Gainesville Roller Rebels (GRR) is Alachua County’s first competitive women’s flat track roller derby league, founded in November 2007 by Ms. Rebel and incorporated as a Florida non-profit in June 2008. The league boasts a roster of women from every walk of life — including stay-at-home moms, professionals, students and everything in-between — and strives to provide the opportunity to play this extreme sport to women skaters of all backgrounds while providing family-friendly entertainment to the Gainesville area. GRR is committed to fostering athletic ability, community involvement, sisterhood and personal empowerment within a physically demanding environment.

GRR’s main goal is the continued advancement of the skater at every level, from beginner to advanced. The league strives to combine nationally recognized roller derby standards and individual player desires to produce a well-rounded, competitive group of women athletes.

On April 20, 2008, the ladies of GRR played their first bout in Jacksonville with their big-sister league, the Jacksonville Roller Girls. GRR hosted their first home bout on July 13, 2008, at the Alachua County Fairgrounds, and the Rebels played their first tournament, the Tampa Bay Derby Darlins-hosted Sunshine Skate, in February 2009. GRR is currently seeking membership in the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association.

YouTube: About the Gainesville Roller Rebels
Video courtesy of Alexandra Hill, WUFT News

Charity Work & Community Action

GRR supports a wide variety of charitable organizations through fundraising efforts and volunteerism, and the league actively supports those groups that focus on young and adult women’s issues, the Gainesville community at-large and the environment. Efforts have included, but are not limited to, the following groups: City of Gainesville’s Annual Great Air Potato Roundup, Florida DOT’s Adopt-A-Highway program, Girls Place, Inc., LifeSouth Community Blood Centers, Peaceful Paths Domestic Abuse Network and Spread The Love.

As of September 2010, the Rebels are going green! Thanks to a new printing partnership with Parisleaf Paper, GRR’s future posters and handbills will be produced using 40 percent recycled content. Additionally, 10 trees are planted with each purchase through Trees For The Future, a fellow non-profit that has planted more than 50 million trees all over the world.

Praise for GRR’s community efforts:

For the past four years, the Girls Place (formerly known as the Girls Club of Alachua County), like many other non-profit agencies, has experienced huge cutbacks in the allocations received by United Way and other funding sources, due in the most part by the economy. Thus, the opportunity to offer scholarships to our families, even partial ones that reduce the existing inexpensive program fees were all but non-existent. … Donations from groups and individuals allow us to provide for the economically-disadvantaged in our After School, Summer Day Camp and athletic leagues programming. The generous gift of $700 from the Gainesville Roller Rebels has provided reduced rates during Summer Day Camp for 11 girls, the majority coming from single-parent homes. … Our agency has been in business since 1985, and this year we received a record number of 74 scholarship applications for the Summer Day Camp. The ladies of the Gainesville Roller Rebels have definitely helped us to meet the needs of some of the working-poor families and to provide a safe and nurturing environment for their children.
— Renae Clements, Executive Director, Girls Place, Inc.

GRR has had 38 blood donations at bouts so far in 2010. With each donation having the potential to help three different patients, GRR fans have helped save as many as 114 lives!
— LifeSouth Community Blood Centers

Want More?

Watch this Web site or add our RSS feed to your feed reader to keep up with us! You can also visit GRR on Facebook, MySpace and Twitter.

For more information on the members of GRR, check out our Skaters & Alumni and Staff & Volunteers pages.

Click here to find out how to contact GRR.

GRR’s main logo was designed by: