Coach Melissious Intent, center, celebrates with the team during a scrimmage last season at Calumet Colosseum. (Kent Kraft/For the Gazette)
Coaches are an essential part of a sports team. They are the leaders who keep the team together and working toward a common goal. They are often the masterminds of the team and develop strategies that the players will use against their next opponent.
What qualities does a good coach need? Does he need experience of actually playing the sport at the level he is coaching? Perhaps extensive knowledge of the rules and strategies of the game? Perhaps the optimistic attitude that there is nothing a team cannot achieve?
While the AppleTV show Ted Lasso showed that a positive attitude and belief system can take a team far, even if the coach has never played the sport he is coaching, he is a fictional character, unlike any seen in the reality of the sport. Fortunately for Keweenaw Roller Derby (KRD), Melissious Intent brings all of the above traits and more to the team’s training.
Her career in roller derby began in 2010 when she was tired of Jazzercise and Zumba and was looking for a new way to exercise. Derby gave her a lot of exercise. What derby lacked in other forms of exercise was the culture and sense of community.
People Melissious Intent met at roller derby have become lifelong friends and family. In her case, that statement can be taken quite literally, as she met her wife at derby.
She began her derby career in Champaign, Illinois, where she skated with the Twin City Derby Group. This group had enough players to field several teams, and she was part of The ‘Paign (a play on the city’s name and pronounced “Pain”).
Like many other skaters, she turned to friends to help brainstorm derby names, who helped her use a pun on Melissious Intent. She chose the number 1079 for similar reasons to Jeffrey Dahminator: a police code. In this case, 10-79 means “Notify the coroner”, which she thought went well with her name.
Playing with that team was her defining time in derby, and she remembers it fondly. If you doubt what all the skaters say about the great roller derby community, just listen to how nostalgic Melissious Intent still is about her first team.
“I played with the most loyal and passionate team of all time and raised my glass with them – the ‘Paign’,” she said.
She also stresses that this does not diminish her love for KRD, an organization she was thrilled to join when she moved to Keweenaw. She now works at Mont Ripley Ski Resort and loves winter and snow.
Melissious Intent has worn a helmet in many different roles over the years, including as a figure skater, as a figure skating official, and as a member of the team’s staff during training and practices. She currently serves as the chair of the training committee and plays an active role in the new figure skating program.
“I particularly enjoy the new skater program,” she said. “It’s really satisfying to see players develop from shaky-legged beginners into (great) athletes.”
As for coaching, she works with the captain to coach the team during battles. Her favorite aspect of the job is analysis, which for her takes two main forms. First, she really enjoys watching the other team during a battle and developing a strategy to counter all the great players they brought to the competition. Second, she loves going through, collecting, and analyzing the stats after battles.
Melissious Intent hopes that other people will experience Derby’s great culture when they attend the fights. Anyone who watches the team closely during a fight will see that KRD thrives on positive energy.
During the match, especially during timeouts, players dance to the music, both on the lane and on the bench. As the action continues, there is definitely less dancing on the lane, but players on the bench still have a lot of fun, clapping and cheering on their teammates.
As a coach, Melissious Intent says the team loves to win, but is most motivated and plays better when they can just have fun as a team. Every player on the team exudes good vibes.
She believes that anyone who has never been to a fight before would have a great time with the atmosphere, music and refreshments. Many of the players who are now on the team’s roster, according to Melissious Intent, started coming to a fight and saying: “I want to do that!”
Everyone is welcome to participate in roller derby, regardless of individual skill level. As long as there is a desire to learn, there are many people on the team who are happy to teach.
Even if you’re not a skater, Melissious Intent emphasizes that everyone can find a home at KRD. They take particular pride in being a safe place for all people to come together to have fun, exercise, and foster camaraderie.
You can watch Melissious Intent coach and help her cheer on the KRD team at their final home game against the Kingsford Krush on Saturday, August 31st at 6:00 p.m. at the Calumet Colosseum (doors open at 5:00 p.m.). To learn more about how you can support the team, including how you can get involved by volunteering, you can visit the KRD website at https://keweenawrollerderby.com/.
