Saturday night, at a place called Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall in Atchison, Kansas, the Missouri River Rollers held their very first bout ever and kicked off a new era of roller derby for the Kansas City area.

As with any upstart league, anxieties were understandably high going into their first-ever event regarding everything you can think of — things like attendance, audience reception, etc. — but from the perspective of what I’ll call a professional roller derby fan, I think it’s safe to say Saturday night exceeded expectations by just about any metric available. Turnout for the game was excellent, and the River Rollers notched a solid win over the Benton County Derby Dames by a final score of 59-28.

As always, we’ve got photos.

Click for the full photo album.

The ladies of the MRR are back in action in Atchison on April 22, as you can see by the widget along the left edge of this page. Mark your calendars, but never fear, we’re always here to remind you when the dates approach.

Congratulations to all the ladies and gents of the Missouri River Rollers for a very strong start to what is hopefully a long and illustrious run of fantastic flat track roller derby in Atchison!