Jenna Doyle will spin her wheels for Team Canada at the inaugural Junior Roller Derby World Cup. The 16-year-old blocker and jammer was selected to the 20-skater roster after attending tryouts in October at Chilliwack. “It's a really big deal.
Jenna Doyle will spin her wheels for Team Canada at the inaugural Junior Roller Derby World Cup.
The 16-year-old blocker and jammer was selected to the 20-skater roster after attending tryouts in October at Chilliwack.
“It's a really big deal. It's just so cool to be able to represent your country at an international setting against other national teams,” Doyle said of the six-nation tournament, July 8 to 12 in Seattle.
“When I started playing I never expected anything like that to happen so I just worked hard for it before the tryouts happened and it just worked out that I made the team,” said the Grade 11 Paul Kane High School student. “I wanted to show them (at tryouts) that I can communicate on and off the track and I can focus on what I need to do.”
Doyle was inspired to give the contact sport a shot after watching Whip It, a 2009 flick directed by Drew Barrymore and starring Ellen Page.
“It interested me but it took a couple of years to get around to joining and then when I eventually joined I just fell in love with it,” Doyle said. “I really like the whole team aspect. It's so much fun being on a team and watching everyone improve. The sport keeps growing and growing too.”
Doyle was in Grade 9 when she started rolling with the Greater Edmonton Junior Roller Derby Association before becoming the youngest member of the Arch Angels of the St. Albert Heavenly Rollers.
“It's all the same, just different ages,” Doyle said of junior and women's leagues. “It was scary at first. I was new so lots of people knew what they were doing already so it took a lot of motivation in figuring it out and figuring the sport out and practising all the time to get it down.”
Doyle does the bulk of her jamming with the Arch Angels but is equally adept at blocking. The jammer is a designated player who scores points by lapping members of the opposing team. Teams also attempt to hinder the opposing jammer while assisting their own jammer while playing offence and defence simultaneously.
“I can do both so I don't have a preference necessarily,” Doyle said. “As a blocker you try and stop the other jammer so you would hit them or hold them back with your other teammates and if you're a jammer you bust through the other blockers that are on the other team so there is lots of agility and jumping involved.”
Roller derby is slowly working its way into mainstream sports – the Women's Flat Track Derby Association is comprised of 302 member leagues from around the world, including the Arch Angels, and 71 apprentice leagues – but Doyle's sport of choice is still foreign to people.
“They are for sure surprised. Their first question is usually, ‘What's that?'”
Doyle continues to work on her skills in preparation of the World Cup.
“I've been going to practices and improving my fitness at home. I can't wait to go.”
