Amy Guinan-Browne is a regular North Van teen who enjoys dance and gets good grades at school.
But when she puts on her roller skates, knee pads, helmet, and uniform she becomes "Deb Owncrusher" (as in "the bone crusher").
Amy is 14 and is one of a number of North Shore teens who are members of the Vancouver Junior Roller Derby league, a non-contact, flat-track roller derby league for kids. It is affiliated with the adult league Terminal City Rollergirls.
Last year, Amy was watching an episode of her favourite show, Bones, which featured a fictional roller-derby themed case. She was intrigued by the sport and looked online to check if there was any roller derby in the area. She found information about the junior league and went to a practice. It turned out to be the new league's first-ever practice and she was hooked.
"I was like, yea, I'm doing this," says Amy.
The following week, Amy got her roller skates and all her equipment and showed up at the next practice ready to roll.
It has now been a year since she started, and Amy is a member of the ScreamPunks, one of the older teams in the junior league, for kids ages 13-18. There is also a team for kids 13 and under.
Amy says what she likes most about the sport is its inclusiveness. The teams feature players with a diverse range of personalities, and Amy says some of the kids have played a lot of sports and some of them are not as experienced.
"It's really cool," says Amy. "I think anyone can try it. It's so open."
Roller derby is a sport that has been enjoying a grassroots resurgence in popularity over the past decade or so. The adult version of the sport can be quite rough, but the junior league currently features a modified non-contact approach.
Amy says she watches a lot of the Terminal City Rollergirls bouts, and it was at one of those bouts that she first started to understand the rules of the game. She notes that at first glance, roller derby can look a bit confusing. There are a lot of rules, but the gist of the game is that two teams try to score by sending their "jammers" (one player) around the track while trying to block their opponent's jammer from scoring.
Amy downloaded a roller derby app and referred to it as she watched her first TCRG match, and by the second half she had a better sense of the details of the game.
Amy says the hardest part of learning roller derby so far has been the skating. Skating on four wheels is similar to inline skating, she says, but she has had to work on her balance and learning how to bend her knees and get low. Although she admits she had the same problem when she was learning to ice skate.
Amy says she is excited to be a part of one of the first junior roller derby leagues in the Lower Mainland.
"I know that once it's in full swing that I'll be playing," she says of the sport becoming even more popular. "We'll get so many people watching it and knowing the sport and it's really cool to know that that's going to be me."
Vancouver Junior Roller Derby is looking for new players and has programs throughout the summer. Check out their Facebook page for more information.
This story originally appeared in our special Summer Camps feature, which highlights various camps for kids on the North Shore.
