The Bow Valley Lady Macs lone bout this summer underlines the challenges of running a roller derby team in a transient community.
The Lady Macs, though, took to the track and bruised, battered and then bested the visiting Bavarian Barbarians 289-175 at the Banff Fenlands Arena, Sunday (June 12).
The bout was a “big night” for roller derby in the valley, as young and old took in the full contact sport.
“The struggle with the Bow Valley is so many people are transient, so we basically had a brand new team this year again,” said Joanne “Jo-Animal” Bokitch, a founder of the team. “We were also really excited to debut a new team of new girls that have been working really hard to play today.”
There is a constant search for new recruits and the Lady Macs host a “fresh meat” night each September. Bokitch says more players suiting up for the club would result in more bouts.
“We desperately need new skaters, refs, volunteers, anybody,” said Bokitch. “We’re all inclusive, we need to grow and we would appreciate the help for sure.”
Roller derby is a full-contact sport played between two teams of five players roller-skating around a track. During a bout, both teams participate in short matchups, called jams, where the designated scoring player, the jammer, scores points by passing members of the opposing team.
The remaining girls on the track, three blockers and a pivot, make up the pack and attempt to hinder the opposing jammer while helping their own by playing offence and defence simultaneously through legal hits and blocking.
Given the challenges of finding and keeping players in the valley, a founder and former Lady Mac Rachelle “Skid Roe” Honeyman appropriately enough returned with her new squad out of Kimberley, B.C. to face off against her old club in the bout that was dubbed Back for a Bruisin’.
“(Honeyman) and I personally started this league in 2010, so we’ve been really looking forward to this,” said Bokitch, who played as a jammer for the first time.
The game was an action packed affair with big hit and even bigger spills and with a relatively new team taking to the track, nerves were high among the Lady Macs.
“We were pretty intimidated to play this team because they have quite a few old school skaters,” said Bokitch. “We came out expecting some big hits and we for sure got them, but we gave just as good as we got.”
Go to www.bowvalleyrollerderby.com for more information.
