Let’s talk DERBY!

Four championships in four years. A trainer and a leader, Celeste left quite the roller derby legacy. And not just in Arizona, but nationwide. This is her story.

In 2002, a group of Arizona skaters became friends with a group from Austin, Texas, that developed rules to make roller derby a competitive sport. It was a new idea at the time; roller derby had been around since the 1940s, but it was more theatric, like the WWE.

Celeste met the Arizona skaters and together they started a league from the ground up, using the rules the Austin skaters created. Eventually, the Arizona skaters, AZRD, split into AZRD and the Renegade Roller Girls. Celeste stayed with AZRD. Around this time, she had a small construction business and decided to use her skills to build a banked track for AZRD.

There are two different types of tracks in roller derby: banked and flat. A banked track is a raised structure that has curved inclines. This is what Celeste built, but AZRD wasn’t interested. So Celeste left AZRD. A few people followed her. Celeste grew up a street skater and was surprisingly good at roller derby. But it wasn’t enough. Celeste sold the track which is now located on the East Coast, and used by the Penn Jersey Roller Derby!

Around this time, AZRD split again into AZRD and the Derby Dames. The Derby Dames wanted to build a banked track and invited Celeste to skate with them. She joined the Brutal Beauties, the underdogs of the league.

They weren’t the underdogs for long. Celeste started training the team. Even though she was good at roller derby, Celeste thrived in leadership, training and bringing the team together using positive energy. She led the Brutal Beauties to four straight championship wins and was just shy of a fifth.

After the season, Celeste and her teammates decided to switch things up and join different teams. Celeste joined the Bombshells, the team with the worst record in the league. In just one season, Celeste led the Bombshells to their first-ever final appearance, just one game shy of the championship.

Celeste brought a winning culture wherever she went. After the historic season with the Bombshells, she moved to Wisconsin. There, she trained a team and played in several pickup games throughout Wisconsin, Northern Illinois, and Dubuque, Iowa. She did the same in San Antonio, Texas, before returning to Phoenix. She skated in one practice with the Bombshells before retiring from the sport.

From building her very own banked track to skating with the Los Angeles Thunderbirds in a classic old-style game (and everything in between), Celeste’s roller derby legacy is unmatched. A pillar of the roller derby community, Celeste is proud to have been a part of the grassroots efforts to start Arizona’s only banked track roller derby league. To honor her hard work and dedication to the roller derby community, the Arizona Derby Dames retired her number, 911.

The Arizona Derby Dames now have five teams and a junior league that competes in a warehouse in Central Phoenix. To learn more about the organization, visit arizonaderbydames.com.