Sioux Falls Roller Dollz close after 20 years of roller derby legacy

The Sioux Falls Roller Dollz are shutting down after 20 years, ending a flat-track derby league that began with MySpace bulletins and flyers and grew into one of Sioux Falls’ most visible women’s sports organizations. Founded in 2006 by Jayme Nelson, known as PainMaker, and Elizabeth Nelson, known as Queen Elizabitch, the Dollz left behind more than nostalgia. They were part of the city’s sports infrastructure, a place where skaters, officials and volunteers could find a role.

The league’s first recruiting push came in September 2006, when about 50 interested women turned out for an early event. The roster stayed full in later years, and the team’s reach extended beyond Sioux Falls through its membership in the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association. That gave the Dollz a place in the larger flat-track derby world, not just as a local club but as a traveling team that carried the Sioux Falls name into competition.

The closure also ends a long record of off-track impact. The Dollz described themselves as a 100% volunteer-run, skater-owned nonprofit that worked to empower women and enrich the community through competitive sport. Since 2006, the league said it has donated more than $50,000 and countless volunteer hours to local charities. A Women’s Flat Track Derby Association feature in January 2012 put that figure at almost $42,000, showing how quickly the organization had become a steady fundraiser as well as a team.

The announcement came June 16, even though the league’s public schedule had still listed 2025 bouts, including a March 22 home game at the W.H. Lyon Expo Building and a June 21 road date against Fargo/Moorhead Roller Derby. That recent activity makes the shutdown sting harder. Sioux Falls is losing not just a team that lasted two decades, but a path for new skaters, a volunteer network and a women-led athletic institution that helped define derby in the region.