Team Canada's Junior Roller Derby girls team, featuring Makayla "Ma-Kill-Ya" Soper of Stratford, picked up a couple of wins against a couple of losses in recent exhbition games as they gear up for this summer's world championships in France.
It was a whirlwind couple of days last weekend in Toronto, as the players met each other for the first time, skated through a 90 minute practice and then played two games the same day, as part of the 'mix in the six' series.
Soper was named captain ahead of the first game, national team manager Jennifer “Raspoutine” Zammit told StratfordToday.
Team Canada hosted Team France and U.S.-based Pittsburgh Derby Brats.
The three teams faced off in five games between each region’s female and open-gender teams.
"The team Canada kids had just met at breakfast, practiced and then played, it is not typically the way we do things," said Zammit, also from Stratford.
The practice for some 35 national team members picked from their hometowns from coast to coast, was a good way to decipher where the team is at and how much work still needs to be done before the world championships July 28-30, Zammit said.
"The kids are the best on their teams, then they come to the national level team, where things don't even out the same way they do at home. It was a bit of an education for everyone. Some skaters can see the work they need to do, but it's a good thing we still have three months to do it."
Soper is the national team's jammer - a strategic position on the team.
Key to roller derby’s culture is that roller derby players, coaches and referees are known by their “derby names” that embrace the rough and playful nature of the sport. Junior national players range in age from 13 to 18.
They will travel to Calgary in May before a final practice in France prior to the competition.
Roller derby is a contact sport played on traditional quad-style roller skates.
At its roots, roller derby began as a sport for women. It has since evolved to be an inclusive sport for all genders, Canada Junior Roller Derby says.
Canada will compete against France, Australia, the United Kingdom, Denmark, New Zealand, Sweden and the United States when the world tournament runs in Valence, in the south of France.
Zammit's involvement with the sport also includes her role as president of the national governing body - the Junior Roller Derby Association of Canada. The world championships have been around for a number of years but until recently was hosted and financed each year by the U.S.
Zammit, also head coach of Tri-City Roller Derby, has known Soper for more than a decade and the Stratford resident coaches the St. Michael Catholic Secondary School student on the Kitchener-based team.
