The Naughty vs. Nice live roller derby took place at the Cypress Centre pavilion on Saturday. A good crowd showed up with lots of participants. The games started at 9 a.m. and didn't finish until 9 p.m.--NEWS PHOTO SAMANTHA JOHNSON
reporter@medicinehatnews.com
The Naughty vs. Nice live roller derby took place at the Cypress Centre pavilion on Saturday.
There was a busy crowd of enthusiastic spectators and participants came from as far as Fernie, Fort McMurray and Saskatoon.
This is the eighth year Gas City Roller Derby has hosted the event, which is popular with the entire roller derby community of Alberta and Saskatchewan. Coach Dodger (Joel McNally) said, “it’s a big family Christmas party for all the derby people.” There are much bigger derby events that happen across Alberta but this is the biggest event the local club hosts.
The club currently has eight adult members and about 25 junior members.
“We started off as an adult league but there are way more kids right now.”
The club has held two public skates so far and plans to run them indefinitely with the next one scheduled for Dec. 17 from 6:30-8 p.m. at the Downtown YMCA.
Gas City Roller Derby is currently rebuilding its adult team.
“We are looking for adults who are interested in playing roller derby,” said Dodger. “We will teach you to skate and have equipment we can loan you. We accept people with any body type and any athletic ability. Roller derby is a sport anybody can learn and thrive in.”
The team practises at the Cypress Centre twice a week – Tuesdays and Thursdays – but will start to do some practising at the Medicine Hat Curling Club, which they use during the spring and summer, as their ice machine isn’t working. They will travel some during the year but only as far as Calgary.
The club is always looking for places to skate. It can be difficult for them to find venues that will allow them to roll indoors.
“Anybody out in the world who wants to help us find a home, we would love to hear from you,” said Dodger.
Check out their Facebook page for more information.
