P.G. tattoo artist earns role with all-male Vancouver roller derby team
Theresa Sapergia has always been a straight shooter. Coming from a Prince George family that got her involved in archery and firearm target shooting, at an early age she learned how to tune out all distractions and focus on hitting bulls-eyes.
But now, instead of firing projectiles at defenceless paper targets, she has her sights trained on pulverizing 240-pound male behemoths in full-contact roller derby as the only woman playing for the Vancouver Murder of the Men’s Roller Derby Association (MRDA).
Sapergia, 40, also known as Mrs. Testosterone and her derby name, Reese Lightning, skated for the Murder at the MRDA world championship in October in Cwmbran, South Wales. The Murder (which gets its name from the scientific name for a pack of crows) won two of three games.
Ranked ninth going in, they finished ninth.
“We’re really happy with that, this is our second year at champs and only the second year a Canadian team has made it that far,” said Sapergia. “It’s a pretty big honour to play for them.”
The tournament included the New York Shock Exchange, San Diego Aftershock, Southern Discomfort (Wales), Bridgetown Menace (Portland, Ore.), Manchester (Eng- land) New Wheeled Order, Puget Sound Outcasts, St. Louis Gatekeepers, Roller Derby Toulouse (France), Philadelphia Hooligans and Austin (Texas) Anarchy.
Vancouver qualified for the world event at the North American championship in Richmond in August. League rules allow for 20-player rosters and only 14 can dress for each game. The Murder had just 10 players in Wales and one of them was lost to an injury in the first game.
In roller derby, teams of five players on quad-wheel skates move counterclockwise on a flat track and each team designates one jammer whose job in each jam is to get through the pack and lap those opponents to earn points. Sapergia had always played the role as jammer until a month before the world tournament, when she was told she was needed more as a blocker.
“I jumped from women’s derby into the highest level of men’s derby and everything is so fast with them and the amount of skill with them is crazy,” she said. “I feel there are no weak spots on our team. Everybody is so fast and so strategic and everyone is a great communicator. It’s as professional as you can get where everyone is paying their own bill.”
Until May, when she joined the Murder, Sapergia played in the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association, which is strictly for women. There are no gender restrictions in the MRDA and several teams have female players. Sapergia was one of only three females in the world championship.
— see SAPERGIA, page 8