Team Canada Women’s Roller Derby names Coaches and Staff for 2017 Roller Derby World Cup
Team Canada Roller Derby – Team Canada Women’s Roller Derby has named its coaching and administrative staff for the 2017 Roller Derby World Cup. (See biographies below.)
Team Canada Women’s Head Coach Jessica Paternostro is equally distinguished as an athlete and coach. She was a key member of Team Canada’s 2014 and 2011 World Cup rosters and was Assistant Coach of Team Canada Men’s squad for the recently-completed Men’s Roller Derby World Cup in Calgary. She is also Coach of Les Mont Royals, Montreal’s men’s roller derby team.
Helping Paternostro shape the overall program for Team Canada’s 2017 mission is Assistant Coach Bryan Mcwilliam. Team Manager in 2014, Mcwilliam is presently Coach of CN Power, Toronto Roller Derby’s competitive travel team, and a skating member of Team Canada Men’s Roller Derby and Toronto Men’s Roller Derby.
Supporting the Coaches are Team Manager Fawn Hall and Strength & Conditioning Coach Ian Verchere. Hall, an employee relations specialist and player with the Mainland Misfits’ competitive team the Anarchy Angels, will manage the athletes. Verchere, a former professional skier and coach, is responsible for off-track training.
Two new administrative positions have been created to support the organization. Business Manager is Alyssa Kwasny, another veteran of both previous World Cups. Her business experience includes founding both Montreal Roller Derby and the successful roller derby business Neon Skates. Chef de Mission is Germaine Koh, a coach for Terminal City Rollergirls, who has a long history leading non-profit organizations. She is responsible for strategic planning and organizational development.
BACKGROUND: TEAM CANADA AND THE ROLLER DERBY WORLD CUP
The third Roller Derby World Cup will take place in late 2017. Dates and location of the tournament are yet to be announced.
Canada’s previous World Cup results are a fourth-place finish in the 30-nation tournament in Dallas in 2014 and a silver-medal performance at the inaugural Roller Derby World Cup in Toronto in 2011.
Team Canada players are selected through open tryouts. Previous rosters have represented a dozen of about 100 flat-track roller derby leagues active in Canada, as well as a few American leagues.
The sport of roller derby has a strong culture of community organizing, is largely self-administered by associations of skaters, and is dominated by women: in an international 2015 survey, 85% of participants in all variants of roller derby identified as women (source: “2015 World Roller Derby Census”, Women’s Flat-Track Roller Derby Association).
UPCOMING: TEAM CANADA OPEN TRYOUTS
Two open tryouts for Team Canada Women will take place in Fall 2016. Locations and dates will be announced in mid-summer 2016.
STAFF BIOGRAPHIES