For the first time in almost three years, the Mount McIntyre Recreation Centre was alive with the sounds of roller derby.

The rebuilt Yukon Roller Girls hosted the Sea to Sky Sirens out of Squamish, B.C. for the team’s first home bout in recent memory on Saturday night.

In front of a full crowd, the Roller Girls set out to skate hard and put on a show.

“I think they did fantastic,” said Sea to Sky Sirens skater Fighting Mongoose.

She was one of the Roller Girls’ founding players, but moved to Squamish a few years where she now plays for the Sirens and the Anarchy Angels, a Women’s Flat Track Derby Association Team.

WFTDA is the international governing body for the sport. The Anarchy Angels are ranked in the top half of teams internationally.

Fighting Mongoose is a member of that team as well as two of the Sirens that skated Saturday night, Green Lantern and Purrfect Lee Legal.

The Sirens team was a mix of rookies and vets, skating against the Roller Girls who haven’t played many games in the past few years.

Saturday’s bout, which they lost to the Sirens 220-76 was only their second this year. They travelled to Sitka in June.

Since that early summer bout, two skaters passed their minimum skating skills test and competed in their first competition with the Roller Girls.

Aurora Gorealis and Martha Blackout had their debut skates.

Martha Blackout also jammed in her first game. She started skating eight months ago and really impressed the Sirens.

“I think they played with a lot of heart and spirit,” said the Sirens’ Slamber.

“They definitely gave us a run for our money.”

Roller derby is one of the only sports where teams practice defence and offence at the same time.

The teams begin at the same point on the track and when the whistle blows, the jammer – the point scorer who wears a star on her helmet – tries to make her way past the other team’s blockers. Once she’s through the pack, she skates around the track and for each skater of the opposite team that she passes again, she scores points for her team.

Jams, the rounds the skaters compete in are two minutes long, unless the lead jammer calls it off.

“(They) didn’t shy away from hits and went in to take them and took those risks,” said Fighting Mongoose, who guest-skated for the Roller Girls.

“They’ve got such amazing attitudes, like at half time we went in and everyone was keeping their calm and laughing. They were so encouraging with each other.”

The Yukon Roller Girls are having a Try It Derby night at the Canada Games Centre on September 21.

“They are still catering to bring up the rookies,” said Fighting Mongoose, “which is awesome because that’s how you build roller derby and it’s how you build roller derby in the North, which has always been hard to do.”

Rookie jammer Martha Blackout is also looking forward to the new skaters.

“It’s a really awesome thing to get involved in,” she said.

After her first bout, Martha Blackout is thinking of the future too.

“I’m looking forward to more games, keeping on practicing with my team and just having a good time.”