High Rollers named a Women's Flat Track Derby Association affiliate

Photo by File/The Post and Courier

It began with two strangers named Wendy, and in the past three years has attracted 60 skaters and enough fans to regularly pack McAlister Field House.

Now, the Lowcountry High Rollers has been accepted as an apprentice affiliate of the Women's Flat Track Derby Association, the governing body for women's amateur flat track roller derby. The league is the first to be accepted from South Carolina.

It's a "huge achievement," according to Marie Lockhart, aka Attackagawea, president of the Lowcountry High Rollers.

"Being a WFTDA member will give our league the opportunity to network with other leagues around the country as well as compete at a national level," she said. Acceptance to the apprentice program "also brings recognition to our league's dedication to promoting female empowerment, athleticism and community involvement."

The news comes just before the two-team league's first bout of the season. On Sunday, the All-Stars will take on Mother State Roller Girls from Richmond, Va., and the Bruisin' Betties battle the Appalachian Roller Girls from Boone, N.C.

The league has 10 other bouts scheduled before the state championships in November.

Lowcountry High Rollers began after Wendy Boswell, better known as Killie Dee Williams, posted an ad looking for roller-derby enthusiasts. She had just moved to the area from Myrtle Beach, where she skated with the Palmetto State Roller Girls.

Wendy Jernigan, aka Red Dread, saw the ad and contacted Boswell. She had come from Texas and was looking for a team.

They got to work creating the fifth all-girls roller-derby team in the state, which began meeting regularly in April 2008.

Now that the Lowcountry High Rollers is an apprentice league with the association, it will be matched with a veteran member league to guide it in the process of full membership.

The mentoring league also will offer advice and information related to the management and development of the apprentice league.

Lockhart says becoming the first apprentice league in the state gives recognition to the countless hours her team has invested on and off the track to make the High Rollers a competitive derby team that exemplifies professionalism and sportswomanship.

"Becoming an apprentice league takes us one step closer to bringing national attention to Charleston roller derby," Lockhart says.