They’ve been coached by the likes of “Phearless Diller,” “Sha Nita Penalty” and “Oliver Harass.”

They’ve sustained eight long weeks of “booty camp” — basic training for derby wannabees — where they’ve been hip-checked, shouldered, butted to the floor and learned about life on the fast flat track all while trying to stay upright on skates.

The game is roller derby and it’s not for sissies.

Two island women have come roaring out of the pack after two grueling months of blood, sweat and tears to be named to the Jet City Rollergirls, an official league of the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association.

Emily Czerwonka of Clinton and Juliet Janeshefskie of Langley are two of the newest members of the Camaro Harem, one of the league’s five teams. They join fellow islander and derby queen Heather Merritt, aka “Fuzz Kill,” who skates for another team in that league, the Pink Pistols.

The Everett-based league is made up of five teams which also include CarnEvil, the Hula Honeys and the Bombers, the league’s traveling team.

Czerwonka and Janeshefskie have not yet finished the process of choosing the name that, once they have it, will be the only one by which they will be known in the world of roller derby. It’s all part of the derby aesthetic. You’re never called anything but your derby name, and it is never duplicated within any of the WFTDA’s 400 leagues worldwide.

But before they could choose a handle, they had to make the team.

It was six weeks into training and a trip to the Everett Skate Deck, where the Whidbey women were attending the Jet City Rollergirls Booty Camp, revealed a little of the process by which the league goes about choosing its team members.

“Ally Kazaam,” one of the several booty camp trainers, said she was impressed by Czerwonka and Janeshefskie’s willingness to cross the water to join the game.

“They’re really showing dedication, taking the ferry over here. We are happy to have them,” she said.

Dedication is highly regarded in the world of the derby.

Most of the women at booty camp were hoping to make one of the league teams at the end of the eight-week training period, and “Sha Nita Penalty” was impressed by all the trainees who were showing lots of perseverance on the track.

“I started as a ref, and there wasn’t a program like this one back then. We didn’t have the one-on-one, and didn’t get clued in with the rest of the girls, so it fizzled,” she said.

“Booty camp helps with basic derby skills that a skater needs for games. These girls coming in now are amazing.”

Jet City Rollergirls is the only league that allows women from age 18 and older; the rest of the leagues require women to be at least 21 years old.

On the track there was a variety of ages, shapes, sizes and skill levels of the women, but there was also a palpable sense that this pack was working hard together.

Merritt, who is now a captain on the Pink Pistols, has been involved in the sport for two years, and claims that the sense of loyalty between team members is special. Derby has changed her life.

“I love this sport more than any other team sport I have ever played,” she said.

“I have never been so close with a group of women in my life. We can go out and hit each other, knock each other down, use language we might not use in public, smell bad, wear whatever we want, and still laugh together and care about one another genuinely afterward,” she said.

“It’s incredible, and it’s a feeling every girl or woman should have in her life,” Merritt added. “Beyond that, this sport has put me in the best shape of my life, helped me to quit smoking, drink less frequently, sleep better and really just feel great.”

Merritt’s enthusiasm has rubbed off on the two new Whidbey rollers. They, too, have expressed a change of perspective in their lives.

“It has pushed me both mentally and physically in ways that I have never experienced,” Czerwonka said.

“In the camp, the camaraderie was tight. You are not only relying on yourself and the skills you are learning, but on your teammates.”

Janeshefskie pointed out that even though it has been the most physically and mentally exhausting sport she’s done, it’s been the most fulfilling by far.

“Roller derby has helped me push through my personal fears,” she said. “You have to keep going and just gain more endurance every day.”

Both women were struck by the fact that the sport attracts all kinds of women from different professions and backgrounds. Nurses, moms, teachers (you name it) are all part of the league, and everybody forms essential bonds that go beyond friendship.

“You have to be able to knock your friend down and be knocked down by her and not take it personally. You are friends both on and off the track,” Czerwonka said.

Being knocked down is just one aspect of the challenge.

Flat-track roller derby is a fast-paced contact team sport that requires speed, strategy and athleticism. But the basic rules of play are not complicated.

The game is played by a team of women on rollerskates who wear helmets, elbow pads, wrist guards and knee pads, and who skate on a flat track as opposed to one that is banked.

The game is divided into two 30-minute halves, broken down into two-minute shifts called “jams.”

The eight players in front are called “the pack” and their job is to block. Behind the pack are the two “jammers” — one from each team — who are marked by a star on their helmets.

When the whistle blows, the jammers try to get through the pack to the other side. They will be met with the shoulders, hips and “booty” of the opposing team’s blockers.

When two bodies make contact, it’s a block.

When the jammers skate through the pack for the first time, that’s when they begin scoring. From this point, every time a jammer passes a blocker on the opposing team legally, they gain a point. Anytime they pass an opponent illegally they are penalized. Any player who performs an illegal block earns a penalty.

Illegal moves include elbowing, tripping, back blocking or passing out of bounds. The legal contact zone is between the shoulders and the mid-thigh, and it is illegal to hit an opposing skater in the back.

Any player who receives a major penalty goes to the penalty box.

The jam ends when the lead jammer places her hands on her hips or when two minutes has elapsed. After the jam ends, the teams get back to starting position and the whole thing starts again.

At the end of the game, the team with the most points wins.

The sport itself is gaining in popularity. You may have even seen the recent feature film “Whip It,” starring the diminutive Ellen Page becoming a larger-than-life derby girl.

A nonprofit organization, the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association, is run by the volunteer efforts of its member leagues. With its 83 leagues in the United States alone, the association has its own magazine, an annual national championship preceded by several major regional bouts, an extensive and informative Web site and the can-do spirit of thousands of women.

Today the sport is an international pastime for a new surge of women looking for a sporty challenge. It is a game expressly not for the faint of heart, and features hard work, strong bodies, a “no-whiners” feminist attitude and a rebellious punk-like aesthetic.

The WFTDA maintains a set of flat-track roller derby rules, holds annual tournaments and membership meetings, sanctions teams and bouts, ranks all member leagues, conducts referee training and certification and establishes standards for skater safety and training, all with an eye to the future of the sport.

But the future of these aspiring Jet City Rollergirls hung in the balance.

League coach “Oliver Harass” said, that with derby, it’s mostly attitude that counts.

“Some girls learn to skate right away — they’re naturals with good balance,” he said.

“But if they stick with it and put in the time on skates, most of them get it.”

After watching the booty campers take the track for about 20 minutes of warm-up and skill practice, it was apparent that stamina was key to the game. Sweat dripped from underneath helmets, and bodies hit the floor from fatigue, but even the women who were struggling the most didn’t give up. One after another got up off the floor, gathered their wits and hit the track again.

Ultimately, Czerwonka said, any woman can be a rolling warrior in the battle of the derby, but they will have to confront their own physical and mental limitations in the process.

But, as she and Janeshefskie found out, one can push through those roadblocks and make it to the other side.

“You just have to want to be your own hero,” Czerwonka said.

To find out more about the Women’s Fast Track Derby Association, click here; for the Jet City Rollergirls Web site, click here.