'It’s like you have 80 sisters.' Rat City Roller Derby hearkens back to indie Seattle roots

Rat City fans celebrated 20 years of rolling this week. The anniversary is another stamp of legitimacy for a Seattle sport that has been a DIY effort from day one.

"Rat City was not just like, all of a sudden you have 80 friends. It's like you have 80 sisters," explained Josie Redmond, aka Lexi Luthor. "It's just a huge, wonderful community of women, and strong women, that really helped me actually find my voice as a person and in my career. So, Rat City means a lot to me."

While Rat City Roller Derby is successful and popular in 2024, it wasn't always this way. When this local team started up in 2004, there was no roller derby scene in Seattle. There was barely a roller derby scene in the U.S. at the time.

So why and how did one emerge in the Emerald City?

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Soundside host Paige Browning sat down with one of the three founding members of Rat City Roller Derby, Lilly Everett, aka "Hurricane Lilly."

Everett was on assignment as a magazine photographer when she discovered flat track roller derby at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas, and something clicked.

"I was a big fan of a lot of the indie entertainment that was happening in Seattle in the early 2000s," she said. "When I saw that in Austin, Texas, I thought, 'We need to have that in Seattle. Why don't we have that in Seattle?'"

Seattle has always had a DIY mentality, from music to indie wrestling. Everett added roller derby into the local DIY mix.

"It was actually quite easy," she said. "People were very interested in it. Locally, we went from the three founding members to ... I think our second meeting had nine people, and it just snowballed from there."

Then came the names. Names are a big deal in roller derby. They're also personas. Coming up with a moniker is part of the fun. There's Sara Problem and Jalapeño Business. Also, Clobberin' Mame and Dixie Dragstrip.

In its early days, Seattle's roller derby effort also needed a name for itself.

"So there was a dinner party ... I had just gotten back from South by Southwest, and I was having dinner with my friends Katie Merrell aka Dixie Dragstrip, Rahel Cook, aka Rae's Hell," Everett said.

These friends were living in West Seattle, and since White Center's nickname is "Rat City," the name "Rat City Rollergirls" was an instant hit.

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The group started recruiting and fundraising. Carmin Thomas, aka Clobberin' Mame, had wanted to play roller derby since she was a kid, and when her partner was approached to help announce for the league, she jumped at the chance to join.

"When I was 3, I would watch roller derby on TV with my great uncle Jack. And I said, 'I'm gonna do that," Thomas said. "Where's the meeting, sign me the F up."

Rat City began practicing at Southgate Roller Rink in White Center, and eventually had their first bouts there, but they quickly outgrew the rink and moved on to the hangars at Magnuson Park.

"The hangar days were all about the grit, and the dirt, and doing things together and being absolutely DIY and working so hard to put these productions on," said Megan Twibell, aka Sara Problem.

From the Magnuson Park hangars, Rat City moved into Key Arena, then up to Shoreline. The pandemic threatened to end the league's run all together, but the skaters worked hard to keep it alive.

Today, Hurricane Lilly says she still holds Rat City very close to her heart.

"It's funny, because everyone who's in my life today is basically in my life because of roller derby. It's how I met my husband," Everett said. "I was on the Throttle Rockets, and I still hang out with most of my teammates. They're my best friends. Gosh, one of them was my bridesmaid. You know, so it changed my life in that way that then, and it's still very much a part of my life, even though I'm not a skater anymore."

Hear Soundside's full feature on Rat City Roller Derby by clicking the audio above.