It may be the off-season for roller derby, but that didn’t dampen the drive of Rossland’s Gnarlie’s Angels on Jan. 15 when they trounced the Deathbridge Derby Dames 239-135 on their home rink in Lethbridge.
“We crushed them,” said Injure Spice. “And then we crushed them a little bit more.”
She added, with only a hint of cruelty, “It was so fun.”
But the game was all in good fun, of course. At one point the referees needed an extended time-out, but the girls didn’t waste a minute:
“We had a big dance-off with roller skates, both teams,” laughed Spice, a.k.a. Shannon Marion, a founding member of the Angels and the VP of the West Kootenay Women’s Roller Derby (WKWRD).
“After the game, we invited them to come and play here, and they graciously accepted,” Spice said, noting the excitement that generated on both teams. “There are no hurt feelings.”
The Angels’ coach, Damon Walton, was still thunderstruck.
“It was amazing. High-level, top-notch derby,” he said. “I wish [the game] was in Rossland so people could have seen.”
Despite the fact that five of the 13 Angels were new skaters, Walton said, “our team played unbelievably well, like an all-star team that had been playing and practicing together for years.”
“It’s not that we were playing a weaker derby team,” he emphasized, “we just pulled it together so well. Afterwards [the Dames] were saying, Wow, we’ve never played such a technical team before.”
“In my opinion,” he continued, “[the Angels] played fairly basic derby strategy, but they were able to make it work, it clicked. The girls were hitting hard and playing their positions well.”
Walton refused to single out any player. “I’d feel bad to leave anyone out. They totally left their hearts on that track. It was a pretty big effort by everybody.”
For those who were fortunate enough to be among the cheering hordes in Rossland’s arena last September when our Angels made their home rink debut, it will surely be remembered as an historic night.
“The September bout generated interest all over the Kootenays,” Walton said, crediting that game for starting two new teams in Nelson, a new team in Castlegar, and attracting new skaters to both the Angels and Salmo’s Babes of Brutality.
It was also a turning point for Walton who, until that point had been a helpful spectator at most practices, there to watch his partner, jammer “Canuck Norris.” But he became a jam ref for the big game.
“I didn’t have any experience except that I had read through the rules once by that game,” he said.
At a basic level, the game is quite simple: Two “jammers,” one from each team, weave their way through a pack of opponent blockers, getting a point for each pass.
“The hardest part of roller derby is officiating it,” Walton said. “It’s a hard game to ref. There’s a head ref, two inside pack refs, two jam refs, one for each jammer — that’s five refs skating the inside track. And there’s two outside pack refs.”
Walton started coaching in October, taking over from Patchouli Punch (a.k.a. Laura Crozier) who “needed to step away for a bit,” he said.
His career took off from there. “I started getting pulled away to other leagues to ref games in the Okanagan,” he said. Along with some Angels, he went to ref and skater clinics with “some pretty high level coaches from the States, two girls with years of experience, including the godmother of junior derby.”
“At that point, I was mostly curious what kind of drills coaches did to teach derby skills,” he said. “Then I played in a couple bouts and will play again in February with an all-men’s team in Armstrong: Vancouver Murder vs. Glenmore Reservoir Dogs.”
“There are guys involved [in derby],” he explained, “but this is largely a sport by and for women, and they’re quite proud of it.”
Indeed, the Armstrong bout will be a double-header, and the first part will be the bigger draw: “An all-star female game with some of the best female skaters from Western Canada,” Walton said.
Across the West Kootenay, the season begins again for the WKWRD on Feb. 1. A roller derby team consists of 20 skaters — though only 14 of those skaters can be on the roster for any given bout — but Injure Spice said “there’s a couple spots left for sure” for new Gnarlie’s Angels.
Skaters have to make at least six practices each month to keep their spot on the team and have to pass a “benchmark” skills test of 50 skills to join in the first place.
But there’s time to practise. “The fresh meat intake won’t be until April,” Walton said.
In the meantime, Spice noted that “Trail doesn’t have a team yet. I’d love to see a team in Trail. The more the merrier.”
“We’d be happy to help train a Trail team to help them get going,” she said. “Just contact Gnarlie’s or the Babes of Brutality.”
Spice added, “We’re looking for refs, volunteers, shiny happy people who are willing to help out in any shape or form.” Shiny happy people should get on the Gnarlie’s Angels Facebook page, become a friend, and drop a message.