Former Haines resident Victoria Moore will be representing her Native heritage when she steps onto the flat oval track at Roller Derby World Cup 2018 in February.
Forty Women’s Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA) teams will compete in Manchester, U.K., Feb. 1 – 4.
The tournament is the culmination of years of hard work, training and competing for Moore, who is Tlingit and German. She joined the new charter, Team Indigenous this summer. The 20-member team has never competed together-or even met. Moore, 45, is a blocker for the Ragnarok Rollers in Petersburg. After a teammate nominated her for Team Indigenous tryouts last spring, she compiled an audition video and made the team as the only representative from Alaska.
“I didn’t really tell too many people,” Moore said by phone from her home in Petersburg.
Moore, a married mother of two sons, lived in Haines for ten years. In December 2015 her family relocated to Mitkof Island where her husband, Joshua, is a commercial fisherman. She handles the accounts for the fishing business and takes care of their 11-year-old, special-needs son, Alex.
“I got involved in derby about 10 days after I arrived in Petersburg,” Moore said. She hadn’t skated in years, but bought gear and outfits at a local retailer and participated in her first competition in January 2016 under the derby name Victoria Deckem.
In July, Moore attended RollerCon, a national derby convention that’s held every year in Las Vegas. This was the first major event Moore attended since she began competing. She attended derby clinics and watched other teams compete, she said.
Moore learned to skate as a child. “I remember the first time I put skates on I was 6 or 7. It was at the Mendenhall Mall in Juneau. There used to be a skating rink there,” she said. Another memorable moment in her early skating career was at the Saxman Community Center in Ketchikan. “I lost my toenail when I hit the wall.”
Roller derby is played in increments called “jams,” which last up to two minutes. Two teams have up to five skaters at the start of the jam. Four skaters are “blockers” and one is the “jammer.” The jammer scores by lapping opposing team skaters. Blockers form a pack playing offense and defense.
Moore usually has a starting position on the inside track as a blocker. “I was rotating around a bit toward the end of the (2017) season,” she said. “I’ve jammed before, it’s not my favorite position,” she added.
Roller derby is a full-contact sport and skaters can get injured, but Moore employs a Zen approach to competition.
“Before a bout, my one focus is to stay calm. If I can clear my mind spiritually, then I can stay calm,” she said. Calm focus helps her know what is happening on the track and anticipate other skaters’ moves, which helps her and her teammates stay safe and score points. She suffered a knee injury in May 2016, but she hasn’t backed down from her approach to competition.
Moore’s approach to the sport is a “calming presence on the team,” according to teammate Angela Denning, aka Dark Flow RideHer. “She’s a very dedicated skater, always supporting our derby team on and off the track. She’s a level headed skater. If she does get frustrated, she doesn’t let it affect her skating or the way she interacts with others.”
Team Indigenous is the brainchild of Melbourne, Australia-based Melissa Mick, aka Mick Swagger, and April “Jumpy” McGee from Maine Roller Derby in Portland, Maine. The team is composed of First Nations and Native women from around the world.
Moore said the team will be in Manchester for eight days and will have little time to practice together before the four days of competition. The team members are in contact via social media and will set up video conference calls in the weeks before they meet. “I’ve played enough in mash-ups now to immediately know what kind of competitors your teammates are,” she said.
This will be Moore’s first trip abroad. She was able to purchase a roundtrip ticket using airline miles, but will still need to cover expenses once she gets there. “I will be doing some fundraising; maybe a sushi night or something,” she said.
World Cup will be a unique experience for everyone on the team. “There is no other indigenous team in any women’s sport who has taken their place amongst their peers and represented their ancestral nations at their sport’s World Cup,” Team Indigenous said in a statement. “This is groundbreaking and we are proud to be the first team to claim this right.”