The Roller Rebels — a flat track roller derby team on Long Island — celebrated its 20th anniversary on May 17. The milestone marks more than the team’s membership in the derby league — it marks 20 years of camaraderie, self-discovery and growth for the skaters who have found a home in Roller Rebels.
The anniversary solidifies the Roller Rebels as one of the longest-running Women’s Flat-Track Derby Association teams in the nation. Community members joined the team at Skate Safe America to celebrate the occasion with craft vendors, raffles and, of course, birthday cake. The Roller Rebels won the season-opening roller derby 173 to 166.
A little more than a year ago, Eli Lee O’Connor didn’t quite know what a roller derby was — but they knew it sure looked cool. So, they decided to try out the boot camp.
“By the end of it, I said, ‘Oh my God, I love this,” O’Connor said. “The people are just fantastic. The team in general is great. I’ve made a lot of really good friends in the short time that I’ve been here.”
“The athleticism of it is what drew me to it,” they added, “But the people on the team were what got me to stay.”
The team of 35 skaters shares a sense of camaraderie, O’Connor said. It’s an environment where everyone trades skating tips, roots for each other and picks each other up when they’ve fallen down — both literally and figuratively.
“It’s the sort of thing where your teammate will plow into you at like, 15 miles an hour and knock you over, and you get up and you high-five them and you go, ‘That was great!'” O’Connor said. “And then you knock them over, and they’re like, ‘Oh my god, that was so good, dude!'”
The roller derby team gives people a chance to try something new. O’Connor, 36, has what they call a “recessive jock gene” — they’d always been drawn to team sports, but found themself more involved with artsy crowds in school. The Roller Rebels helped O’Connor rediscover that passion; for the first time since elementary school, O’Connor was part of a team sport.
“Everybody is cheering each other on,” O’Connor said. “We’re always lifting each other up. That sense of enthusiasm and generosity towards new skaters is really at the core of the team.”
Camaraderie and sportsmanship lie at the center of the Roller Rebels’ spirit, but recent political developments could make it more difficult for the team to stay together.
In February 2024, Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman signed an executive order barring transgender athletes from competing on female sports teams at county facilities. The State Supreme Court struck down the executive order in May 2024 after the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) and the Roller Rebels — which welcome trans and intersex women to play on the team, as do all roller derby teams in the Women’s Flat-Track Derby Association — filed a lawsuit against the trans athlete ban.
The order was abolished in court because Blakeman did not have the authority to issue it without legislative action. In response, the Nassau County Legislature passed the legislation along party lines in a 12-6 vote. In January, Nassau County Supreme Court Judge R. Bruce Cozzens ruled that the county law does not exclude transgender women and girls from competing at county facilities based on their gender identity. He added that the roller derby group also did not show discrimination under human rights and civil rights laws. The NYCLU is appealing the ruling.
“Speaking for myself, there is this sense of, ‘This is our team. These are our skaters,'” O’Connor said. “And for me, at least, there’s a sort of reflexive sense of almost protectiveness. Like, these are my teammates and I care about them … it sucks to see people saying bad things about your friends.”
But the Roller Rebels aren’t letting the political quagmire slow them down.
“For quite a few of the skaters, this is sort of background noise for them,” O’Connor said. “It’s not something that really pushes itself to the forefront of our minds.”
In the meantime, the roller derby team is enjoying looking back on 20 years of skating — and looking forward to many more.
