A poster caught the attention of Alex Evans nearly five years ago, an ad spreading word of the Toronto Roller Derby. She had free time and ‘cash burning a hole’ in her pocket. She picked up quad skates and tried out the competitive roller-game, starting as a blocker. She hasn’t looked back since. Roller derby, for those it has rushed by, experienced an intense North American resurgence just under a decade ago. The resurrection came with a strong female empowerment component, a league of their own where women could bring out the contact sport hurt. The Toronto Roller Derby (ToRD) was established in 2006, helping urban Canadians thirsty for name-puns could drink up. Today, Evans goes by the derby-name BruiseBerry Pie, and she’s coaching a new team, though the clan she’s sharpening is different-in-ways for Toronto’s scene.
BruiseBerry recognizes the modern derby’s feminist angle. “It started as a feminist, do-it-yourself movement in Texas,” says BruiseBerry, “that started garnering strength.” But she also champions the derby’s inclusive spirit, which is why on a Sunday afternoon in the empty Toronto Roller Derby hall, BruiseBerry’s shouting orders above the room’s echoes at nine men on roller skates. VelociRainbow, Harassin’ Ford, Toque n’ Ale and Flyin’ Bryan Killman, the latter three male, have decided to put together a men’s roller derby team for Toronto.
This is their second training sessions. Cruising around the mock track, a rink created by orange and green tape on the ground, the boys practice formations and jumping in unison. BruiseBerry, watching from the center, has a ref whistle around her neck but she never seems to use it. VelociRainbow, another player, monitors from the edge. The men aren’t wearing short shorts but khakis, padding and tee-shirts related to various derby associations or Hulk Hogan. BruiseBerry walks them through the soundest ways to turn and stop without risking a broken bone. There are some hard tumbles and a few time outs. Some waver their arms outward as if they are learning to walk again, others are confident enough to keep their eyes on others. Some have been a participating athletes for every sport in their proximity and some have been athletes exclusively on a Sony PlayStation. All in all, the group holds an overwhelming familiarity with the game.
While the women’s derby’s revival drew in from a wide net of people, the majority of the men in the hall come from backgrounds of coaching, managing or refereeing in the existing women’s league. “I think we primarily reached out to our own community to find people,” says BruiseBerry. Once the new league gets rolling, it’s only a matter of time before outsiders express interest. Two of BruiseBerry’s male coworkers have already enquired. “It’s a great advantage for me,” says BruiseBerry, “I don’t have to teach them the rules! There are a lot of basics I got to skip over today.”
“There’s a lot of interest from referees and coaches, we all wanted to play,” says manager and men’s team founder ‘Flyin’ Bryan Killman.’ “I wanted to play because I like sports, I like playing them, but I also wanted to better myself at managing. I feel like if I’m actually playing the sport, then I’ll be a better manager.” Killman says there had been attempts to start a men’s league in Toronto in the past, but this is the first to get past the ‘Facebook group’ stage.
Mike, or ‘Shred Flanders,’ a ref for his wife’s team in Durham Region, found the practice exhausting and humbling. “It’s a completely different perspective, getting to know what the skaters have to go through,” says Flanders. “I’m actually excited to continue doing it. Ref practices aren’t nearly as intense.” “I enjoy contact sports and I can’t wait to crush people again,” says Craig, or ‘Professor Wrex,’ who is the most towering player on the floor. Wrex was an aggressive participant in high school sporting, and looks to team athletics as a healthy way to vent aggression. But first he has to rollerblade well enough before knocking anyone over. “The day I’m more comfortable on my skates and I can line someone up and they are off their feet by the time I’m done, I will be a happy man,” says Wrex.
Men’s roller derby has been picking up in the past few years, with league being established in other cities. The Men’s Roller Derby Association (MRDA) was founded in 2007, and Montreal, the only Canadian league in there, was added in late December of last year. There are other Canadian apprentice leagues in the process of applying to the MRDA. Beating Montreal seems to be a key goal for Toronto’s aspiring league, but there’s plenty of work to do before then.
With only nine players, this troupe lacks even the minimum to play a game, not to mention players lost to possible injury. Furthermore there are forms and swiftly passing application dates to get the blessings of ToRD. Access to training spaces and the track itself would be hefty, though they are confident a ToRD partnership will be granted. At the same time, however, they must exist as a separate league, a different entity. That’s due to rules given by the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA). A Toronto men’s league would have a similar relationship to ToRD as the city’s junior league (TJRD). “We’re still working on a formal date for the league’s launch,” says VelociRainbow, “but soon, we’re hoping soon.”
“I still feel like this is a woman’s sport, but the men can play too. Just like the juniors can play and everyone can play,” says Killman. It’s not a mystery that men would take interest in the fast, contact sport, be they boyfriends or distant spectators. This team’s founders feel that the Toronto scene’s welcoming spirit will continue to do so in welcoming them, testosterone be damned. Even aside from its growth in other cities, BruiseBerry believes that, for fans, a men’s game would be a spectacle all of its own. “Men are a little bit different when they skate,” says BruiseBerry, “it’s got its own speed and dynamic. Both men’s and women’s games are beautiful in their own ways.”
Until then, ToRD‘s derby season begins this Saturday, February 2nd.
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Zack Kotzer is a freelance nerd in Toronto, and the assistant editor of Steel Bananas. Tweet him, if you dare @KingFranknstein.
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