Sports
The McGill Daily, Monday, September 14, 2009
14
Giving hegemony a red card Anarchist soccer club takes sports beyond winning and losing
The McGill Daily
W
ednesday nights in the northeast corner of Parc Notre Dame de Grace, wedged between Cote St. Antoine and Girouard just north of the dog run, Alex Megelas waits patiently on a tuft of grass for followers (read: enthusiasts) of what he has termed his Anarchist Soccer Club. Through a particularly non-hierarchical version of soccer, the club aims to combat “the discriminatory practices that are often part of organized sports...such as sexism, homophobia, and machismo.” Essentially, the Anarchist Soccer Club eradicates the hierarchy that normally exists in organized sports by stripping the game of its traditional rules. This means no score-keeping, no boundaries, no team captains, and no hands (Psych! Handballs are totally allowed!). Anything and everything is allowed, except for aggressive behaviour and bad-attitudes – which Megelas explains you are able to “call people out on.” Teams are picked using a number system (1, 2, 1, 2) and tend to be very flexible. Players sub in for people who aren’t on their “team,” and because rest/socializing/ Gatorade breaks are frequent, teams tend to morph and be modified as the night goes on.
Though it may seem all fun-andgames, the Anarchist Soccer Club is righteously attributed to a specific set of values. By utilizing the highly connotative term “anarchist,” the club has politicized the sport of soccer, in reaction to the discrimination they see in sports, and the divisive sentiments that organized sports can foster (i.e. “I love this team because it is mine; I hate this team because it is not mine”). With this in mind, people join the club because it is a space where they know they will feel safe and understood. Most importantly, it is a space where they can truly enjoy themselves and the game of soccer without having to worry about inequity. “I come because it’s fun and the people are friendly,” says Ovidiu, a 17-year-old from NDG who has been playing with the club for only two weeks. “It’s more fun than playing with people who are serious, and it’s better than having to pay money for a team.” Ovidiu’s group included two other local teenage boys and an eight-year-old, the younger brother of one of Ovidiu’s friends. Part of the openness of the program includes accepting all age groups. On Wednesday nights, it’s perfectly normal to see a 15-year-old playing with – never against – a 50-yearold. Some participants don’t even
like soccer. According to Layla AbdelRahim, a self-proclaimed anarchist, organized sports are restrictive and thus violent, limiting the body’s potential to enjoy other sorts of pleasure. AbdelRahim appreciates the Anarchist Soccer Club’s relaxed, congenial ethos, while whole-heartedly embracing the program’s implicit disorder. She goes to let her young daughter run around and to build relationships with people she describes as “exploding with good energy and chaos.” The question is: Do sports have the unbounded potential to bring disparate groups together in harmony? Megelas and his crew think not. The World Cup is a spectacle; the Olympics are a capitalist commodity. International sporting events aren’t capable of bridging significant gaps. But within the local community, the Anarchist Soccer Club is proof that peace, love, and understanding can be as integral to the game of soccer as that little black-and-white orb. You’ve heard it before, people: “It’s not about winning or losing - it’s about having fun.”
Justin K. Wong for The McGill Daily
Anna Leocha
Moxie in Montreal Elbows and hips fly on the local roller derby track Alexis Montgomery Sports Writer
I
had barely heard of roller derby until I found myself sitting in a small, rustic café on St. Laurent last Thursday, surrounded by vintage clothes and women dressed in eccentric garb. As the petite woman sitting across from me eagerly explained the rules of roller derby and the lifestyle that goes with playing it, I became enthralled with the sense of community that’s developed around the sport. Roller derby was originally invented in the United States as a contact sport on an oval track, in which two teams each send out five players who skate around the course. There are three “blockers,” who act as defense; both of the other two players, the “pivot” and the “jammer,” aim to score. Once the back of the pack reaches the starting line, jammers take off and the first “jam” begins; during
the next two minutes, they attempt to score points by passing the rest of the players on the track. After passing the pack the first time, jammers earn a point by legally passing an opposing blocker or pivot. The first jammer to pass all blockers and pivots wins the title of lead jammer, giving them the power to end the jam before the two minutes are finished. To prevent an opponent from scoring, players are allowed to block the opposing jammer from the neck down, with a few exceptions – rules dictate that players are not allowed to use their elbows or to hit a player from behind. Though the sport dates back to 1922, it got an overhaul in the thirties when promoter Leo Selzer took out a copyright on the term “Roller Derby” and, along with sportswriter Damon Runyon, transformed it from a more straightforward race that mainly tested players’ endurance into a spectator sport. Though the current Montreal Roller Derby League got its start as recently as
2006, roller derby has existed in Montreal going back at least to the sixties, when there was a team called the Montreal Fleur de Lys. An article in a June 1967 edition of the Leader Mail led with a photo of jostling players, captioned “Pardon me, ma’am! Elbows and hips are all part of the immensely popular and rough Roller Derby – even if they are ladies!” TV viewers in the region could look forward to regular roller derby matches with Canadian and American teams, broadcasted in French every Thursday and in English every Saturday. The Montreal Roller Derby League was founded as a non-profit organization by Georgia W. Tush, and became the first non-U.S. member of the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA) in January 2009. In order to become a part of the WFTDA, certain standards must be followed. Potential members are required to submit letters of recommendation from two other teams, statistics about the number
of games they’ve played, and other paperwork. Last week the Montreal Roller Derby Travel Team held a fundraiser at Cagibi with a clothing swap, bingo, and a bake sale in order to send the team to Tennessee for a competition. The roller derby team routinely tours throughout the U. S. and Canada, and had recently returned from a match in New Hampshire. One of the event’s organizers, who currently sits on the Montreal Derby Team Board of Directors, explained that roller derby is not simply a sport, but part of a lifestyle. Players must join a committee in order to play; this involves volunteering within the roller derby world, raising money through fundraising events, and generally giving your time to the roller derby community. The players who comprise the scene in Montreal are a diverse bunch, from mothers in their forties to 20-something university students. Known for its sub-cultural character, roller derby is a show-
manship sport – players regularly show attitude on the track with funky attire and names such as Thora Lee Loaded and Sparkle N’ Maim. On the Montreal Roller Derby League’s web site, the biographies of the teams are humourous and playful. It’s refreshing to experience a league that focuses on enjoying its sport, having fun, and interacting positively with the community. And the community is supportive in kind: over 800 Montrealers showed up to the championship game. The league even had to turn spectators away due to the large numbers of people who wanted to observe this underground phenomenon. When asked what impact roller derby has had on her life, a board of directors member jokingly replies, “My boyfriend thinks he has 17 girlfriends.” She laughs, and adds, “I’ve made the best friendships and gotten into the best shape with three to four workouts a week, playing what I love.”