Columbia Quadsquad Ramping It Up To Reach the Next Level
by James Harley, April 18th The Columbia Quadsquad, the Midlands’ premiere roller derby team, took another step upward on the ladder of success last week when they were granted official membership in the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA) as an apprentice squad. The standard bearer for modern roller derby, the WFTDA sets the rules of play and governs top-level roller derby across the country and internationally.
Aiming for no less than an eventual trip to the national championships, the Quadsquad now must continue to perform well under the close examination of the league in order to become a full-fledged member and be eligible for national ranking consideration.
If last weekend’s match is any indication, that shouldn’t be too difficult, as the Quadsquad continued their stunning winning streak by taking out the Tallahassee Roller Girls 157-105 on the road. The powerful Tallahassee team, ranked 13th in the WFTDA’s South Central region, kept Columbia’s blockers busy with hard hits and strategic formations but simply couldn’t hang with the Quadsquad’s quickness in the end. Still, they shouldn’t feel too bad about that since no one else has managed to do so in nearly two years either.
The Quadsquad joins Charleston’s Lowcountry High Rollers, whom they took down last summer in crushing fashion, as the state’s WFTDA representatives, which should add some drama to this year’s State Championships to be held in November in Charleston on the High Rollers’ home turf.
In the meantime Columbia is preparing for its next bout on May 14, a home match against yet another WFTDA apprentice team, the Kentucky Black and Bluegrass Rollergirls. Should they survive that one with their streak intact, they will be severely tested by the visiting WFTDA Texas Rollergirls in July.
So, it seems the girls of the Quadsquad have set their sites on the top and are doing what it takes to get there. It’s a long road from here, but they keep demonstrating that they have the skills, it is just the opportunity that has been hard to find. Now that it is here we’ll see if they can ramp it up another notch.
As for upcoming derby in Columbia, the Richland County Regulators’ Bad Company B-team hosts the River Region Rollergirls’ Deadutantes squad this Saturday (April 23) at the National Guard Armory on Bluff Road at 6:00 p.m. For more information on that bout visit their website at richlandcountyregulators.com, and for more on the Quadsquad visit columbiaquadsquad.com.
