It’s more about teamwork and empowerment than it is hip checks and elbows for the girls of the Boston Junior Derby who take to the track on Linden Street in Lynn. (Photo by Scott Eisen)
By Adam Swift
LYNN — Roller derby dreams never die. But sometimes, it takes the next generation to make them a reality.
“I was going to try out for the (St. Paul, Minn.) Atomic Bombshells, but before tryouts, I found out I was pregnant,” said Natalie Grace, who now lives in Stoneham. Fast-forward several years, and Grace’s daughter, Dagny, was watching the Drew Barrymore roller derby movie “Whip It.”
“She asked ‘Where can I do that?’” Grace said. “I was not sure that kids could do that, but I looked it up.”
Sure enough, girls can do that. And they can do that right here in Lynn, thanks to the Boston Roller Derby’s junior derby league. Boston Junior Derby is a volunteer-operated, skater-run roller derby league that aims to bring the empowering sport of flat track roller derby to the Boston area for girls and gender expansive kids ages 7-17.
Dagny is now in her second season in the league, and on the track she is known by her derby name of Bashionista.
Asked what she likes best about the sport of roller derby, Dagny said it’s pretty simple.
“I like to go really fast,” she said. “I just know that I really like it.”
The junior derby league started as an offshoot of the adult Boston Roller Derby League about three years ago in Somerville before they rolled into their current Linden Street location.
“There were a lot of junior roller derby leagues coming up at the time, and there was a need for one in Boston,” said Abby Cirella, who goes by the derby name Debbie Downher. Cirella has skated with Boston Roller Derby for the past two years while pulling double duty as a coach for the junior derby twice per week.
While there are still some who think of roller derby as a violent sport just this side of professional wrestling, Cirella said there have been big changes in the game since the 1970s.
Junior derby gives girls a chance to learn a sport, work together and express themselves.
“It teaches girls how to use their voice and work together for a goal,” said Cirella. “It’s about building confidence. Personally, I see in some girls that they get to use their bodies in ways that are different than how they are told how to use them.”
The younger girls learn the basics of the sport, including skating technique and how to stop and go. For the older girls, some safe contact is added into the mix, according to Cirella.
“There are rules for junior derby, they do not hit the way the grownups do,” she said. But when the girls turn 18, Cirella said they can easily transition into the grownup league.
Sofia Canale-Parola, a senior at Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School, had a background in ice skating and was looking for a new sport to try when she heard about the junior derby from some of her friends.
“I like the community, it’s uplifting and positive,” said Canale-Parola, whose derby name is Uncanny Valley Girl. Earning a derby name is a momentous distinction, and the monikers almost never disappoint.
Fellow Cambridge Rindge and Latin student Sydney White’s derby name has a bit of a literary bent. White, who goes by Sylvia Plathogen on the flat track, was in eighth grade when she and Caroline Daily (aka Lilo and Stitches) saw a poster for an adult Boston Derby League game.
“She forced me to go,” White said. At the game, they visited the booth for the junior derby, and almost immediately, they were both lacing up the skates.
“I like that we are all working toward the same thing,” said White. “You don’t feel any judgment. If you fall down, it’s cool.”
Falling down is not a minor concern, Daily added.
“You really learn to keep going and persevere,” she said. “I was constantly falling down at first.”
Isabel Thorndike, known as Rosie the Rib Breaker to her skating compatriots, learned about the junior derby when she picked up a flier at a Pride Day event in Boston. A student at the Windsor School in Boston, she said she was a little scared because she didn’t know anyone else in the league when she signed up.
But Thorndike soon developed a tight bond with the core of skaters from Cambridge Rindge and Latin across the river.
“When I met those guys, it was the best part,” she said.
As Cirella runs the skaters through their drills on a Saturday morning, she said she learns as much from the girls as they do from her.
“I think the girls really enjoy being different, whatever that means to somebody,” she said. “Some come from families full of boys, and they get to play a sport like their brothers. And they get to be different from their peers.”
Anyone interested in learning more about Boston Junior Derby or finding out how to sign up for the league can visit www.bostonjuniorderby.com?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss.
Adam Swift can be reached at aswift@itemlive.com.