Broomball is not for the faint of heart.
Ben Brenner, a junior criminal justice major, learned that two weeks ago, when he was high-sticked by an opponent, splitting his lip. He received five stitches at Massachusetts General Hospital, but still showed up to play in last Thursday’s game.
“I’m battling through a lot of pain right now,” Brenner said. “There was a lot of blood.”
John Caprice, a middler computer science major, had a stick shoved into his right eye Monday while tending goal.
“I couldn’t see for, like, six minutes,” he said, rubbing his eye.
Several times a week, intramural broomball teams take over Matthews Arena. Despite its misleading name, there are no brooms involved in the sport. Instead, four teams of stick-wielding players, clad in helmets, sneakers and colored pennies – or special-made t-shirts, depending on the team – compete in two games at opposite ends of the arena.
There were only a handful of fans present at Thursday’s 11 p.m. set of games, but they remained vocal throughout.
“Liar!” The yell from one fan after the goalie from the We’ll Take the Shirt team tried to contest a call echoed throughout the cavernous arena.
“Liar?” the goalie shouted back. “Shut up!”
“Keep yelling,” a player from I’ll Have a Coke told the instigator in the stands. “I don’t care if they get mad.”
In spite of the few fans present at Monday’s series of games, players remained enthusiastic.
“It’d be nice if we had more friends to watch the games,” said Greg Woodbury, a middler information sciences major. “I don’t mind being hassled by my friends.”
Broomball rules are similar to those of hockey, but the sports differ greatly when it comes to speed, the amount of contact between players and equipment, which is supplied by the school.
One major difference in equipment, though, is footwear. Unlike hockey, for which players don ice skates, broomball players run across the ice in their sneakers. Although most players were well-balanced on the ice Thursday night, there were only a few spills during both games.
“It’s hard to stop more than balance,” Woodbury said. “It depends on if there’s a hockey game before,” he said, noting that players’ skates tear up the ice enough to make it less slippery.
Broomball originated in Canada in the early 1900s, according to Kim Shapley of the Broomball Association of South Australia’s Web site. There are several theories about its origins; the most accurate says it was started by Indians living in Eastern Canada who used balls and sticks to play, according to the site.
Woodbury and his friends got involved several years ago.
“We came and watched a broomball game our freshman year and we thought it looked like fun,” he said.
– Allison Mudge, News staff
