TimesArgus.com - We Are Vermont

For ladies, a 'brooming' hit

This game is not for the faint of heart

MONTPELIER – The only cleaning up these ladies use brooms for is sweeping up the competition.

They play broomball, eight teams of women who use a hockey-stick-like "broom" to bash a hard leather or plastic ball down the ice and into a goal. They don't skate; they run in shoes with rubber soles that grip the ice, occasionally falling to their knees and sliding into a play.

Broomball is rough. Broomball is competitive. Broomball is not for the faint of heart.

But watching the Batchelders take on Forest Green on Sunday night, it's clear that broomball is also a lot of fun.

"We've been known to have an ambulance at the rink on occasion," said Tanya Pelletier, a member of the Batchelders team (each team is named for its sponsoring business, with other teams including Pro Heat, Aces, Backstretch, Marineaus, Heberts and Gustos).

A little background.

It's not clear exactly when broomball was invented – a similar sport called knattleikr was played in Iceland in the 10th Century — but the game showed up in Saskatchewan, Canada, in 1909. Broomball is now played all over the world.

"Way back in the day when the sport was started, it wasn't uncommon for people to die," chuckled Pelletier.

In fact, the league's Web site refers to a game of knattleikr between Strand and Botn where writer Hord Grimkellson reported that "before dusk, six of the Strand players lay dead, though none on the Botn side."

Obviously the central Vermont ladies survive their games. But, Pelletier stressed, "It's a competitive league. Everybody wants to win."

The rules and some of the equipment are similar to ice hockey: whack the ball down the ice, get the ball into the goal, and protect yourself with helmet and full wire facemask. Pads and other protective gear are available, but it didn't appear that the central Vermont teams were using those Sunday night.

Pelletier said broomball isn't as finesse-based as hockey, with less skilled passing and more whacking.

Watching Sunday's game, it was odd to see the ladies running down the ice – instead of slipping and sliding down the ice – although they would slide to a stop.

Some of the long-time players have developed individual skills, such as "scooping," which is lifting the ball up and sending it down the ice. Broomballers also use the boards a lot.

The "broom" is actually a wooden or aluminum shaft with a hard plastic triangular head at the bottom for hitting the ball. The ball itself is made of hard blue or red leather or plastic. Although it's hard to visualize, I'm told soccer and even basketballs are sometimes used in unofficial games.

The Central Vermont Women's Broomball League, which plays its games Friday and Sunday nights at the Civic Center on Gallison Hill Road, features a winter league with up to 160 players, and a less competitive summer league with far few players. Pelletier said the summer league is a good place for women to try out the sport and see if they like it before moving into the feistier winter season.

She said many of the women got into the sport the way she did: "I always wanted to play hockey when I was growing up, but it was too expensive." She played basketball instead.

But when her baby's day-care provider mentioned playing broomball, Pelletier was excited.

"As soon as I heard it was hockey without skates, I said I'm in," she said.

Because players don't skate, the game appears slower than hockey, she notes. But, added Pelletier – who also plays soccer and softball — it's very strenuous. "Everybody is sucking wind when they come off."

She said about half the people she mentions broomball to have never heard of the sport. I was one of those; intrigued by an e-mail about upcoming games, I e-mailed her back last week and said "What the heck is broomball?"

She talked to me about the game and her love of the sport, and I sat in the cold bleachers with two men – several other husbands/boyfriends/friends watched from the warm skybox upstairs – for Sunday's game.

But the sport is growing, according to Pelletier and the national league's Web site.

The hardest thing about the sport, she said, are the hours. Because of competition for ice time, the ladies league is relegated to Friday nights at 8:15 or Sunday early evening. With four children at home, Pelletier said it can be a challenge to juggle kids' bedtimes with games.

But Sunday night, that didn't appear to be the top issue on the ice. In fact, "brooms" seemed to be the furthest things from these ladies' minds.

On Sunday night it was all about cleaning up the competition.

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