How a Harleysville native is helping a ‘borderless’ roller derby team break barriers

Two weeks before the biggest competition of her career, Sam Flowers, better known to her teammates and rivals as ThumpHER, sat in her car outside the gym before another workout to prepare for the Global Women’s Flat Track Roller Derby Championship.

Flowers, a Harleysville native who’s now based in Atlanta with Black Derby Collective, grew up playing sports — and even rollerblading — but roller derby wasn’t on her radar. That changed in 2015 when her best friend picked her up and informed her that they were going to equip themselves with roller skates, elbow pads, and helmets. They were headed to their first lesson with the Bux-Mont Roller Derby Dolls.

Flowers got knocked down, and knocked down again on that tennis court in Germantown. But she became enthralled with the fast-paced, sassy, and aggressive world of women’s flat track roller derby as she learned the rules of the game and how to hit back and stand her ground.

“I realized, ‘Oh, I can hit people?’” Flowers, a blocker for BDC, said. “So, I tell people I got hit, I fell, and I fell in love.”

From there, freshly adorned with her derby name, ThumpHER, Flowers hasn’t stopped. She joined the Brandywine roller derby team a couple years later and frequently found herself as the only person of color on the track. It felt particularly stark at the East Coast Derby Extravaganza, hosted by Philly Roller Derby.

“There was an incident at ECDX where I got told all Black people look alike,” Flowers said. “I got called out for my skin tone numerous times. I was wearing a blue jersey, I was getting called Black 18. I feel I was definitely racially targeted because we are constantly told as Black, strong athletes, we are too aggressive. We need to tone it down and not hit so hard.”

Philly Roller Derby acknowledged the incident.

“We’re sorry that this kind of harm occurred at an event hosted by Philly Roller Derby,” PRD president Andi Perez (aka Molly Striker) said in a statement. “Our league was made aware of the incident in 2019, though none of our current board members were in leadership at that time. We hope that affected skaters received an apology then, and we apologize today to ThumpHER and other skaters of color who experienced discrimination at ECDX.”

The Women’s Flat Track Roller Derby Association also released a statement following ECDX.

Other Black skaters nationwide had experienced similar discrimination.

“We all had very similar stories around racism and within our leagues,” Marquishia Winters, one of the cofounders and coaches of BDC, said. “So there was already that common experience.”

Black Diaspora Roller Derby, a predecessor to BDC, was formed in 2012 to help skaters find community within the sport. The “borderless” league played in recreational games and at expos, but the push for something bigger came in 2020 after Winters attended a game featuring all Black skaters at RollerCon in Las Vegas.

“Back in the day, there were even fewer Black skaters,” Winters said. “At some point, we were able to have an exhibition game of all Black skaters, and it was so much fun, and I remember thinking, ‘Oh, I want to be able to do this all the time.’”

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As part of the WFTDA, BDC can compete in ranked matches and qualify for regional and global championships. BDC is the first and only all-Black “borderless” WFTDA team, according to Winters. That poses logistical challenges, but BDC also has faced backlash from other WFTDA teams accusing it of being a “superteam” that transfers elite-level skaters into local teams ahead of regional championships, which is heavily frowned upon and safeguarded against within the organization.

Winters described BDC’s inaugural season as a success, but one that felt like they “were building the ship while sailing.” BDC had less time together as a unit, with just one practice together ahead of its first game (a 337-45 win), making its battle to secure one of the two bids for its region, the North American Southeast, even harder.

“I know, within the next three years, we are going to be a powerhouse,” Flowers said. “I hope, in 10 years, though, that the younger generation will have more minorities stepping up and being like, ‘I can do this sport.’ This is another sport for us that we can succeed in and not have to go through the issues that me and my teammates are going through now.”

BDC is one of 13 teams competing in the global championships beginning Thursday in Malmö, Sweden. Its first game is against the Adelaide Roller Derby Ads, an Australian team ranked third in the Oceania region.

Even without the full team practicing in person, Flowers feels confident entering the game and knows the roller derby community is watching.

“Yes, we made it, and that’s the first accomplishment, but now it’s time to really put BDC on the map,” Flowers said. “It’s time to shut down all the haters. It’s time to really step up and show the world who the hell BDC is, what we’re about, what our skaters are like, and be like, ‘Hey, we’re here. We’re Black, we’re strong, we’re talented, and we’re not going anywhere. This is just the start.’”