Sometimes it’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you play the game.
That was the case for the St. Albert Heavenly Rollers (STAHR) Rookies on Saturday night when they fell to the visiting Chinook City Kill Jills from Calgary by a score of 184-102. It was the debut bout for the STAHR Rookie team made up of veterans and newbies, and despite the loss, head coach Celeste Thiesen was thrilled with the Rookies’ performance.
“They were fantastic, exceeded all expectations,” said Theisen. “They executed exactly everything that we worked on and practiced so it was great to see it in actual game play.”
St. Albert got off to a strong start leading Chinook City for the first 15 minutes of the first half, but couldn’t regain their lead once the Kill Jills pulled ahead in the scoring.
The Kill Jills’ The Mon (Monica Evers-Harvey) was a key player for Calgary, scoring points as well as penalties. Evers-Harvey was an effective jammer and played a very physical game as blocker, sending more than one of the STAHR players to her knees.
On the St. Albert side, BB Sting (Deborah Brososky) was a force on the track. Her experience on the Arch Angels team was on display, especially when she was able to thread her way through the pack in her turns as jammer. Baby Doll (Justine Hermary) was also a star STAHR making some great blocks during the bout.
Jade Janke, who goes by the skate name Jaded Empire, is one of the rookies of the Rookies team who made a great showing on Saturday night. The petite player managed to rack up points for the STAHR team in her turns as jammer by battling her way through the blockers.
And the battle on the track was tough. With just over seven minutes to go in the game, Janke took a hit that sent her to the bench for the rest of the game.
“One of the girls accidentally whacked me in the face and I just kind of toppled over,” she said.
Janke has been playing roller derby for four months and was drawn to the sport because of the camaraderie.
“You can go out and party with a bunch of people right after they kick your ass,” she said.
While the competition on the track is rough and tumble, when the jams are off there appears to be a real sense of fun and camaraderie among all of the players. It’s not unusual to see opposing jammers smile at one another in greeting while lining-up for a jam and during one stoppage in play Janke and an opposing player had a spontaneous dance party through the glass between the benches.
It’s a high-energy, highly entertaining sport with music blasting and players sometimes speeding, sometimes shoving, and sometimes sliding on the track. The noise generated by all of the action can make verbal communication difficult for players so they find other ways to communicate.
“Everyone’s screaming at you to do things so trying to keep a wall, build it and stay with all your people and communicate; it’s really hard to do that,” said Janke. “It’s so loud that there’s no way we can hear each other so we just kind of shove each other around. If we need the outside lines we squeeze our blockers’ hips and they let us through.”
Each team has a pivot on the track who acts similar to a quarterback. The pivot is always aware of where the jammers are and calls the plays for the blockers accordingly. The fast pace of the game means that strategy can change on a dime.
Theisen says that this can be a challenge for new players.
“The problem with roller derby is that it’s a complex game and the strategies change,” said Thiesen. “I guess the biggest hurdle that you have to get over as a rookie is being able to change your strategy on the track at a moment’s notice and then change it again at a moment’s notice.”
The St. Albert Heavenly Rollers league currently have the Arch Angels travel team and two house teams, and are looking to expand.
“We’re growing really quickly, but we would love it if more people came out and tried roller derby,” said Thiesen. “It’s a great way to get exercise in, we have all kinds of walks of life with our team and we work really hard to train you.”
The STAHR house teams will tangle on the track Saturday, Aug. 25 at 7 p.m. at the Pizza 73 Fieldhouse in Servus Credit Union Place.
