"What the #*$% Is Broomball?!"

Opening note: If you're coming here from the First State Broomball page, welcome! Hopefully this answers the question posed well enough for you. Feel free to comment here if you have any questions about something I neglected to cover, failed to cover clearly, or are just curious to know.

A couple weekends ago, I ventured back east to Delaware for even more good times with old friends, as well as to play a sport that we're trying to improve at to a level where we can beat traveling teams from many different areas. What sport am I talking about? Wow, you got it on your first guess! BROOMBALL.

What was formerly UD Broomball is now First State Broomball; check out our site here. While you're at it, check out the group's Facebook & Twitter pages too.

Unfortunately, 90% of the people whom I told that I was playing this wonderful sport gave me the same response: "What the #*$% is broomball?!" Thus, I had the impetus to give you my full description, with fancy pictures and everything!

Thanks for Brian for being the man (although this comes naturally to him) and taking these great pictures, Derek for helping to set this whole thing up, and the Nomadic Hordes/DC Broomball for coming up to play us.
Broomball bears many resemblances to hockey. No, we're not actually using brooms, but sticks made of a wood or some metal shaft with a "broom" end that looks kind of like an ice scraper. It's played on a sheet of ice that can be cleaned or worn down from people skating on it. As you can see above, we played on a clean sheet of ice that basically required everyone to wear special broomball shoes that grip the ice very well (my body thanks the DC group for bringing extra shoes for me to wear that night). At previous open sessions, we would play after public skating sessions or hockey games, so most of the ice would be worn down and allow us to play in our sneakers if we didn't have shoes. We used hockey goals but broomball goals are 2 feet longer & wider (6 ft. high, 8 ft. wide). The ball is inflated but hard, and it's a little larger in size than a softball. Much of the same equipment used in hockey can readily be used in broomball; I wore knee/shin guards & borrowed someone's helmet, and though I bought specialized broomball gloves, hockey gloves work just fine.

Hey, that's me! Just like hockey, play is commenced with faceoffs at the various circles. The rules are similar to hockey, but modified for broomball's nuances. Play is stopped every time the goalie freezes the ball or the ball leaves the rink. Offsides rules follow the "floating blue line" rule: the ball must be the first thing to cross the blue line into the attacking zone, and when this is accomplished, the attacking team can use their entire attacking half of the ice without worrying about offsides for touching up. "No touch" icing (international style) is always enforced, even if you're killing a penalty. Because we were playing coed no-check rules, checking someone (along with your traditional hockey penalties) earned you a trip to the box. Playing a ball above your shoulders with your stick also got you 2 minutes in the sin bin. My bad, team.
With play being 5 on 5 using the entirety of the rink, competitive broomball can certainly feature some open and fun action. Once you get used to using your stick and balancing yourself on the ice, you'd be amazed how well you can get that ball moving toward your goal. You can lift the ball high into the air, and if you line it up right, you can execute some very powerful slapshot-type shots that can really challenge a goalie. Of course, if you want a better chance of succeeding as a team, you have to deploy some strategy into the game, and hockey strategy can easily be integrated into broomball; we had 3 offensive lines taking shifts of a little over a minute, as well as 5 defensemen taking turns.
More thrills & spills. As pictured, Matt nearly had an amazing breakaway goal. The ball found its way back out to me as I trailed the play. I took a shot that was blocked, then found Matt for a one-time blast that found the back of the net! There were so many other great pictures from our scrimmage that aren't included in this post; check the First State Broomball Facebook page that I linked to for more. We may have lost 2-1 that night, but it was a great broomball experience for our new team moving forward. Obviously we'll look better once we all have shoes & fancy new uniforms.

Hopefully I've explained this sport well enough to you that I don't have to hear that title question again. Feel free to YouTube broomball for some awesome videos of the sport in action...or if you want to see random people looking silly on ice in sneakers.