Having a (broom) ball
The sport with the air of a snowball fight may be the biggest thing to sweep college campuses since streaking.
from the May 3, 2007 edition
Page 4 of 4
Some former high school hockey players go out for broomball, adjust to the no-checking environment, and take it easy. James Camarino, a physical-therapy major at BU who also enjoys roller hockey, says he joined Hero Squad purely for fun. "I played hockey all my life," he says. "[Now] it's just cool to be on my feet on the ice, watching people fall comically."
Others throw their weight around. Julie Camuso, a freshman at the University of Vermont, has known male players who targeted girls on the ice. It didn't happen often enough to dim her enthusiasm for broomball, which she says fulfills a need. "For a lot of students who can't play Division I [sports] or don't want to, but who played sports throughout high school, it's hard to come here and not have that in your life anymore," Ms. Camuso says. "I wasn't too sure what I got myself into at first, but I looked forward to [broomball] every week."
Tonight at BU, one of the refs calls a penalty on a player, who throws down his stick – a standard model with a molded-rubber end that's more ice-scraper than broom – on the way to the penalty box. He is ejected and storms off. "This isn't smash-'em-up league," says Mr.Nalette when he returns to rink-side after a brief face-off with the player in the corridor over interpretations of the event. "It's zero tolerance for stick throwing."
The genial mood is quickly restored. Poison Ivy wins, 2-0, having outshot their rivals 17-7. The team, in BU Terrier red, clomps out of the rink trading good-natured insults. "Dude," says one player, "it took you 40 minutes to get across the ice." You can tell they'll all be back.
Mike Delduke, whose team did not play today, is already thinking about next year's extracurriculars. He might play some volleyball, he says. "But I'll absolutely be going out for broomball." Delduke pauses, going over a mental roster. "Finding the girls will be the tough part," he says. "A bunch of them are going abroad."
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