Local roller laces up for new season

By Tyler Lowey, Times Reporter

Just because Lloyd’s Recreation roller rink closed its doors over a month and a half ago, one local skater hasn’t given up the dream of competing in the Artistic World Skating Championships one day.
Kayla-Ann Mercer, a Grade 8 student at Crowther Memorial Junior High School, has landed on her blades at a place close to home.
“It’s been extremely difficult right now to find places to practice,” said Lloyd Williams, Mercer’s coach with the Calgary Artistic Roller Sport Club (CARSC).
Strathmore High School (SHS) principal Kyle Larson gave Mercer the nod of approval a few weeks ago, for Mercer to come in after hours and use the gym floor.
“I just come here two or three times a week and work on my routines. A lot of places don’t like having wheels on their gym floor, but I’m glad the high school lets me work on my dances,” said Mercer.
Occasionally, Mercer will head to Indus and use the Recreation Centre, which has a concrete rink.
The competitions Mercer will be entering in will be on hardwood floors with a vinyl covering, quite similar to the floor the SHS Spartans use for volleyball and basketball.
There’s also the issue of the local gyms and rinks not being long enough to house her routines.
“Where she is going to be this weekend, the rink is 170 feet long. This gym is fine, but it’s still small. But it’s something I’m used to; back when I started in Toronto, we used rinks and gyms that were smaller than what we would use in competitions. All we would do is break our routines into sections,” said Williams.
With “Feel It Still” (a song by American rock band Portugal. The Man) blaring in the Spartan gym, Mercer was doing just that, breaking her routine down into sections in preparation for her first contest of the roller season.
This weekend, the Calgary-born Strathmore-raised Mercer will be at the Spring Artistic Invitational in Auburn, Wash., competing in seven different events as she looks to set up what could be a fruitful summer by bringing home some early hardware.
Last year at the Northwest Regional Championships in Portland, Ore., Mercer took home two gold medals and one bronze in six disciplines.
If the comparisons to roller skating and the recent Canadian performances at the PyeongChang Olympics seem like a lot, that’s because they are. Roller skating is very much like figure skating, even in the scoring of the competitions.
“Figure skating was just too cold for me,” said Mercer. “I do jumps and spins just like the figure skaters, but my events this weekend only require me to do one jump and a spin at a time, so that’s another part of my routine I’m working on today.”
The dream is to take her talents to the world stage, but Mercer is focusing on the short term, which is what this weekend is all about. It isn’t a qualifying event for regionals or nationals, but it is a great opportunity for her and her five teammates to see where they are at before the roller skating season really heats up.
Now, with hockey and ringette season all but completed across Wheatland County, more rinks should be opening up, allowing Mercer to get her work in. That’s all she’s ever wanted since Lloyd’s shut down, the place where her dream began.
“I love the uniqueness of the sport. I like the freedom and my routines. I hope I have a good enough year I can take it to the national level later on in the summer,” said Mercer.