From the workshop to the roller rink

Corben York lives something of a superhero lifestyle.

By day, he works as a parts interpreter for Western Truck Group on the Sunshine Coast, keeping their customers’ trucks on the road.

But by night, he dons a pair of skates and takes to the track in the bash and crash sport of roller derby.

• Subscribe to our free weekly newsletter to receive the latest news and classifieds from Australia’s transport industry.
• Don’t miss a second and subscribe to our monthly Deals on Wheels magazine.
• Sell your truck with Australia’s #1 truck classifieds

You may not have heard of roller derby before — by Corben’s own admission, it’s not the most popular sport in Australia, and he and his teammates are fully amateur. Think of your good ol’ local roller rink, but with about 10 times the adrenaline, 10 times the contact and way less stacking it (at least, on your own).

So just how does the world of trucks and roller-skating come together? As Corben explains, it’s not the first big jump he’s made in his life.

“I provide parts for our mechanics in the workshop, but I wasn’t always interested in trucks or truck parts,” he says.

“A regular day is finding parts that our customers need, and as a dealership we do a lot of work on contract maintenance jobs and any customer that rolls through the door as well as providing parts over the counter and researching what parts people need.

“Originally, I’m from Darwin, and I’ve been in Queensland for six years now. I started university when I first moved here, studying marine biology.

“I didn’t have any friends or much family here. It made it hard to stay committed. I dropped it and went and managed a pub for four years.”

A stroke of chance led Corben to the Western Truck Group, despite not having a background in trucking at all previously.

“My uncle moved down here from Darwin, and he had previously been working at the Western Truck Group in Darwin,” he explains.

“When he was a parts manager here, he got me a job as an interval and I found I really had a liking to it. I decided I’d stay in this line of work.

“My uncle is now the dealer manager here. I’m coming up on two years in this line of work now. I love it now.

“When I first started I was doing a lot of induction work, but week to week you keep learning more.”

In just two years now, Corben has fallen deep into the world of truck parts, continuing to learn the craft day by day, getting more familiar with the Mack, UD and Volvo trucks that the Western Truck Group sells.

He’s started to take on competitions as well, which he says helps enormously with his knowledge.

“I’ve been doing all the challenges that come across too,” Corben York.

“We have a Volvo VISTA competition which is testing your knowledge on the brand. We’re currently in the middle of a UD Gemba Challenge. They try to convince everyone to give it a go and have some fun. It’s a really good tool to learn from.”

Life on the track

Corben’s story of his introduction into the world of roller derby is quite similar — through family ties.

The Yorks are quite tight knit, even in skates. There’s so many of them across various teams that they’ve been dubbed ‘the York Force’ by the roller derby community.

“It was my auntie who saw an advert for it up in Darwin and she decided to go along,” Corben says.

“That got my mum interested in it, and then my whole family interested. Now everybody knows us. We’re a little bit infamous.

“I started eight years ago and it’s been a very big passion since then. I really enjoy the uniqueness of roller derby.

“You can run as fast as you want and hit someone as hard as you want and they don’t bat an eye. It’s probably why I’m such a happy person outside of it.

“The main aim of the game is contact. Everyone is so cheery about it. You get a good hit and they’ll compliment you on it. There’s no bad blood between anyone.”

Roller derby is played with two teams of five players each. Each team has four blockers (defense) and a jammer (attack). It’s played over two 30 minute halves, in two minute periods. Skaters race around a ring anti-clockwise. Jammers must make it past the blockers and lap the pack, before they start to accumulate points for every blocker they pass, with blockers able to use hips, and body blocks to knock them off their path (no hands, head or feet allowed in a block).

Corben tried a number of sports when he was younger, but had never managed to find one that he clicked with quite like roller derby.

Now, it’s his greatest passion, and something that doubles as a family bonding activity.

“I was running through different sports for years,” Corben says.

“I could never find one that I would hook onto. I would play a sport for a few months and then give up on it. This is the only sport for my whole life that I’ve committed to for more than two years.

“It probably does help that my whole family plays it.”

It has been a struggle at time to find teams to play for, however.

Roller derby is a fully amateur sport in Australia, as it’s still not overly popular outside of the small community that plays it.

It is also predominantly played by women, meaning Corben has either had to find co-ed teams, or scrounge together men’s teams from significantly smaller numbers.

“I’ve dropped into different teams pretty much the whole time I’ve been doing it,” he says.

“Even if I do commit to a team, it’s normally a co-ed. The one team I’ve been in for the past two years is the Coastal Assassins Roller Derby, or CARD for short.

“Our main rivals are the Brisbane City Rollers. It’s mostly self-organised and they’re so close to us. They’re pretty much the only ones we’re able to play regularly.”

Representing the country

While roller derby may not be popular, that doesn’t stop the community and the Yorks from dreaming big.

Corben and his family are currently raising funds to go the World Skate Games in Italy, which run from September 6 to 22.

This is the pinnacle of skating sports, where athletes from all over the world converge to battle it out across 12 different events and bring back gold for their country.

Corben and his two brothers are pushing to get on the plane for the second time, after they went to their first Games in Barcelona in 2019 representing Australia.

“Because roller derby isn’t big at all, the government doesn’t tend to look our direction,” he says.

“Thankfully my mum is the Australian team manager. She’s been a lot of help in sorting the travel and organisation out.”

The Barcelona Games were the pinnacle of Corben and the Yorks’ time in roller derby, winning bronze just behind Spain (silver) and the USA (gold) on the podium.

“I’d never been to Europe before,” Corben says. It was really cool, but you spend most of your time teambuilding. It’s not so much a holiday as it is a prepare to battle really.

“There were a lot of tears after winning bronze. There’s something about standing on a stage in a different country with your national anthem playing behind you that hits you in the different spot of the heart. It was so much better alongside the family.”

That victory is what is driving Corben to represent Australia again, to play alongside his brothers and reach his $6,000 funding goal.

“I just want that feeling again of playing for the country, especially with my family.

“And being competitive with your brothers, you want to show them you’re better than them.”