The Estevan Coaler Rollers junior roller derby team crushed the L'il Chicago Most Wanted at Moose Jaw's Mosiac Place last Saturday beating the host team 372-190.
“The girls just played absolutely amazing,” said Lorelei Lachambre, coach of the Coaler Rollers. “It was the best game I've seen them play so far. Just their confidence going into it was really high and when we started the game we were consistently getting lead jam, which means we controlled the scoreboard and when you can end the jam. And as soon as they started getting lead jam their confidence just skyrocketed and they played like rock stars, so it was really fun to watch. It was really fun to coach and just a really big boost that we needed for the season.”
Lachambre explained each team has one jammer in roller derby who has to fight their way through the pack and whichever jammer gets out first is declared the lead by the referees. She said they can control how long the jam goes for up to two minutes, so if one team has a strong lead jammer they can just keep circling and passing accumulating points each time they go around the track.
“Normally we are really struggling to get lead jam, getting our jammers out and this game was the exact opposite,” she said. “We were crushing and getting lead jams consistently.”
Over the past few seasons the Coaler Rollers have experienced growing pains on the track due to the youth and inexperience of their teams. The club's patience in slowly building up their skills and confidence seems to now be paying off as evidenced by the level 2/3 win against the Most Wanted and the success of the three Coaler Rollers squads that excelled at their annual home tournament at Bienfait Memorial Arena May 7-8.
“It's fantastic for our club to host such an event because we are the only junior tournament in the province, so all of the other teams come to us for a tournament which is pretty exciting,” said Lachambre, noting teams from Saskatoon, Regina, Rocanville and a mixed squad of Moose Jaw and Brandon players attended the tourney. “Everybody was real pleased with how the tournament went. It ran smoothly and there was lots of support and the kids played really well. It was a really good experience for us.”
Lachambre said the Coaler Rollers will take a break for the Victoria Day long weekend before heading back to the Bienfait Memorial Arena on May 28 and 29 for a derby bootcamp. She said Sour Cherry, a coach of the Wild Rose All Stars junior roller derby team that plays out of the Greater Edmonton Junior Roller Derby Association, will be leading the bootcamp.
“Edmonton junior derby has the top-ranked team in Canada right now, so we're borrowing their coach for a weekend. She visited us last year and the girls absolutely loved her, so we asked her to come back again this year.”
