Fredericton’s Capital City Rollers roller derby league has announced its newest team, the Spitfires, who will kick off their first season May. 28 at the Willie O’Ree Place.
Rachel Harvey, the league’s communications coordinator and player on all three teams, said the Spitfires was created to blend all skill levels in the league.
“There are a lot of different levels of play,” Harvey said. “We wanted to form a team that would allow us to be able play both A teams and B teams.”
Until now, the Capital City Rollers’ 35-member league has only had two teams: the Daisy Cutters, the higher-level A team, and the Bazooka Janes, the lower-level B team.
New recruits are required to go through a 12-week skate school over the winter to learn how to skate and play roller derby properly. Once completed, passing the final skills test is the last step before becoming a full-fledged member and being drafted to one of the teams for the spring-to-fall season.
Harvey said the new team will be a mixture of the two levels of play in hopes of providing more skill levels for all.
“A lot of the time when you’re playing a team that’s a higher level than you, you learn a lot more from it and grow a lot more from it,” said Harvey. “We wanted to use this as an opportunity to become better skaters, develop more skills, and use more strategy.”
As they prepare to start the 2016 season in the upcoming game against Central Maine, Harvey said the goal for the new team and the league is to be able to bring everyone together to stand as a unified league.
“Being able to have the different team skate together on one team really solidifies the cohesiveness of the league. A lot of the time there are rivalries within the leagues, so this really helps everybody get along and have a great time.”
