With fading sharpie-printed numbers on their arms, bruises taking form and bodies still tender from a full-contact, full-on weekend bout, players from the Yukon Roller Girls started their new fitness program Monday night.

They did pushups, squats, jumps, agility tests, running the gamut of fitness indicators. The goal: to have a baseline fitness to compare to when they finish their 12-week training program.

The training begins hot on the heels of the Roller Girls’ first official bout in a couple years.

“We don’t really ever have a typical season because we’re always going through ebbs and flows,” said Lindsay “Bonanza Babe” Agar, who has been skating with the team since it started in 2010.

A couple years ago, the Roller Girls lost a lot of the team and haven’t been able to field a competitive team.

“Injuries and pregnancies,” are what Agar credits for the team’s sometimes low numbers. “We’re just on a rejuvenation of our league.”

They just got back from their first official bout in Sitka, Alaska. For some players it was a return to the adrenaline of the full-contact sport they love and for others it was an introduction to competition.

“It was so much faster than I thought it would be,” said rookie Heidi “Raging Radish” J Loos. “It was so much fun, I loved it.”

Her favourite part was having her derby name announced at the beginning of the bout.

“It’s the coolest sport ever,” said Loos, who also plays soccer. “Nothing compares to derby.”

The Roller Girls lost their weekend bout, but their spirits are still high.

For Kyla “Roberta Bondage” Wirth, it was an encouraging experience.

“I was so proud of everyone and it was so exciting to see how far we’ve come,” she said. “To be in a place again where we’re ready to play games, it’s so encouraging and I’m so excited for the future.”

The Roller Girls skated against Sitka’s Shee Devils and the bout’s unofficial score was 211-129. The Shee Devils racked up an unofficial 36 penalties, while the Roller Girls had only 22.

“We learned some new strategies from the other team. Defensively, we put up some pretty strong walls to stop their jammer (point scorer) from going through and so we learned a lot on our way through the game,” said Agar.

Loos, a rookie, even jammed in her first bout.

“I was thinking I was just going to block the whole time, but by the second half I was just like let me jam, let me try,” said Loos. “I was so proud of myself. I got lead jammer and I got some points.

“When you get into it, it’s so fast and all the hits. It’s just intense. I was just exhausted and sore after.”

To get to Sitka the team chartered a plane and it was a new experience for a lot of the players.

“The only way we can get there is chartering a plane because they’re an island,” said Agar. “It’s very economical when you take 15 people down because it’s $500 return per person, so it’s like going down to Vancouver.”

Loos said she felt like “royalty” and Jenna “Jennacide” Blanchette enjoyed the change from driving to bouts.

“It was awesome. I’m used to either driving or taking the bigger flights,” said Blanchette. “But this one was just perfect and saved a lot of money too, which is always a good thing.”

The Roller Girls are looking towards their fresh meat session June 20 at the Canada Games Centre, where anyone can go out and try the sport for free.

They’re also getting ready for their first home bout in a few years, which is scheduled for September 10 at the Mount McIntyre Recreation Centre.

“I think it’ll be a good chance to show Whitehorse derby again,” said Blanchette. “I think everyone has kind of forgotten a little bit about it in the last couple years, so it’ll be nice to put on a show.”