LRDG back on the track tonight
ROLLER DERBY TEAM HOLDING HOME OPENERS AT 6 P.M.
The Lethbridge Roller Derby Guild is ready to roll once again.
As they take the track for another season since forming in 2010, the women’s roller derby team holds their home opener tonight at the Lethbridge Curling Club the ATB Centre. The Lethbridge’s Windy City Wipeouts junior team faces the Calgary Junior Roller Derby at 6 p.m. followed by the adult Deathbridge Derby Dames and the B52 Bellas at 8 p.m.
The club’s numbers are up this year, but Lethbridge Roller Derby Guild president and player Tracy Reid — a.k.a. Knotty — would like to see a few more spectators as well as the LRDG looks to keep building its fan base in their third year at the curling club.
“It is a family friendly event with the amenities upstairs,” she said. “They can watch from above and they let us hang out afterwards and do our after-party, they get to mingle with the team.”
The LRDG would like to see the fan numbers come up, but club’s skater numbers has shot up for the coming summer.
“Our numbers are actually up this year, it’s really great,” said Reid. “The last couple of years we have struggled for numbers. We’ve had to borrow skaters from other leagues. To a roster, we normally have a bench no less than 12, but ideally we would like to have 15 or 16. We’ve had maybe seven or eight of our own skaters for the last couple of years. This year our numbers are up to about 18 or 19 for the adults.”
Reid said a few skakers from past years have returned to the club, while others have tried the sport and stuck around.
“Our numbers tend to fluctuate. We would like to see our numbers for skaters go up, but we would like to see that fanbase, too. For a few years we had some numbers coming out, but there is a lot in Lethbridge and a lot to compete with. So we’d like to see people come out. It is something different. It’s a full-contact sport. The juniors, Level 1 and 2 are not full contact, but Level 3 is. They basically play the same game as the adults."
The LRDG’s junior program is for boys and girls aged eight to 17.
Our junior numbers have been quite good over the years,” said Reid. “Our new skaters come into Level 1 and we have about eight or 10 of those. At Level 2 we have about the same and at Level III we have eight of them and they’ve been with us since the beginning. Our juniors have been around for six years.”
To further promote the club, the LRDG will be posting weekly feature stories on two of their skaters starting in June, talking about the athletes’ day jobs and their role with the club. Those will be able to be viewed on the LRDG’s Lethbridge Roller Derb Guild Facebook page.
Following this weekend’s home opener, the LRDG will be back at the curling club as they host the fourth annual Hellz Jezebel Memorial Tournament June 8-9.