Derby saved my soul: spotlight on Iron Eden

For Iron Eden, the two practices a week with the RadLeak Rollers is a break from life as a mom.

The hard hitter comes from an honest background of hockey as she played eight years competitively in Ontario. Although she is a rookie (under 10 games played), you would never know that about her by the amount of skill she possesses. 

In 2012, she was recruited in her garage by the coach of the Westaskiwin Rez City Rollers. She had noticed Iron's roller blades in the corner of the room during a Kijiji deal in her garage and invited her out to show what she could do. After two practices, she ended up getting pregnant back-to-back (you should see the two cuties) and didn't get back on skates until 2016.

She eventually continued with her love for derby when she moved to Grande Prairie with her family and joined the Grande Prairie Roller Derby Association. 

"Derby for me is getting out and getting away from my day-to-day child caring, wife duties. Getting away from the laundry and the dishes. It is an opportunity to walk through the door and take that personal time. It is really important. A lot of people say 'derby saved my soul' and I think that exactly. It saved me too," said Iron.

"It's nice to have a sport that is specifically for me and not something I bring my kids to do."

On top of giving her an opportunity to reach goals and socialize, it is a way for her to deal with anxiety issues.

"Sometimes my heart races when I am on my way to practice. I had bad experiences as an adolescent and it reverberates into the rest of my life." 

Skating for derby is also a way to stay in shape as well. Iron says she was around 215 lbs when she started and after some dedication to the sport, she has lost over 50 lbs.

Her biggest recommendation for new skaters or people that are looking to get into derby is to "say yes".

"Go to events, go to boot camps, network, get to know people. Derby is a community and it can be like a family. It is so huge and it is all over the world. Once you are in, people will start friending you on Facebook. If it is derby related just say yes. Bring as much derby into your life as you can. Derby is really the most positive thing I have done in my adult life. It is the best thing I have done for myself."

She also wants to tell new skaters to "get on their big girl panties and come out and skate"!!

Iron Eden has the skills and is the perfect example of how a former hockey player can make a transition into roller derby. She's sassy, caring, and helpful to all new recruits!

The team wouldn't be the same without you! Thank you for being your unique self, leading by example, and always bringing your best to the track. 

MEDIA RELEASE: APRIL 2018

MEDIA RELEASE




New Name for Grande Prairie Roller Derby Team
GRANDE PRAIRIE- The Grande Prairie Roller Derby Association has made a huge stride and locked down support from a local business. Jiffy Lube Grande Prairie has put their faith in the sport and with a new sponsor comes a new name for our team- The RadLeak Rollers​.

The team will be representing the Swan City, and new sponsor, at our next bout in Fort St John on April 28. The fun doesn’t end there as the team has more up their sleeves for 2018.

“Local sport brings people into the community and gets people involved. Support for sports, like roller derby, promotes tourism in the community as well as healthy living in Grande Prairie,” said Jaded Lilin’, RadLeak Rollers Insurance Representative and player.

“We want people to be themselves. Roller derby is an all inclusive sport and it doesn’t matter what size or shape you are, it is all about being yourself as you already are,” said Hacksaw, RadLeak Rollers Coach.

Although the team is based out of GP and sponsored by a local business in the city, the team still hasn’t been able to lock down space to practice and host games or scrimmages. Right now, the team is making due with practicing in the old Clairmont curling rink. The RadLeak Rollers continue to lobby for affordable space to call their own.

For more information:
Hacksaw                                                        Jaded Lilin’
Coach                                                            Team Insurance Representative
RadLeak Rollers                                            RadLeak Rollers
Grande Prairie Roller Derby Association      Grande Prairie Roller Derby Association
presidentgprda@gmail.com                          arlana.mowat@outlook.com

Our Mission: Broadly promote the sport of Flat Track Roller Derby. Recognize and support the Grande Prairie (and Northern Alberta) athletes involved. Create a strong and thriving league for future generations of derby players. Solicit dedicated community and corporate sponsors to help promote the GPRDA RadLeak Rollers. Develop kinships with like-minded women and men, respect each other, and have fun!

New League Members Make Us Happy

It has been a very successful few weeks for the GPRDA RadLeak Rollers!

Our practice Thursday was a complete success. A huge thank you to Coach Hacksaw for keeping us moving. It was fast paced and I am sure everyone was super sweaty by the end.

Not only did we have a couple returning skaters, we had a few fresh faces too! Lacey and Lyn joined us for their first practice. Lyn will be helping in an NSO position while Lacey is already signed up for insurance and ready to tackle the sport!

A handful of skaters are headed to Edmonton next weekend for the Lotus Invitational. Watch for some action packed Facebook posts!

We will be taking a team to Fort St John and welcome anyone who wants to see the sport in action, to come to the game. The KillBillies are sure to be a great opponent!


UPCOMING:

We are looking forward to Rock the Downtown! A group of us will be handing out pamphlets and recruiting league members! We will also be skating around the beer gardens and giving a few demonstrations.

At a closer date, the group will be volunteering at the City Scrub! Yay, a cleaner Grande Prairie!

We also plan to be in the Canada Day parade.

Our new logo and new jerseys are giving us some spirit. We have some EXCITING ways we plan to be showing off the new threads! Watch for us on Facebook Live and around the community.

Signed,
Goody Two-Skates
xox

The RadLeak Rollers catching some traction!

We had so much fun at the Grande Prairie Sports Expo this weekend!

It was a great way to meet people, but also, to get our faces and new logo out to the community.

As a developing team, I think our biggest strength is our enthusiasm. There were so many people that didn't know we existed or didn't know if they would want to get on skates, and all of our members were ready to explain how safe, fun, and encouraging the sport is.  Because of this, we are continuing to grow the sport in the Grande Prairie area!!! WOO!
(We have a handful of new people coming to practice Thursday!!! We are STOKED!)

A big thank you goes out to Maddhatters for providing us with a prize to give away at the show and a congratulations goes out to Doug, our winner! Another thank you goes out to the Happy Cloud Face and Body Painting for being at our booth over the weekend.

For those who want to join, we practice twice a week out at the old Clairmont curling rink at 7 p.m. Thursday and Sunday.

Keep your peepers on our Facebook page as a chunk of our team is heading to the Lotus Invitational on April 21. We also have a game in Fort St John against the KillBillies on April 28.

A big thank you to local media outlets for covering us and our new beginnings. EverythingGP and MyGrandePrairieNow both got a story going this week. We have been around since 2010, but have recently fired up a new logo with new sponsorship -- thank you Jiffy Lube Grande Prairie for being awesome and sponsoring our team.

All in all, it has been a pretty exciting couple of weeks for our team and there isn't any sign of the excitement coming to a stop!

Expectation vs. Reality: A New Skater's Perspective

Two years ago, if you would have asked me if I would ever play roller derby, I would have laughed the question off.

Before my first practice, I didn’t know the rules, I had only ever watched one game in Nelson, BC, and I didn’t know anyone on the team. Coach Hacksaw and a few other teammates invited me down to their practice on a Sunday night and even though I had to drive to Clairmont, I was eager to see what it was all about! Naturally, I brought a friend from work because I was still nervous about walking through the doors for the first time.

They had the gear for me to try and patience to teach (I had only ever tried on skates once in my lifetime...eep!!). One sweaty practice with these incredible ladies and I haven’t looked back since.

I have to say there were A LOT of things that I expected roller derby to be and it turned I was SO wrong. I am here to crush a few of your preconceived notions! (Some of these came from lack of knowledge and some of these views came from the little tidbits I had picked up along the way.)

The First Practice

Expectation:

I expected these girls to be wearing just skates and a helmet. I expected there to be a lot of elbows flying and tripping each other. I expected there to be no drills or hard sweaty skating (you could tell I thought this from what I wore...a sweatshirt.)


Reality:

The team was welcoming and patience. Everyone was geared down from skates, elbow pads, knee pads, wrist guards, mouth guard, AND a helmet. Right away, we learned to fall the correct way, so we didn’t hurt ourselves…and I immediately learned that it wasn’t a game of throwing elbows and hurting each other AT ALL. There are rules and each game gets 3 to 7 referees… woah, right?
Also, roller derby will get your butt in shape. I left as a sweaty mess in my sweatshirt and vowed to myself that I would never do that again. If you are looking for a fun way to get in shape, this is it, my friend.

The Team

Expectation:
I pictured a bunch of girls that wore a lot of face paint and tutus. I wasn’t sure if they would like me or if I would fit in and I was nervous about not being strong enough…

Reality:

Right away, I realized these girls were just like me. They were just a bunch of normal women. Hacksaw (despite her terrifying name) is so nice and patient. Iron Eden (again, despite a pretty scary name) is hilarious and welcoming to any newbies. The whole team has a quirk or something about them that makes them unique, but that is what it is all about!

CatASStrophy stood out to me right away. In the short time I have known her, we have already become gym buddies off the track destined to train to be better derby players! Although she has been at it longer than I, she is still new to the game and super encouraging.

All in all, it is a great group of ladies playing a really fun sport and I was wrong to judge it before trying!! ;)

The Derby Community

Expectation:

I expected derby to be a sport that is only played in North America. I expected it to be a sport that was popular back in the day and had sizzled out with a few people hanging onto it.

Reality:

The derby community is pretty amazing. Not only is there a league in GP, there are leagues all over Alberta, Canada, North America, South America, across seas...literally around the world.

It is HUGE. There are men’s teams! There are mixed gender teams! (THERE IS EVEN A TEAM CANADA MEN’S TEAM!! They are heading to Barcelona this week to compete in the World Cup! Ummm, how cool is that?)

Teams borrow players from other teams. Refs from one team will help out another team if they are short. It is this sprawling community of awesomness that gets underestimated by the public!!

I am so happy I walked through the doors and got involved in roller derby. Best decision I have made in 2018 by far! I challenge you to come learn more about this sport.

Meet Hacksaw, the Radleak Rollers Coach

Meet Hacksaw! 

Hacksaw has been playing the sport since 2010 and is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to roller derby.

The long-time derby girl, and coach of the RadLeak Rollers (GPRDA), became interested in the sport when she realized who the team in the Peace Region was. Back then, there were two leagues; the Peace Region Roller Dolls and the Grande Prairie Roller Derby Association. The two (apparently) had a bit of a rivalry.

"I noticed some of the girls working at the East Coast Garden Party. I don't remember what they were volunteering for, but I remember seeing them and going "pssssshhh"," said Hacksaw over laughter. 

"One of my friends joined and she said 'you have to come, you have to come'."

Back then, she admits that she wasn't all about the teamwork aspect of the game, but that has changed over the years. After getting dropped by the team for a while, she traveled as a pick-up player and joined many different teams all over Canada in bouts and that is what has changed her mindset.

"It has really opened my eyes to the leagues that work the best. They are the ones where the whole family is involved. You get these dynamic duos with a husband and wife. You get a husband that takes it up, then he is reffing, and the kids play, I have seen how it could work in different ways."

Although Hacksaw has thought about quitting over the last three years, she thinks derby will always be part of her life. (Also, you should see her license plate! She'd have to change that too! ;) She has her husband to thank for that one.)

"The things I have done and the people I have met I never would have if I was just a Hockey Mom living out in Sexsmith. I never would have met such cool and awesome people and travel to such cool places."

She's played in places like Las Vegas, the Olympic Dome in Calgary, and the Ice Palace in Edmonton, but the derby-love is what keeps the community connection alive for Hacksaw. 

She spoke on two derby players that are very close to her heart; Stitch Ripper and Pam Cakes. 

"They were besties, they joined together, and we were all the same age. I got kicked out of a game...I fouled out and I was SO upset. I didn't know what I was going to do and I was in Edmonton. I didn't have any teammates with me, it was one of those invitationals and I just felt like a lump of coal. I went out to the parking lot and there were these two girls that were having tail-gate beers and said 'come here'. They have loved me ever since. One of the girls has passed a couple years ago now... You just meet incredible people."

Sassy Taffy, another GPRDA RadLeak Roller, is her Derby Wife and keeps her going.

"She is someone I never would have come across in normal, every day life and now, she is one of my best friends. I push people away a lot, I have a two-year rotation, but she has stayed by my side, even if I wasn't nice."

Although the big hits and travel were her favourite parts when she first started playing, watching people learn to love derby has become her new favourite. 

"What I like now is watching people develop into the people they are meant to be. I really like watching women become strong, tough, and not what I watched my family do growing up. There were no athletes in my family. My mom played some slo-pitch, but that was it," she said.

When she isn't derby-ing, Hacksaw can be found on the golf course, doing pole-fit, playing darts, or teaching fitness. She is currently working on getting her certification to teach fitness to older people.

Her derby name comes from the show Sex in the City, but it changed over the years.

"It used to be a popular show. It was a play on Carrie Bradshaw...I was Kerrie Hacksaw, but no one got it. It got shortened to Hacksaw...sometimes people call me Hackie or Hack."

Hacksaw is a patient, kind, passionate, and an experienced derby player. We are lucky to have such a great lady here in the Peace Region. The team thanks you for all you do for the sport! 

                                          

 WE NEED YOU!

YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE GREAT TO START! BUT YOU DO HAVE TO START TO BE GREAT! IF YOU’VE BEEN CONTEMPLATING TRYING OUT THIS AMAZING SPORT JOIN US TOMORROW OCTOBER 15 AT 7 PM 9819-100ave CLAIRMONT. LEAVE US A MESSAGE  on FACEBOOK WITH YOUR SKATE SIZE