The junior roller derby team hosted their first home bout of the season at the Moose Jaw Ford Curling Centre on Saturday and saw some progress.
“For a third of our players, this was their first game ever,” said coach Rob “Mr. Fantastic” Vida. “They did amazing. This is beyond all my expectations.”
Although the outcome wasn’t what they wanted, as the Pile o’ Bones Miss Demeanor team won 259-173, the Most Wanted never quit.
“In our one and only real game last year, we lost by 300 points. This is a huge improvement,” said Vida. “My goal was less than 100-point loss. I told the kids we were going to win and I actually thought we could. We caught up at the end.”
It has been an exciting start to the season for the Most Wanted team, as more young girls aged six to 18 years old are trying the sport of roller derby.
“It has been crazy busy. We had way more kids than ever,” said Vida. “We had a huge enrollment, so we have been teaching new skaters and teaching kids the game.”
Vida did say some of that is from the senior team, the Lil Chicago Roller Derby Jawbreakers, but also from word-of-mouth.
“It is a bit of the Jawbreakers. It is a bit of carry over from last season,” he said. “We had a pretty good time and they brought their friends. They are loving it.”
The Most Wanted team looked nervous and jittery to start the bout and Miss Demeanor was able to take control early and get out to a big lead.
The half-time score was 134-78 for the Regina junior team.
However, the Most Wanted was able to regroup in the second period and closed the gap to under 100 points.
“The first half, they were getting pretty discouraged. We went to the dressing room and had a good talk. The girls went from bummed to wow we are doing this,” said Vida. “They came out a totally different team and I am so proud of them. I cannot believe how deep they dug for this game.”
The majority of the players stayed around for the senior game and the excitement they showed in the stands was infectious. It was easy to see their interest in learning how to better themselves by watching the veterans play.
“These girls look up to the other girls that have been here a long time. They want to follow them and do what they do. They see the veteran players and they want to be like that,” said Vida. “They work their butts off. They are practising on their own time too, they have changed their eating and are exercising away from the track because they want to be like that.”
The player of the game award went to Nutcase Nadia for Regina and Q-Tee McWiskers for Moose Jaw.
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