Left: Kim Kong (left) gets lead jammer in the Friends and Family Bout on Sunday, July 20. Right: Amelia HitsHart makes her way through the Traverse City Toxic Cherry blockers during their bout on Saturday, July 2. (Kent Kraft/For the Gazette)

CALUMET — Two skaters from Keweenaw Roller Derby (KRD), Kim Kong and Amelia HitsHart, were offered and accepted roster spots on Team Michigan Roller Derby (TMiRD).

Kim Kong will be a jammer on the Top 30 Roster squad while Amelia HitsHart has a blocker position on the select roster.

From TMiRD’s Facebook post about the announcement, “The Top 30 represents the core of Team Michigan – a high-performance pool of skaters eligible for selection in all bouts, tournaments, and travel events. These skaters will lead the charge in competition and serve as the primary face of our state team.

“The Select Team is our developmental practice squad – an additional group of talented athletes invited to train with Team Michigan. While they don’t hold guaranteed roster spots, Select skaters are vital to team depth, growth, and may be invited to scrimmage or bout when opportunities arise.

“This two-tiered structure keeps us competitive while nurturing rising talent.”

While TMiRD put out a call for trying out for the squad, there was not an invitational element to it. Anyone from across the state could tryout, but had to do so at the three preset dates. Attending one was mandatory, but attending at least two of them was strongly encouraged, with a video submission acting as a substitute.

Fortunately for these KRD skaters, the first tryout was the day after their first bout of the season, and also in the same city they traveled to.

“We were able to do the first one the day after our Grand Rapids bout,” said Kim Kong. “We just stayed a half day longer down there and did the tryout on that Sunday. Then we made a trip down May 10 at their last one in Detroit to get it all taken care of.”

At the first tryout, they were impressed by the number of skaters present to tryout, and the numbers were higher at the final tryout they went to. The second tryout, the one they didn’t attend, was by far the largest group. More than fifty skaters tried out for a spot on TMiRD.

In KRD history thus far, only one other skater has previously made it, Thimbleberry Slam. The inclusion of Kim Kong and Amelia HitsHart on this elite squad is something not only for them to celebrate, but an accomplishment the whole team is ecstatic about and a reason for the Keweenaw as a whole region to be proud.

There are an unknown number of competitions coming up for TMiRD, but in accepting the roster spots, these two skaters are with TMiRD until Spring 2027, making it a year-and-a-half commitment. The first known competition is “Skate Wars” which takes place in Lansing on Sept. 5-7, 2025. As fate would have it, that is also the last bout of the season for KRD.

Scheduling conflicts aside, there is both a time and money commitment to accepting a place on TMiRD which made the decision difficult for both skaters.

“Derby is a self-funded sport,” explained Kim Kong, “but travel expenses for us includes traveling to Lansing, or East Lansing, at least once a month for practice. Any time we have a match, the travel involved probably means us having to fly, and we’ll have to buy our own tickets.

“We have to buy two jerseys and new helmets too. The jerseys alone are $100, and we have to get a new helmet in Team Michigan’s hot pink. It’s going to be a … a strain.”

What motivated them to take on this challenge and extra burden to their schedules and pocketbooks?

“[T]he thing that I’m really looking forward to about it is their season,” Amelia HitsHart said. “We have a summer season up here because our practice and game space choices are ice rinks, and that’s not the case in lower Michigan.

“Over in Wisconsin, when we play Chippewa Valley, that’s the end of their season and we’re just getting started. This is really, potentially, a season extender for Kim Kong and I.”

“We’ll get to be playing games and doing high level practices in what is really [KRD’s] off season,” Amelia HitsHart said.

“I’m excited! It’s going to be a whole different level of derby, and be a little bit different because the rules are interpreted a little differently at higher level derby too,” said Kim Kong. “This is a challenge to myself. Also, back in the day, seeing Thimbleberry Slam make it on Team Michigan and describe how much fun it was, I just said, ‘I wanna do that.'”

“Curiosity was a part too,” added Amelia HitsHart. “I played in [Washington] D.C. last year, and was surprised I could hold my own with them. When I came back here, I thought if I was ever going to [try out for TMiRD], I should do it now. So I did.”

Give congratulations to Kim Kong and Amelia HitsHart in person when KRD hosts their invitational bout, Smackdown on the Farm, on Saturday, Aug. 2, at the Calumet Colosseum. New times for this event’s doubleheader: doors open at 4 p.m. with the first whistle at 5 p.m.

Almost a trio

KRD’s Luna Stormborn went through the rigorous tryouts for TMiRD along with Kim Kong and Amelia Hitshart, but just missed out on making one of the rosters.

Helping out

If you’re interested in financially helping KRD’s all-star skaters with the expenses of their endeavor, “there will probably be some Team Michigan fundraising opportunities coming up,” said Amelia HitsHart. “Keep your eyes on [KRD’s] social media page, we’ll probably post it there.”