Local skaters head off to Dallas
The team is self-funded. In a bid to raise money for the world cup, the team has started various fundraising initiatives.
A group of 12 skaters from Modderfontein will participate in the 2014 Blood and Thunder Roller Derby World Cup.
The group will join other roller derby leagues across South Africa, including the C-max Roller Derby in Johannesburg, the Durban Roller Derby and the Cape Town Roller Derby Girls.
Collectively, they are called Team Za.
“Because we do not have a formal association to belong to here, we took the initiative and formed a committee between the existing leagues as we were determined to not let the opportunity of competing at the second Roller Derby World Cup pass us by. The first one was in 2011 and we hardly had roller skates at that time. At the beginning of this year, trials where held and in June, the final team was selected,” said the team’s spokesperson, Ms Melinda Lotz.
The team will compete against the best in the world, with their first match be against Team Wales on December 4 in Dallas.
The other two teams in their group include New Zealand and Norway.
Ms Lotz said Roller Derby was only founded in June in South Africa, but it took two years before it could be established because there only a few people interested.
“Since then, we have established the sport to such an extent that we will compete at this level and we will make a big impression on the derby community world wide,”said Ms Lots.
She said competing at the world cup level will allow the sport to gain more momentum in South Africa.
The team is self-funded. In a bid to raise money for the world cup, the team has started various fundraising initiatives.
Ms Lotz said contributions from members of the community will be appreciated.
The community can make contributions by either sponsoring a flight ticket for team members or making a monetary donation, no matter how big or small.
“We have a Go Fund Me and Trevolta page that people can donate on and it would be greatly appreciated,” she said.
The team can be found on Facebook at Team South Africa Roller Derby.
The team can also be contact directly through Ms Lotz on email at cmaxrollerderby@gmail.com
