The upcoming season for Estevan Junior Roller Derby club is already underway and the club is looking for new players to try out the sport.
“It's not even so much as 'You have to join',” said club president Lorelei Lachambre. “We're just hoping the word will get out if you've even thought about it. We let them try it for the first few times for free and we give them the equipment.”
The club, which is open to girls in grades 4-12, will be hosting a pair of opening nights for their age groups. They are Sept. 14 and 17 at the Bienfait Rink from 5:30 to 7 p.m.
“Obviously the more numbers that we get the better, but we also want to get anyone who has just held back... Even just getting more people out to try it out would be awesome.”
All they ask is for parents to sign a waiver and prospective derby stars to bring a courageous spirit. The open invitation doesn't mean that brand new recruits will be matched up against girls eight years older.
“We have one group that comes from 5:30 to 7 and that's mostly new skaters and skaters that have benchmarked at the Level One benchmark,” said Lachambre. “And then our more experienced older skaters who play the full contact roller derby, they skate from 7 to 9. They wouldn't be thrown in with the older kids or the most experienced kids.”
The opening months won't have contact until the girls are steady on their skates, know all their stops and know how to fall properly.
“The first two months is basically working on skating skills and getting them comfortable on wheels,” she said.
The club is looking for girls of all shapes and sizes as just about everyone can play a specific role on a derby team whether it's a blocker or a jammer. Lachambre said that derby adds social benefits like teamwork, self esteem, communication, goal setting, friendship and confidence. The games themselves are unlikely to start until April or May since they and other teams in the area will use indoor rinks to practice and play.
In the beginning, they did a lot of their recruiting for the club directly in the schools.
“Now that we've been here for fifth year, a lot of people know that there is roller derby in Estevan,” she said. “The people that are in it, we rely on them heavily to recruit others to join in.”
The season will run from September to mid-November and the cost is $130 for the full season. September practices will be in Bienfait and then in October they will move into the Lutheran Church Gym.
Anyone interested can call Lachambre at 306-421-3289.
