Derby bouts ended at the Astoria Armory last summer when the Shanghaied Roller Dolls broke up.

But several former Roller Dolls have kept the tradition alive through the Astoria All Star Junior Roller Derby team, an initiative to build skating and self-confidence skills among young people.

Each weekend at the Armory, Robyn “Hurricane Ka Ream Ya” Koustik, Liz “Sasshole” Visser, Darcy “Darzylla” Ferguson, Walt “Coach Walt” Sabe and others drill their young recruits in the ways of roller derby, like how to safely fall on a hard wooden floor.

The junior derby includes girls — and one boy — of all sizes. Skaters range from 5-year-old Saveri “Sabertooth” Sanchez, who is too young for derby bouts but too insistent to be held out of practices, to 15-year-old Nea “Smack U Lara” Johnson, who towers over most of her peers and lays big hits on her coaches. The young skaters travel from as close as down the block to as far as Nehalem, drawn to Astoria for the last vestige of roller derby on the North Coast.

Elinor “Bellatrix” Johnson, 11, was a mascot for the Roller Dolls, dressing up as a pirate and doing laps during stoppages. She and her older sister, Nea, have been a part of the team since the founding several years ago as the SRDines. The youth branch is now called the Astoria All Star Junior Roller Derby, which draws up to 20 skaters on a given weekend.

Elinor and Nea both said the derby provides a release for their pent-up energy, anger and frustration at the end of the week in a forgiving atmosphere. Elinor, also a runner, hopes to one day join a derby team forming in Tillamook.

Driving the sisters each weekend from Nehalem is Tess Johnson, who, like other parents, originally got involved with derby through Friday skate nights at the Armory and the “Fresh Meat” practices the Roller Dolls used to put on for adults.

“It’s an awesome thing for kids who don’t want to do anything else,” she said. “They get serious exercise. They get their butts kicked.”

Stephen “Stevel Knievel” Ero, the lone boy on the team, said he’s unsuccessfully tried to recruit other boys from school, but enjoys the derby nonetheless.

“It’s a close-knit little family,” said Amanda Adams, whose daughters, Amanda and Ellie, both skate with the junior team. “We each watch out for each others’ kids.”

Parents of youth skaters said Koustik, the Armory’s only employee and driving force behind many of its community efforts, doesn’t allow any sort of bullying or discrimination. Along with derby, she teaches anti-bullying and community volunteerism classes for kids.

“You accept everyone for who they are,” Koustik said. “Teamwork and sportsmanship are my main goals, and then derby. It’s awesome to see these kids take the initiative, especially when we get a new kid and they just take them under their wing without me having to ask.”

Visser, a local Head Start preschool manager who got involved in derby with her daughter, said the derby serves as a confidence-booster. “This is a resiliency factor for some of these kids.”

Any kid wanting to get involved in the junior derby, regardless of skill level, can come to a Saturday practice. Koustik and the other former Roller Dolls take kids through basic skating to advanced derby skills.

The Armory provides rental skates, although Visser said those wanting to stick with the team need helmets, mouth guards, pads and higher-quality derby skates. The Armory seeks donations to help cover gear and make sure any child can partake in roller derby regardless of family income.

The Shanghaied Roller Dolls, which started at the Clatsop County Fairgrounds in 2012 and later became a premier attraction at the Armory, held their last bout nearly a year ago. Last summer, leadership announced the team was disbanding.

“Even with our best efforts, we were not able to maintain the membership/skaters needed to run a sustainable charitable organization for the purpose of playing roller derby,” said a message on the Roller Dolls’ Facebook page announcing the team’s and their nonprofit’s dissolution.

Koustik said there is an effort to set up an exhibition derby bout at the Armory for the Astoria All Stars later this spring with a coed team from the Portland metro area.

Visser, one of the Roller Dolls’ last board members, said there are plenty of people who understand the value of derby and want to keep it going. She said the hope is to eventually establish an adult recreational league as a precursor to returning derby bouts to the Armory.

“They’re open to it,” she said of the Friends of the Armory. “There are a lot of passionate skaters that are open to it. It was just the structure of the nonprofit was really hard for us to maintain.”

“There are other communities that have recreation leagues, and we have such an incredible venue. It can happen. It just needs to happen in a different way.”