By AMELIA LOEFFLER, age 11
Junior Roller Derby is a growing sport. There are more than 200 junior teams in the United States.
PHOTO: Johnna Speaks
My name is Rolldemort. Well, actually it’s Amelia, but I play junior roller derby, and in derby you have a “derby name.” Some of my teammates’ derby names are TerminateHer, Bruisin’ Belle and Spittin’ Venom. Junior roller derby is a full-contact, all-girls sport played on quad skates (skates with four wheels).
We wear full protective gear: a helmet, wrist guards, elbow pads, knee pads and a mouth guard. The object of the game is to score more points than the opposing team. A jammer scores points by passing the opposing team’s players, and blockers work to get their jammer through the pack—blocking the other team’s jammer.
Roller derby takes girls outside their comfort zones, in a good way. I couldn’t skate at all two years ago and now I am competing and improving at every practice. My team is always learning new things, and that’s one of the reasons why derby is so great—it’s never boring.
Junior Roller Derby is a growing sport. There are more than 200 junior teams in the United States. There are three in my state, Kentucky. I skate for the Central Kentucky Junior Roller Derby’s Pebbles Team. We’re the Pebbles because our big sister team (the older girls) is called ROCK, that’s short for Rollergirls of Central Kentucky.
I’d recommend junior roller derby to anyone. New York City is home to Gotham Girls Roller Derby and they have a junior team as well—check them out!
