Broomball's 'ridiculousness' attracts players

Canada has a knack for coming up with sports. First it was hockey. Now, the Canadian sport of broomball has claimed the attention of people around the world, from Moscow to Japan to Taiwan — to Princeton.

Like hockey, broomball is played on ice, and the two games have similar rules.

In professional leagues, padded sponge rubber shoes are used to maneuver on the ice, but on Baker Rink sneakers will do.

The ball is fairly large — somewhere between a soccer ball and a softball — and is moved around with brooms of wood or aluminum, as per the rules of the United States Broomball Association.

The USBA lists 38 colleges that play broomball competitively. The largest broomball program is at Miami University at Oxford, Ohio, which has 450 teams and over 6,000 students participating, according to the USBA website.

Intramural broomball has been played at the University since 1985. Princeton's broomball games are not nearly as professional or a specialized as those of the USBA. Instead, intramural broomball's appeal is its ridiculousness, said Matt Foulger '05, Forbes' IM co-chair.

"You have four people on each team running around on ice in street clothes and sneakers, chasing this bouncy orange ball and whacking at it with short broom handle-like sticks which only have this little blunt plastic end that you have shoot with," Foulger said of the sport in an email.

Broomball, however, is not curling.

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Broomball is a fast game, full of bruises and falls, and the goal of the game is to score by hitting the ball into the net, as in hockey.

The sport requires a minimum of five players, including the goalie.

Though broomball has similarities to hockey, it is unmistakably unique.

"Even if you know how to skate, that doesn't mean that you know how to walk on ice, and hockey players are not necessarily going to be good at broomball," said Jordan Vance '04, a broomball and IM hockey player.

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At the University, broomball games are either men's or co-recreational. Three leagues, based on skill level, comprise 61 teams, including eating club teams, residential college teams and independent teams, said Christine McCarthy, IM and club sports coordinator.

This year, the season started Feb. 12, and playoffs will begin in three weeks. Each team plays four games and qualifies automatically for the playoffs unless two games are forfeited.

Despite the unofficial status of broomball at the University, players really have a great deal of fun with the sport.

"Games come right down to the wire and when you score the winning goal on a pretty play, you feel like you're on Broomball Night in Canada," Foulger said.

"It's one of the greatest sports ever," Vance agreed.