The Lakeland Ladykillers roller derby team is excited for the upcoming season.
The team will kick off the 2013 campaign on May 11 when they travel to Fort McMurray for a bout with the Tar Sand Betties. The last time these two teams met, the Ladykillers squeaked out a two-point victory.
Ladykillers travel team captain Patti “Safeword Banana Banana Banana” Noseworthy is looking forward to the match up.
“We are going to hit it hard,” said Noseworthy, who has been with the team for three years. “We've got a rivalry with these girls. Last time we came out and played them, we played in front of 900 people. The crowd was crazy. It was amazing.”
The Ladykillers travel team currently has 20 members. Teammate Kristy “Brass Brawls” Poirier is also excited to get the season going.
“It looks like it's going to be a lot of fun, a lot of hard work and we have to be determined if we want to really make a name for ourselves.”
Recently the team traveled to Calgary to participate in the “Flat Track Fever” tournament. Going into the tournament the Ladykillers were ranked 67th in Canada. The team faced the 18th ranked Oil City Derby Girls out of Edmonton and lost by 68 points.
Even though the result was not favorable, Poirier said they were proud of how they played. The bout was especially exciting for Poirier, who got to play against her former team.
“It was nerve racking,” said Poirier, who is in her second year playing for Lakeland. “I wanted to go out there and show how much I had improved, because of the Lakeland Ladykillers and our training program.”
She thought the match was a good test for the Ladykillers.
“They have improved by leaps and bounds as well,” said Poirier. “We still have a lot of catching up to do. There is a good reason they are one of the higher ranking teams in the country.”
The Ladykillers have only been a league for three seasons. Noseworthy, who has been involved since the very beginning, feels this team is the best one she has been a part of.
“We have definitely got a much stronger team than we have ever had,” said Noseworthy. “We've got a lot of new girls, with a lot of talent that are really hungry to get out there and play. I think we are going to do really well.”
The Ladykillers are currently finishing up the spring recruitment sessions or “fresh meat intake” as they call it.
“When we do our fresh meat (training), it doesn't matter if you don't know the difference between a roller-skate or a rollerblade, we'll teach you,” said Noseworthy.
Noseworthy says they will be doing some more recruiting at the end of the summer and recommends the sport to everyone.
“It will change your life. It is the best thing that will ever happen to you. You get to be a superhero,” said Noseworthy. “You come to practice and you put the skates on and you will have the crowd chanting your name. It's amazing”
Poirier says the sport is also a great way to stay in shape.
“It has given me a lot of strength, physically and emotionally. It has given me the strength to build such a better body. I have become in such great shape because of it. It has given me dedication and strength to do what I want to do.”
One of the more interesting decisions one has to make when joining a roller derby league is what their nickname is going to be. Everybody has a different story of how they decided on their nickname.
“One of my girl friends suggested it, because whenever one of the bigger girls came in to hit me I'd say ‘Banana! Banana!' that was my safe word,” explained Noseworthy, who went a year without a nickname. “She said, ‘why don't you just be safeword banana, banana, banana?'”
The process is tough because no one can use the same nickname. There is a database that tracks the names of every player across Canada, so everyone has to come up with their own unique name. Poirier used her nickname as a way to describe herself.
“For some people it just reflects their inner self,” said Poirier, who is a school secretary. “(A side) that they can't necessarily express on a day-to-day basis. I'm “brass brawls” but in my day-to-day job there is no room for me to be rowdy and a brawler, a fighter or anything like that.”
The Ladykillers will have two home games this season on June 8 and August 17 that will take place in Cold Lake. Poirier is looking forward to playing in front of a home crowd.
“We are looking to showcase what we do and to get the name out and hopefully garner some more community support.”
