When Janae Jones moved to Bowie, she was invited by her new friends to go play roller hockey at the former Pop’s Skateland.
Little did she know it would turn into her life’s passion.
And now Jones will represent Team USA at the first-ever World Roller Games championships set for Nanjing, China, the final week of August.
All the world’s roller sports will convene in one location for an Olympics-style competition.
These are the disciplines in roller sports: Inline hockey, roller freestyle, inline alpine, inline downhill, inline freestyle, roller hockey, rink hockey, skateboarding and speed skating – on wheels of course.
“It makes me proud to represent my county,” said Jones, a Bowie High School senior who also competes for the Lady Rabbits track and field and tennis teams. “Especially when I walk out for the opening ceremony, it’s going to be really heavy.”
So, in about four years, roller hockey went from a social activity to elite competition – and there have been plenty of people to help Jones along the way.
“I gave Janae the building blocks,” said Frank Tillery, who served as Janae’s coach and whose son Cole has also played roller hockey at the international level.
“She took to the sport quite well,” Tillery said. “I was a defenseman, so I taught her what I knew. I couldn’t be prouder of her. She has played all around the world.”
Tillery said roller hockey is a skill and finesse sport, and that’s why he played into his 50s – as did Decatur-based coach Don Allen.
Roller hockey employs elements of other sports such as lacrosse and basketball into an incredibly fast-paced sport.
As the USA Roller Sports Rink Hockey site explains, this is a sport with “tight turns, quick starts and equally rapid stops.”
“You have to be in shape,” Janae said, “because there’s so much going on at once. You have to be a good skater. There’s a lot of excitement to it.”
And roller hockey is hugely popular in other parts of the world, primarily Europe, and especially in Spain and Portugal. Read more in the Aug. 12 Bowie News.

Editor’s Note: These are the expressed views of sports editor Eric Viccaro and not necessarily The Bowie News.

Bowie High School senior Janae Jones will compete for Team USA at the World Roller Games in Nanjing, China, during the final weekend of August. Jones picked up the sport as a pre-adolescent. It went from a social activity to an elite-level competition. (News photo by Eric Viccaro)