Broomball News

Nationals Hits Fargo in Record Style

USA Broomball's 10th Annual National Championships was held in Fargo, North Dakota on March 28-30. Thirty-nine teams from six different states made the journey and displayed some phenominal broomball to its fans.

This was definitely the year for upsets and fetes.

Colorado pulled an amazing victory over Minnesota's heavily favored Two3 team for the Class D Men's Championship.
Miami of Ohio also pulled off a big league victory over defending champions, Bethel Royals, in the collegiate division.
Kelly Lake did not disappoint either. This team came out of nowhere and immediately humbled the high-riding Class C Minnesota State Champions, GL Sports in the first round of pool play. Kelly Lake went on to win the Class C Men's National Championship.
Geez continued their success from Minnesota B State to win the National Men's Class B division. They will truly give teams a run for their money next season in the Men's A division.
Voodoo stunned quite a few co-rec teams to become the 2008 Co-Rec Champions. Made up of six players from the inaugural co-rec champion team of the Kamikazees, some seasoned veterans and rookies alike, this team played well through the tough games to win it all against Superior Machine.
The Smart Mortgage Blues, arguably the most dominating team in recent memory closed a magnificant run the broomball world might not ever see again. They dominated the North American Champions, Inferno, 4-0 in the Men's Class A National Championship game. Truly a wonderful end for that team. They won the first ever USA Nationals and closed out a championship on the 10th anniversary.

Look for another exciting Nationals as the prestigious tournament comes to broomball's hometown of Richfield, Minnesota in 2009.

Broomball in the News
Below are some links to recent broomball-related articles from various news sources.

Broomball Season Sweeps over Michigan Tech
Get swept off your feet by Lauren Bishop of Cincinnati.com
"Having a (broom) ball" by Clayton Collins of The Christian Science Monitor

Kids Love Broomball Week at NSC

Broomball was the featured sport during the week of July 16th-20th at the All Sports Summer Camp at the National Sports Center in Blaine. Four days of broomball training, education and lots of fun games were part of USA Broomball's schedule for the camp with over 50 kids ranging from ages 6-13 getting involved with the sport.

Daily events included skills of the game, strategy and video lessons and highlight films that were a hit with the kids. Al Stauffacher, USA Broomball's Marketing focal, headed the program with help from the NSC Summer camp conselors. Broomball ambassador, Dan Cisar, coached Wednesday and also was in goal for a fun shootout contest with the kids.

Camp director, Chris Schultz, was very happy with the program and is excited to bring it back next year. The kids had developed rapidly each day and Friday's game was a treat to watch with skills they had honed.

"Every kid loved the game and wanted to know more and play more," said Al Stauffacher. "My favorite part was playing broomball with my 6 year old daughter, Greta, all week. I also realized after running 2 hours a day with these kids, why I am a goalie. I am already looking forward to the broomball week at camp next year."Congratulations World Championship Teams!
The US was well represented at the 2006 World Championships. The Minnesota Selects are the World Cup Champions in the women’s division, with the Minnesota Ice as finalists. Congratulations ladies! The St. Paul Barons beat Konan Construction for the Challenge Cup. Finally, the Colorado Crusaders beat GL Sports of Minnesota for the North American Cup championship. Congratulations to all championship teams and thank you for supporting the US program.

USA Broomball on the Move
The executive board has been busy again this year promoting our sport throughout the country. In January, board members will travel to Lincoln, Nebraska to talk to students at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln about our program. At the end of the month, board members will hold a round table discussion with the IFBA and sporting goods manufacturers at the Let's Play Hockey Expo in Las Vegas.

Triple Crown Series Results
The inaugural USA Broomball Triple Crown was a smashing success as all three tournaments in the series sold out in record time and hosted
capacity fields.

The Blues out of Rosemount, Minnesota, captured the overall points championship as they were victorious in the Rosemount Cash Out and Sin City Showdown, as well as taking third place in the North American Championships. In addition to capturing the Triple Crown Championship the Blues were awarded a paid berth to the USA Broomball National Championships.

The Triple Crown was not only for the class A teams however, as the Minnesota Hitmen from Richfield, MN were also awarded a paid berth to the USA Broomball National Championships, as the team with the highest point total amongst the non-class A participants in the three events.

North American and Midwestern Results
The 9th annual North American/ Midwestern Championships were recently held in Rosemount Minnesota. The Inferno captured the North American division with a 3-2 win over Quality Abstract. The road to the title was not easy for Inferno as they defeated the Blues, a team that had won this tournament a record four times, 3-2 in a double overtime thriller. The championship victory over QA was equally exciting for the spectators as QA was relentless in their quest to come back from a two goal deficit. Jamie Johnson of Inferno was nothing less than spectacular the entire event as he controlled the defensive zone and quarterbacked the breakout for Inferno game after game.

The Midwestern division was equally exciting, as the Hitmen from Richfield, Minnesota successfully defended their 2005 Midwestern Championship. The Hitmen were tested throughout the event as they repelled strong challenges from Barriers Tavern and the Sloppy Waffles
just to get into the championship game.

The finals would be a rematch of the 2005 Midwest Championship as Beaver Roofing, despite playing with an extremely short bench, also fought
their way back in. The game was not decided until Hitmen keeper, Al
"Woody" Stauffacher turned away a center ice blast right at the buzzer
to preserve the 2-1 victory for the Hitmen.

2006 North American Division MVP
Jamie Johnson, Inferno

2006 Midwestern Division Co-MVP
Al "Woody" Stauffacher, Minnesota Hitmen
Kevin Denesen, Minnesota Hitmen

WCCO's Rita Maloney Covers Broomball
Kevin Denesen represented USA Broomball and the Minnesota Sports Federation during Rita Maloney's Saturday sports show on WCCO 830. Listen to the interview on MP3 below (note that these are very large files and make take awhile to download).
- Radio Interview Part 1
- Radio Interview Part 2

USA Broomball Quarterly Makes its Debut
The USA Broomball Quarterly is our print publication to keep broomball managers, members and its state organizations up to speed as to what is happening in the sport of broomball. For those without internet access this newsletter is a key resource that has been long overdue. If you are not a team manager and would like to receive this in your mailbox, we added this as a bonus feature to our Individual Membership benefits. The next issue of the quarterly will be mailed out in December. If you are not an individual member and not a team manager, feel free to pick up a copy at our sponsor, Instant Replay.

2005-2006 USA Broomball Rule Changes, Modifications and Clarifications.

Class A and B men's teams are now predesignated.
Class A:
- Budweiser/Team Duluth
- Flames/Crab House
- Gatti. Inc.
- Inferno
- Life Chiropractic
- Minnesota Red
- No Bull
- Q.A.
- St. Paul Barons
- Smart Mortgage Blues
- Summitt
- Vanelli's
Class B:
- Beaver Roofing
- Club Goobs
- Club O's
- Gopher Produce
- Minnesota Hitmen
- Rapid Fire
- Sports Desk
- T-Bonz
Class D teams moved to Class C:
- Shaft Drivers
- Goldmark
- The Paint Store/TPS
- SCAC
Class C Co-Rec moved to Class B:
- Inflatable Party Sheep
- Minnesota Meerkats.
All Minnesota team rosters must be submitted to the MSF office by January 5. There will be no exceptions for any teams not completing this requirement. Also rosters may be only 15 players for any Minnesota State Tournament. A maximum of 3 rostered players from any team or combination of teams are allowed to drop in classification from prior years to form a new team.
National rosters are set at 17 players. Any Minnesota team participating in a National Tournament may pick up 2 additional players from Minnesota in the same or lower classification. However these pick-ups may not be from another team wishing to participate and must get a manager's waiver releasing them to play in Nationals.
Icing will now be "Automatically" called when the ball crosses the goal line extended. provided all the other criteria which still applies are met.
For indoor tournaments, all classifications will be able to play the ball to the shoulders.
No player may punt or drop kick the ball. Kick passes are still legal.
Any attacking player in the crease before the ball will incur an immediate whistle with the resulting face off at their defending blue line.
Any contact to the helmet, whether intentional or not, will be penalized. This includes hands and brooms. The severity of the penalty will be called according to the situation.
"Picks", both moving and stationary, are considered interference and will be penalized accordingly.