Pictured: The Bombers in action. Photo by Patrick Laughrey.

“There are a lot of rules to roller derby. It’s not quite as WWE as people think it is,” says Andrea Cannistra with a laugh. “We can’t elbow each other, we can’t hit one another in the face, so our primary hits are hip checks or just taking your body and throwing it into someone. The contact is structured, almost like football. You can’t just start fighting.”

Cannistra–or Zombelina as she’s known amongst her roller derby kin–is a proud member of the Bradentucky Bombers, the only skater-owned roller derby league in Sarasota and Bradenton, with members coming from all over the Gulf Coast. “We are the roller derby team for pretty much all of Southwest Florida (check AP), we have people coming from Fort Myers through Tampa, so we cover a lot of ground,” says Cannistra. “We’ve been around since 2006 and have had a lot of rebranding over the years–we started off as more of a showy roller derby but now we play a more strategy based and athletic game which is really exciting. We’re located in the Ellenton Ice and Sports Complex and are really excited to have our first full season since 2019 after taking a couple of years off due to the pandemic.”

The Bradentucky Bombers Roller Derby League is comprised of three teams: the Bomb Squad, their A team which competes all over the country in the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA), the Nuclear Bombshells–of which Cannistra is the captain–their B team that competes recreationally against other teams of similar skill, and the Fusion Bombs, their open-gender team. This Saturday, April 15th, the Fusion Bombs will take on the Magic City Mayhem, an open-gender team out of Jacksonville Florida at the Ellenton Ice and Sports Complex. “The basics of the sport is this: you have two teams with four blockers and one jammer–the point scorer–from each team. The jammer’s main goal is to get through all of the different blockers on the opposing team, or the pack. Each jam, or point scoring opportunity, can last up to two minutes of pretty high intensity action,” says Cannistra. “The jammer has to get through the pack once to initiate scoring and then every time they get through the pack after that, they get a point for every blocker they pass – you can get up to four points with every scoring pass. Games can be either really high scoring affairs or low scoring defensive battles, depending on the strengths of each team.”

Saturday, April 15th, 5:00 p.m, doors open at 4:30pm, Ellenton Ice & Sports Complex, 5309 29th St E., Ellenton, Florida 34222, at Presale—$10 online; Adults at the door—$15; Kids 6-12––$10 at the door; Kids 5 and under free, https://www.eventbrite.com/e/bradentucky-bombers-vs-magic-city-mayhem-tickets-504852496407, https://www.bradentuckybombers.com/

Pictured: The Bombers in action. Photo by Patrick Laughrey.