History of ARG
In November 2004 the national resurgence of Roller Derby inspired Atlanta Rollergirl’s league founder, Angela Ward, a.k.a. Tanya Hyde, to put a call out to strong, athletic women to join her in bringing Roller Derby to Atlanta. Her idea was met with great enthusiasm and in July 2005 the league held their first expo bout featuring the Denim Demons, Sake Tuyas and Apocalypstix. More like-minded women soon joined the ranks and the Toxic Shocks, ARG’s fourth home team, were added in 2006. After playing at All American in Stone Mountain for the first three seasons, the Atlanta Rollergirls moved in town last year and can now be found at the Shriners temple on Ponce de Leon.
As founding members of the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association, the Atlanta Rollergirls are helping to promote and strengthen independent women’s sports. We are skater owned and operated and comprised of women who do this not for big contracts but because we love it. Each of our skaters brings their own skills not only to the track but also to the running of the league as a whole. We are our own accountants, promoters and marketers and strive to be “roll models” to young women and girls by demonstrating how successful women can be as both athletes and businesswomen.
In addition to our always hard-hitting, excitement delivering home teams, our 5th season brings us a new travel team who is dedicated to representing ARG on the national level. For the first time members of the IL team have the option of solely playing for the travel team. Though they may no longer be playing on a home team you can be rest assured that these women will be showing the rest of the nation that Atlanta is a force to be reckoned with.
