Nina “Killeesi” Gargan and Melissa “PsychoBadBull” Mercay-Collins are members of Lewiston’s newest roller derby team, The Inferno. (Andree Kehn/Sun Journal)

LEWISTON — Big hits, plenty of action, a boisterous crowd, and even a halftime show will all be wrapped up into one this coming weekend.

No, not on Sunday. And not the Super Bowl.

On Saturday, the Androscoggin Fallen Angels Roller Derby League’s team, The Inferno, will face off against Aroostook Roller Derby in the Super Roll at Lewiston Memorial Armory.

“For us, I would say this our equivalent. We’ll have other bouts, but this is a big one,” The Inferno’s Melissa Mercay-Collins, who goes by PsychoBadBull, said. “I don’t want to compare it to the Super Bowl, but for us this is a pretty big deal. We’ll have the officials, it’ll be an official game. We’re pretty excited.”

While the other big game has been going on for 52 years now, this will be only the second official bout for the Androscoggin Fallen Angels program. The first came last March, titled “4-Leaf Clobber.” It was the first roller derby competition experience for many of the Fallen Angels, including PsychoBadBull.

For Nina Gargan, it was love at first sight.

“I saw my first bout last year in March, around this time, and that was the first bout for a lot of people,” Gargan, better known to her teammates as Killeesi, said. “I remember seeing it the first time, and how pumped I got and wanted to do it.”

It’s been a long, but well-worth-it, 10-plus months for PsychoBadBull, Killeesi and the rest of the Fallen Angels since that first official bout. The team has recruited a handful of new skaters, including Killeesi. In between have been some scrimmages and plenty of training, but they’ve been licking their chops for another “real deal” bout.

“We’ve been preparing since last April,” Killeesi said. “As new skaters, we’ve been doing this for nine months.”

The team scrimmaged Aroostook last year, but with a small roster of only eight skaters (seven is the minimum for an official bout), the Fallen Angels took the loss.

“It’s pretty exciting that we’re going to have a full roster, and that we’re not going to get tired. It’s like any sports team — if you don’t have enough players, you tire out, and then your player isn’t as good at the end of the game,” PsychoBadBull said. “I think it’s going to be a much different outcome because we have experienced skaters, as well as this new group that came in. We have a lot of talent from there, and so the mixture of the veteran skaters with this new talent, I think you’re going to see a whole different game than what we did up there.”

Now sporting the name The Inferno — representing the Fallen Angels league and program — the team has a complete roster, which caps off at 15 skaters and two alternates for official bouts. The team is hoping to not only fare better than it did in the scrimmage in Aroostook County, but also build on what it started at the 4-Leaf Clobber.

“I think we’re much more prepared,” PyschoBadBull said. “Our first bout, it was a group of skaters that it was all new to all of us. So with this next group that came in, we were able to go through the training with them, so we had the experience behind us.

“This time we have more strategy. There’s more to it. We’ve worked on a lot of skills that we didn’t work on before. Strategy, and how to set up offense and defense and all of that, which we didn’t have the luxury before, I don’t think, because we were trying to get bout-ready.”

Team coach AJ Caron, who goes by “Tugboat,” said he thinks this will be a “great year” for the team, with the combination of “several very strong returning skaters” and “promising new talent.”

All the team members come from different backgrounds. PsychoBadBull has a hockey background (both playing and coaching), while Killeesi ran track at Lisbon High School. Both said roller derby is a different animal than their respective sports.

Especially Killeesi.

“Cross country, I might trip over my own feet and fall,” she said. “Getting hit, it’s exciting. You get down, you fall, you get up, it’s fun. You got bruises to show off. I think it’s fun, hitting and getting hit.”

What’s similar, however, is the nerves before a big event. Killeesi said she used to get nervous before big races. It’s the same feeling she said she’s getting in the build-up to the Super Roll.

“I am nervous, but I also think it’s more excitement,” Killeesi said. “So nerves, excitement, it’s hard to tell the difference.”

The Inferno is hoping to flood that excitement into the stands at the Armory on Super Saturday. The 4-Leaf Clobber brought in 700 screaming fans, and the team is looking to replicate that atmosphere in its second showing to the community.

“I would say if you’re even remotely interested, watching it on TV and hearing about it are so different than actually visually seeing it,” PsychoBadBull said.

Doors open at 5:30 p.m., and the first whistle is scheduled for 6:15 p.m. Tickets can be purchased online at superroll.brownpapertickets.com.

wkramlich@sunjournal.com

Melissa “PsychoBadBull” Mercay-Collins and Nina “Killeesi” listen in at a recent speed skating clinic for the Androscoggin Fallen Angels Roller Derby League at the Lewiston Armory. (Andree Kehn/Sun Journal)

Melissa “PsychoBadBull” Mercay-Collins and Nina “Killeesi” Gargan do a speed skating drill at a speed skating clinic for the Androscoggin Fallen Angels Roller Derby League at the Lewiston Armory. (Andree Kehn/Sun Journal)