On Wednesday night, as gym rats smoothly finished their workouts in the Davis Fitness Center upstairs in Underhill Arena, a far less graceful activity began down on the ice: intramural broomball.
Broomball is “like hockey for people who can鈥檛 skate,鈥� says Spencer Wallace 鈥�17 of Madison, Wis., captain of the Worldstar Broomball intramural team. In one of two games on a recent evening, Worldstar played the Swedish House Mafia. 鈥淓ven if you鈥檙e good at broomball, you鈥檙e not really good at broomball.
“But that鈥檚 the fun of it.鈥�
Ross Richins '17 of the Salt Cats displays his sliding strategy.
From the bench, the Salt Cats broomball team cheers their teammates as they advance the ball.
Students gather at Underhill Arena for intramural broomball on Jan. 25.
Worldstar Broomball captain Spencer Wallace '17 celebrates after scoring the only goal of their game vs. Swedish House Mafia.
Speed and control are keys to broomball success. But you don't have to have either.
In broomball, players wearing sneakers bat around an inflatable ball, about the size of a soccer ball. The sticks resemble those used in field hockey, except the bottom looks like a car windshield ice scraper. Each team has six players, and the games are 36 minutes long.
Like most sports, speed and control are keys to broomball success. But having neither holds back no one.
For Salt Cats player Ross Richins 鈥�17 of Westerly, R.I., hitting the ball while standing is a challenge so he spends the game sliding around on his knees. 鈥淵ou gotta slide all day,鈥� he explains.
Pointing to his new kneepads, Richins says he went padless during the team’s first game last week and “couldn鈥檛 walk for about two days. So I got these today, and I鈥檓 rolling solid.鈥�
Andrew Moreau 鈥�17 of Waccabuc, N.Y., captain of the Salt Cats, was sidelined with a bum shoulder, injured in last week鈥檚 Puddle Jump. Despite his team’s loss to Sweep or Skull, Moreau remains optimistic.
鈥淲e were too hot, too hot,” he explains. “But we鈥檒l come back humble and we鈥檒l crush it.鈥�
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