Tough women on skates could bust onto the Haines scene.
A Facebook post to generate interest in forming a local roller derby team garnered more than 50 likes and 25 comments from Haines women who want to tear up the track.
“I’ve wanted to play for a while,” said Leslie Ross. She’s heading up an effort to organize a Haines team. Although she’s never played, Ross said she’s excited about getting a team started.
She recently went with the Haines Dolphins swim team to Petersburg and was inspired after watching the Ragnarok Rollers roller derby team play there. Former Haines resident Victoria Moore is a member of the team there.
Anchorage, Juneau, Palmer, Wasilla, Fairbanks, Petersburg, Sitka, Ketchikan, Wrangell and Whitehorse all host at least one roller derby team. They compete against one another in an annual statewide tournament.
Roller derby is a women’s contact sport. Teams of five women in helmets, elbow pads and knee pads roller skate around a track for two-minute “jams.” Each team has a “jammer” who scores points by lapping members of the opposing team. The teams attempt to hinder the other jammer while helping their own jammer advance.
Roller derby is notorious for being rough. Team members adopt nicknames or “derby names” that give each team member a fun alias.
Ross said the Ragnarok Rollers or the Juneau Rollergirls would be willing to host a clinic here.
The only issue: a place to practice.
The Haines team is very much in its beginning stages, Ross said, so she wants to get interested women together before approaching anyone to ask about a practice space. Most roller derby teams use gyms, and Ross said the way players clean their skates and put stoppers on their brakes does less damage to gym floors than athletic shoes do.
Ross said she’d like to let women in Skagway know about the opportunity, as well as children in both communities. Petersburg has a coed youth roller derby program that competes against other youth teams in the state.
There’s also a possibility to work with a Skagway skate shop that sells beginner packages of roller derby gear, Ross said.
Ross said 36 people have been added to a private Facebook group so far. Call Ross at 907-314-0543 for more information.