From Florida to France: 6 junior roller derby teens are World Cup-bound
TOWN N’ COUNTRY — Round and round the rink the teens skated, pushing hip to hip against the opposing team. Then, a blow of a coach’s whistle and the smack and squeal of wheels braking.
“I do not want to see this,” hollered Lisa Ponssa, aka Coach Rojo Grande, flapping her arms like chicken wings. “I want to see full body contact. I want to see a sense of urgency.”
For members of the Tampa Bay Junior Derby team, this type of scrimmage is the scene every Thursday night and Saturday morning. But the weeks leading up to the end of July are extra important. Six of their teenage skaters are heading to France to compete with Team USA at the Junior Roller Derby World Cup.
The five Tampa Bay players include Abigail “Abbynormal” Maes; Miranda “Miranda Slambert” Moes; Morissey “Flo Mo” Montgomery; Eliza “Mean Bean” Weinbaum; and Elycia Rayne Platel, also known as “Rayne Da Payne.” Adia “Soulja Crab” Richardson, who travels from Jacksonville to play with the Tampa Bay team, also has a spot on Team USA.
A co-ed team of 40 players from around the country, Team USA will take on countries including Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Great Britain, New Zealand and Sweden. The tournament runs July 28-30 in Valence, located in southeastern France.
Roller derby is a competitive, full-contact sport involving two teams racing to score points on an oval track. Some might picture roller derby as a flashy competition they know from books and films, where players rock funky tights, wigs and costumes. Here, athleticism is the focus. After all, Tampa has a legacy of really good roller derby, said Ponssa, who is also a coach for Team USA.
“Some of the kids on my team have been playing for almost their entire lives,” she said. “The United States has typically been very, very competitive ... I’m kind of expecting a win.”
Weinbaum, 16, has played roller derby for about 11 years.
“It is feminist-forward and queer-friendly and just super inclusive in general,” Weinbaum said. “It makes it a lot harder for us to be seen and recognized in terms of like, broad-scale America.”
Getting a coveted spot on the team meant attending at least two of five tryouts across the country (Tampa hosted one, with the others in Arizona, Pennsylvania, Oregon and Illinois). For Weinbaum’s first international competition, she’s approaching training in a new way.
“I know that in Europe, they don’t really have a lot of air conditioning,” Weinbaum said. “It’s going to be hot in the venue. A lot of people on Team USA are working on heat acclimation training so that we won’t absolutely boil away while we’re in France.”
Teammate Platel is taking a different approach.
“I walk a little bit more. I actually journal about how I feel about roller derby instead of keeping in that energy,” Platel said. “I’m working on my mental game so that I can rub off on my whole team.”
Platel first made Team USA in early 2020, before the pandemic hit and the season got cut. This World Cup will be the first taking place since then.
“I’m just excited that the kids will get an opportunity again to just show the world what great athletes they are,” Ponssa said.
Support Tampa Bay Junior Derby
Roller derby can be an expensive sport; teams must fund their own travel. Tampa Bay Junior Derby is raising money for travel at GoFundMe.com and raffling off a Riedell roller skate set online. Entries can be purchased by sending a $5 donation to tbjrdworldcup@gmail.com via PayPal and writing “online raffle” in the notes. The winner’s name will be drawn on July 20.
Follow along with Tampa Bay Junior Derby’s progress on Facebook. For more information on the Junior Roller Derby World Cup, including info on how to stream the competition online, check out facebook.com/JRDWorldCup.
