Sick Town Roller Derby heats up in Corvallis

On a hot July night in Corvallis, with temperatures approaching 100 degrees, the sounds of wheels echoed through Langton Hall.

Despite the heat, players had strapped on their skates, pads and helmets for Sick Town Roller Derby’s open skate night.

Founded in 2008 during a national wave of roller derby popularity, Sick Town has endured challenges in recent years — including a pandemic hiatus and the loss of its home rink. But players say the sport is as strong as ever in Corvallis.

“Sick Town has been one of the most consistent things of my time here,” said Lauren Diaz, who goes by the roller derby nickname “Venom.”

Diaz, a Ph.D. candidate in fisheries, wildlife, and conservation sciences at Oregon State University, joined Sick Town in 2022. Diaz moved from Miami during the pandemic when roller derby was on a hiatus globally but ended up finding Sick Town at a Pride event.

Roller derby, a sport originally popularized in the 1970s before its modern revival in the early 2000s, is a full-contact sport played on roller skates.

Teams play against each other in bouts where each team has one jammer and four blockers. The jammer is the team member who scores points by passing through the other team’s blockers. The blockers’ job is to impede the opponent’s jammer from getting through them.

Bouts are played through two-minute intervals called “jams” that add up to two 30-minute periods.

“If roller derby is human bowling,” Diaz said, a jammer like her “is the bowling ball.”

The sport is known not just for its intensity, but its inclusivity. The Women’s Flat Track Derby Association, the governing body for the sport, promotes roller derby as a space for LGBTQ+ athletes and marginalized communities. Diaz said Sick Town embodies that mission.

“Finding a really supportive and inclusive and friendly roller derby league has felt like finding a little family away from home,” said Diaz.

Diaz is one of several Sick Town athletes who joined after 2020. While the WFTDA reported in its 2020 Impact Report that 90% of leagues nationwide lost members during the pandemic, Sick Town is growing — despite selling its former home, the Lake Park Roller Rink, to stay afloat.

Practices and bouts are now held at various locations across Corvallis and Albany.

“I think it is relatively unique to us that we have been growing so much and are in so much of a healthier place,” Sick Town blocker Kristen “Betty Merckx” Owenreay said.

For Owenreay, a member since 2019, the sport’s appeal is rooted in empowerment, inclusivity and the value it places on different body types.

“I think derby may be the most trans-inclusive sport on the face of the planet. We have several trans skaters on our team and, for me personally, it’s also like the only athletic place where I truly feel valued and respected as a fat woman,” Owenreay said. “There is a very specific role that my body type plays in derby, and a very specific role that someone who is, you know, very short and skinny like Venom plays.

“The fact that we both have a job to do out on the track and play amazingly together as teammates means a lot to me.”

Sick Town skates in area Pride parades and the league is also a supporter of Open Streets Corvallis, a festival focusing on transforming roads for alternative uses.

The volunteering is good for the public, Owenreay said. It is also good for Sick Town, which sees a correlation between getting out in the community and the number of skaters who show up in the gym.

And while Wednesday may have been sweltering, the athletes who showed up, skated, sweated and laughed together wouldn’t have been anywhere else.

“I started,” said Murphy “Table-Eating Smurf” James, an OSU student and blocker for Sick Town, “and I can’t stop.”

– Rio Gyenes, McMinnville High School

– Maggie McMillen, South Eugene High School

This story was produced by student reporters as part of the High School Journalism Institute, an annual collaboration among The Oregonian/OregonLive, Oregon State University, and other Oregon media organizations. For more information or to support the program, go to

oregonlive.com/hsji

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