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

Head Coach
Jessica Paternostro (Montreal, QC)
Head Coach Jess “Bandit” Paternostro skated for Team Canada in both the 2011 and 2014 World Cups and competed with Montreal Roller Derby’s elite team New Skids on the Block for 10 years. She has coached at highly competitive roller derby since 2012, beginning with Les Mont Royals of Roller Derby Masculin Montréal, and continuing as Assistant Coach of Team Canada Men’s Roller Derby for the 2014 and 2016 Men’s Roller Derby World Cups. Paternostro holds a Masters in Human Kinetics and is a physical education teacher in Montreal and a sport mental performance consultant and student member within the Canadian Sport Psychology Association.

Assistant Coach
Bryan Mcwilliam (Toronto, ON)
Assistant Coach Bryan Mcwilliam was Team Canada’s Manager for the 2014 World Cup. A sports journalist by trade, before roller derby he played baseball for 23 years and began his coaching career in that sport. Skating as Flyin’ Bryan Killman, he has been a member of Team Canada Men’s Roller Derby leading to the 2016 Men’s Roller Derby World Cup. He has been Coach/Manager with Toronto Roller Derby since 2009, and since 2012 a skater, two-time Captain and President for Toronto Men’s Roller Derby.

Team Manager
Fawn Hall (Aldergrove, BC)
Team Manager Fawn Hall is responsible for game and athlete management. In addition to organizing motor sports events, she has been a leader in the Okanagan Shuswap Roller Derby Association (BC). She has also skated with Tournament City Derby Dolls (Kamloops, BC), Northside Rollers (Melbourne, AUS), and The Bay Rollers (Byron Bay, AUS), and since 2016 plays with the Anarchy Angels, charter team of the Mainland Misfits (Cloverdale, BC). Outside of sport, Hall works as a medic and does Employee Relations and Finance for a worldwide charitable organization.

Strength & Conditioning Coach
Ian Verchere (Vancouver, BC)
Ian Verchere (a.k.a. Johnny Qwadd) is serving his third mission as Team Canada’s Strength & Conditioning Coach. In this role he is responsible for supervising athletes’ off-skate training. A former professional athlete with 15 years in alpine skiing, Verchere was trained and certified by the Canadian Ski Coaches Federation and the Ski Association of Japan. Since 2016 he has been Head Coach of the Terminal City B-Side (Vancouver, BC) roller derby travel team.

Business Manager
Alyssa Kwasny (Vankleek Hill, ON)
Business Manager Alyssa Kwasny, a 2011-14 veteran skater for Team Canada, brings her business experience as the founder of both Montreal Roller Derby and the skate shop Neon Skates. She was the force behind Montreal’s becoming the first Canadian league in the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association. Competing as Georgia W Tush, she was a key player for Montreal’s charter team the New Skids on the Block from 2007 to 2014, captaining the team in her last year. She now raises her child, works at a brewing company, and studies brewing. 

Chef de Mission
Germaine Koh (Vancouver, BC)
As Chef de Mission, Germaine Koh is responsible for Team Canada’s strategic vision and organizational development. Koh has a multi-sport background that included five years on the University of Ottawa varsity badminton team. As PLAYER 1, she played roller derby for five years, closing her career by captaining the Terminal City All-Stars. She has coached roller derby since 2010 and in 2015 established the program for a new competitive team, the Terminal City B-Side. An internationally active visual artist, Koh has 25 years of leadership within non-profit organizations.

LINKS

Team Canada Roller Derby (Women):  http://teamcanadarollerderby.com
Team Canada (Women) Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Team-Canada-BT-World-Cup-150614708337038/
Roller Derby World Cup: http://www.rollerderbyworldcup.com

 

Team Canada holds Team USA jammer Suzy Hotrod in an international friendly at the East Coast Derby Extravaganza, Feasterville, PA, June 2014. Photo: Bob Ayers.

 

TEAM CANADA ROLLER DERBY

 

CONTACT: Germaine Koh, Chef de Mission, +1 778 3179745, teamcanada.chefdemission@gmail.com

 

FRANÇAIS: Pour recevoir ces renseignements en français, veuillez nous contacter aux coordonnées ci-haut.