The crash and bash, all-female sport involves two teams of five trying to score points by sending their “jammer” through a pack of “blockers”, all while skating around a rink.
Ms Schiwy was introduced to the sport in 2010 in Hobart, where she was living at the time, and, after to moving to Victoria, was drafted to the VRDL at the start of 2013.
But her derby career was put on hold when she found out she was pregnant.
“Coming back to training has been both challenging and rewarding,” Ms Schiwy said.
“The training requirement for roller derby is high, and I would not be able to sufficiently train without the support of my league and teammates.”
This year she’s playing for the Avengers, and her young daughter Edith now comes to the rink every Saturday and “absolutely loves it”.
“Edith loves her ‘derby aunties’ and enjoys watching scrimmage and playing with them while at training,” she said.
“Moving to Melbourne, straight away I started training and to meet all these wonderful people, they’ve given me so much support.”
Ms Schiwy said it takes about a year of training before you can learn the rules and compete, but she encourages other women interested to give it a go.
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