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World Broomball Championships
Broomball
Article by: © Michael J. Rosen 2012
"The Equivalent of Beer-League Wiffleball in the Ice-Bound Sports World"
Tired of lacing up your skates, but love the idea of ice? Broomball's for you, the sport that's always trying to distance itself from the "I'm with stupid" t-shirt worn by its cousin, curling, where athletes push granite rocks shuffle-board style across the ice, while two guys with brooms sweep the surface in front of the ball to direct its path onto a bull's-eye.
In the early 1900s, before Fantasia revealed that all brooms are possessed, streetcar workers in Canada used their brooms to hit a small soccer ball to pass the time when winter winds must have discouraged passengers from climbing aboard an open trolley car. Over the years, broomball has come to resemble ice hockey, played on a rink with six members on each team (five plus a goalie).
Contrary to curling tradition, and despite what its name might lead you to believe, broomball doesn't involve brooms. Sure, back in the day, a broom's bristles were frozen, dipped in rubber, and wrapped in tape, but today, players are much happier wielding a wooden or aluminum shaft with triangular rubber head. (If only the rest of us could be made happy so readily.)
Broomball's creators must have concurred that pucks are too hard and that skates only remind players why they're so bad at hockey, so broomball players use an orange rubber ball about the size and color of an inside-out cantaloupe, and get to wear a pair of waterproof sneakers, specially designed for ankle support and traction.
Since the 1960s, organized leagues have "swept" across Australia, Japan, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, and 26 cities in the United States. The International Federation of Broomball Association hosts the biennial World Broomball Championships, leaving curling out in the cold...with all those chilly folks who let the trolley cars pass them by.
Ready to come out of the broom closet? Visit www.usabroomball.com.
In 10th century Iceland, a sport similar to broomball known as knattleikr pitted one village against another in games that lasted up to two weeks. Waged almost like a war, the competition frequently resulted in casualties. Considering such high entertainment value, many are still surprised, 11 centuries later, that Iceland's top attraction is whale watching.
No Dribbling the Squid
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