Many students at LSHS excel at sports and hobbies outside of her school community. One of these students is junior Rianna Dean, who has been nationally ranked in roller derby. For those not familiar with roller derby, it is a competitive team sport on roller skates.

“It’s a very high-contact sport on rollerskates,” Dean said.

Dean started roller derby when she was 14 years old and has been doing it ever since. She decided to join roller derby after watching a game for her mom’s best friend’s birthday. Since that day, she’s been dedicated to the sport.

“I like how connected everything is and how nice the roller derby community is,” Dean said.

Not only does she enjoy roller derby, but Dean is one of the best in the nation. Her roller derby team has been ranked second in the U.S. for the junior league.

“There are five range-track leagues, and each year we move around to everybody’s location and compete to see who’s the best,” Dean said.

Dean specializes in the tilted track event, which is skating on a banked rink. She takes part in both tilted and flat track (flat skating) but excels mostly in tilted track. She plans to keep doing roller derby in the future.

“[Roller derby] is cool. I like it, and I have more friends now because of it,” Dean said.

Rianna Dean has impressed the nation with her incredible skating skills and will keep doing so for years to come.