D1DNQ201463 WFTDA10 D2DNQ201567 WFTDADNQDNQ201669 WFTDA10 D2DNQ
References