Victoria roller derby star heading to France with Team Canada
Roller derby may not be an Olympic sport, but it has a world championship – and one Victoria junior skater is going to compete in it this year.
Naomi Morrell, also known as "Scream Soda," is the captain of Victoria's junior roller derby team, the Rotten Apples.
In November, Morrell travelled to Red Deer, Alta., to try out for Canada's national junior roller derby team.
Scream Soda faced off against 50 of the best skaters in Canada.
"I was terrified," she said.
But she made the team.
"Her father and I are very proud of her, but not surprised," said her mom, Cindy MacDougall.
Morrell's roller derby dreams had a storybook start about five years ago.
"I got this comic for Christmas. It was called 'Roller Girl,'" said Morrell. "It's about this little girl who joins roller derby."
Morrell would go on to trade her paperback for a pair of skates, and Scream Soda was born.
"I saw these women and non-binary people just demolishing each other on skates," she said.
Roller derby is a bit like rugby, where players score points by dodging players and making it into their defended zones.
Scream Soda is one part battering ram, one part ballerina, and her teammates love her.
The Rotten Apples junior roller derby team is shown. (CTV News)"She's a bundle of joy," said one of her Rotten Apples teammates.
"She got me this necklace," said another, noting that Morrell is the type of team captain that remembers your birthday.
Now that Scream Soda has made the national team, she'll be heading to France in July to join Canada at the Junior Roller Derby World Cup.
She's on the hook for travel costs though, so her friends and family are pitching in with bottle drives and other fundraisers.
A GoFundMe was set up for Morrell and had raised more than $3,400 of its $5,000 goal by Thursday.
Morrell is the only Vancouver Island player to make the national team, and is just one of three players from B.C., according to the online fundraiser.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Quebec man who threatened Trudeau, Legault online sentenced to 20 months in jail
A Quebec man who pleaded guilty to threatening Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier François Legault has been sentenced to 20 months in jail.
Suter scores late goal, clinches series for Canucks
Pius Suter scored with 1:39 left and the Vancouver Canucks advanced to the second round of the NHL playoffs with a 1-0 victory over the Nashville Predators on Friday night in Game 6.
A Chinese driver is praised for helping reduce casualties in a highway collapse that killed 48
A Chinese truck driver was praised in local media Saturday for parking his vehicle across a highway and preventing more cars from tumbling down a slope after a section of the road in the country's mountainous south collapsed and killed at least 48 people.
The kids from 'Mrs. Doubtfire are all SUPER grown up now, and we're not OK
The adorable trio of child actors from the 1993 classic comedy 'Mrs. Doubtfire,' which starred the late and great Robin Williams, are all grown up and looking back on their seminal time together.
Hulk Hogan, hurricanes and a blockbuster recording: A week in review of the Trump hush money trial
Crucial witnesses took the stand in the second week of testimony in Donald Trump's hush money trial, including a California lawyer who negotiated deals at the center of the case and a longtime adviser to the former president.
Britney Spears 'home and safe' after paramedics responded to an incident at the Chateau Marmont, source tells CNN
A source close to singer Britney Spears tells CNN that the pop star is 'home and safe' after she had a 'major fight' with her boyfriend on Wednesday night at the Chateau Marmont in West Hollywood.
Drone footage shows Ukrainian village battered to ruins as residents flee Russian advance
The Ukrainian village of Ocheretyne has been battered by fighting, drone footage obtained by The Associated Press shows. The village has been a target for Russian forces in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine.
Police arrest 3 Indian nationals in killing of B.C. Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar
Three people have been arrested and charged in the killing of B.C. Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar – as authorities continue investigating potential connections to the Indian government.
Parliamentary report on Emergencies Act decision is 18 months past due — and counting
The erstwhile group of senators and MPs studying the federal government's invocation of the Emergencies Act over the "Freedom Convoy" was supposed to present its findings in December. December of 2022, that is.