Roller derby first captured Naomi Morrell’s imagination when she was 11.
After reading the graphic novel Roller Girl — a gift from her aunt — she was determined to try the sport.
She went to a practice to see what it was like.
“I was just watching these people demolish each other on skates and I was like: ‘Mom, I want to do that.’ ”
Now a 16-year-old Grade 11 student at Belmont Secondary, Naomi says she found the action “explosive,” which really drew her in.
“People were just flying on these skates in a way I’d never seen anyone do before.”
They’d fall and get back up “and it was just all smiles.”
“There was no malice, there was nothing behind it, it was just love for each other and love for the sport. I wanted to be a part of that.”
Already playing soccer — and later rugby — Naomi, who describes herself as sporty, got involved in the local co-ed junior league for 10- to 18-year-olds.
Now she’s been announced as one of three B.C. youths selected for the Canadian team that will be heading to Valance, France in July for the Junior Roller Derby World Cup.
She said finding out last month that she had made the 35-person roster, which includes a girls’ division and a coed division, was thrilling.
“I just started yelling and running around the house, and everyone was dancing,” said Naomi, who made the girls’ team. “It was ridiculous.”
Like others, Naomi has a nom de guerre she uses when she plays — a playful twist that embodies the sport. Hers is Scream Soda, which she borrowed from Roller Girl — a story about friendship and junior high school that uses roller derby as a backdrop.
“My 11-year-old self was very not creative — I couldn’t think of anything that was personal,” she said. “There’s a character in the book named Scream Soda and I always thought she was cool.”
Other pseudonyms used by team members include Derby Devil, Hurricane Laine and Speed Demon.
Roller derby features four-wheeled skates rather than inline skates, Naomi said, with other standard equipment including helmets, wrist guards and knee and elbow pads.
The goal is to pass as many people as possible while skating laps on a circular course.
The “jammer” does the passing while the “blockers” try to keep that from happening, Naomi said.
“That’s where the hitting happens.”
In the capital region, the sport is played at Esquimalt’s Archie Browning Sports Centre and the Eagle Ridge Community Centre in Langford.
Naomi said she will be doing a lot of cross-training in the spring and is already following the national team’s strict workout schedule.
“We keep each other accountable and we have lots of meetings online.”
The team will come together for the first time in Toronto in April, when there will an exhibition game with France.
Another session will held in Alberta in May.
Naomi said roller derby is a “unique” sport that is unfamiliar to some, and she enjoys filling them in.
“I think most of the people in my life know quite a bit about it just because they hear that I do it and then they get curious,” she said. “When I meet a new person and they say: ‘What is that?’ I have a script on how to explain it to them.”
