It’s the end of an era for a Northampton, Massachusetts, institution. The Pioneer Valley Roller Derby has called The Bunker their home track for nearly a decade. But Saturday’s bouts were the last ever in the beloved building.
From the outside, 296 Nonotuck Street, in the Florence section of the city, looks like an unremarkable old factory building. But over the past ten years, part of it has been transformed into a roller derby paradise.
Inside, bleachers stand next to a track just larger than a high school basketball court. The walls are painted with enormous murals, including the Pioneer Valley Roller Derby’s logo: a flaming roller skate.
Last Saturday, The Bunker hosted its final day of roller derby. Fans who couldn’t squeeze into the bleachers set up their own folding chairs next to the track. The Quabbin Missile Crisis, one of four teams based there, was facing off against a squad from Cape Cod.
Roller derby is a contact sport played on roller skates. During the bout, one player from each team is the jammer. The jammer’s goal is to slip, or push, through their opponent’s blockers.
“So it's unique in that you're playing both offense and defense at the same time, and also that there's no ball or other object that you score with. You score with your body and it's a lot of fun,” explained Alex Kapitan, board co-chair for Pioneer Valley Roller Derby.
Kapitan, who goes by Peter Pandemonium at the derby, has played at The Bunker since he joined the league four years ago.
“And it just feels like a home, and it feels gritty and it feels, you know, very in keeping with the spirit of roller derby as a sport itself,” he said. “It's not polished, it's not fancy, it's not a varsity sport. It has grown out of a real countercultural movement, and you can feel that as soon as you walk into the space.”
Pioneer Valley Roller Derby is not leaving behind their track by choice.
In a recent announcement, the league explained that the owner of 296 Nonotuck Street, Nonotuck Mill LLC, is repurposing the space, and they have to move out before the end of the year.
The company did not respond to repeated requests to comment for this story.
For veterans of the league, like Becca Groveman, it’s been surprising how hard it is to leave a building behind.
“This has been my roller derby home for ten years and I really love it here and it'll be very different and sad,” Groveman said. “I know we're going to survive. We're going to keep moving forward. We're going to find something else new that's going to be great. But it's really hard to think about saying goodbye to this place that really feels like home.”
The next season starts in April and that leaves just a few months for the volunteer-run leadership team, including Kapitan, to find their next bunker.
“Everyone's pitching in to help us find a new space, to make the move [and] to raise money for the move,” Kapitan said. “And we're confident that we're going to land on our feet.”
With any luck, those feet will be laced up in a pair of skates.