Sweeping into the spotlight

Broomball looks to continue growth in popularity

 

By Katherine DeClerq
The Fulcrum (University of Ottawa)

OTTAWA (CUP) — Every Canadian
knows about hockey, our unofficial
national sport played on ice with a
puck and a stick — but how many
people know a thing about hockey’s .
counterpart, broombail?

Founded in Canada between 1909
and 1910, this sport is played on a
hockey rink, but with a rubber broom,

ball and rubber shoes instead of skates.
While it may not be the most popular
sport around, broomball has grown
considerably in recent years. Younger
and younger athletes are beginning to
play the sport, including fourth-year
University of Ottawa student and sports
therapist Sarah Achtereekte.

“T got into broomball because
of my parents,” said Achtereekte. “I
started when I was four or five. My feet
couldn’t actually fit in the shoes, so my
mom gave me extra socks so I could
start playing early.”

The rules of broomball are similar
to hockey. The goal of the game
is to get the ball into the opposing
team’s net. The only two rule-related
differences between the sports are
the location of the offside lines —
for hockey, it’s the blue line and for
broomball, it’s the red. And there is
not just a whistle for a highstick in
broomball — hitting the ball above
your shoulder results in a penalty.

Achtereekte plays on an elite
team in the Eastern Ontario region.

Broomball tournaments are scheduled
throughout the year, with the teams
competing to go to provincials then
nationals. The season for elite teams
is quite different from that of other
broomball teams, as the squad must
make it to provincials the year before
in order to qualify for the national
competition. ;

Achtereekte explained she doesn’t
mind the system because if offers
her team an opportunity to develop
without worrying about protecting a
championship.

“This year, there are no teams from
Eastern Ontario going to nationals; it’s
the western team that is going. But our
team is younger so we have time to
grow,” said Achtereekte. “Right now,
because we aren’t going anywhere,
playing broomball is more of a health
benefit for me this year.

“Plus, because I’m a student, the
sport is great for stress,” she joked.

Broomball was taken under
consideration for the the 2010 Winter
Olympic Games, but didn’t pass the

&

Saas.

bar. Achtereekte thinks the Olympic
consideration is indicative of new
popularity for broomball.

“Since I’ve been playing, [the
sport] has gotten pretty big. I mean,
you have teams from Ontario, and just
in Eastern Ontario you can usually play
against three or four good teams and a
couple of [exhibition] teams, but I don’t
think it’ll get close to hockey,” she
said. “There are still a bunch of people
who don’t know about the sport.”

Achtereekte also feels that
broomball has the potential to become
widely accepted among families
because it is more cost efficient than
sports like hockey.

“It’s a lot cheaper than hockey
and the equipment [costs] practically
nothing. Registration fees are getting
a little higher ... [but] it is less time
consuming than hockey. I don’t
know exactly what is being done for
advertising, but it seems to be getting
out there.”

Achtereekte has no doubt that the
sport will gain popularity in years to come.

 

Unleash the beast: Newton finding his stride

By Eric Wilkins, Staff Writer

e’s six foot 5 inches tall and
He pounds. Runs a 4.56 40-

yard dash. Reportedly beat an
offensive lineman at wrestling in college.
Oh, and he’s a quarterback. Meet Cam
Newton.

The 22-year-old out of Auburn is
off to a flying start in his NFL career,
throwing for 1,610 yards and seven
touchdowns, while adding five TD’s on
the ground....in his first five games. He
has already eclipsed the entire season’s
total of his predecessor, the outspoken
Jimmy Clausen. His first game was a
monster 422 yard effort (a record for a
rookie debut). To prove that this was no
fluke, he followed up with a 432 yard
performance the very next week. At this

I must admit that I was not a strong
believer in Newton. However, this had
as much to do with Newton as it did with
what people were saying about him. I’ve
found that when there is this much hype
about a player, they traditionally bust.
JaMarcus Russell is perhaps the most
recent example of this, and it doesn’t
take a sports nut to tell you how well he’s
doing now. Reggie Bush, Matt Leinart,
and Vince Young (all incidentally from
the same draft class as each other) are
other notables who haven’t quite lived
up to their billings. I hadn’t watched
many of Newton’s games in college,
but the few that I did he seemed to rely
on his ridiculous size and incredible
arm strength. I was positive that upon
reaching the NFL he would simply be
overwhelmed by the equally imposing

“He slices through defenses like a hot knife through butter and still
uses his size quite effectively.”

point, it began to become obvious that
Cam Newton was for real.

Everything, winning aside (and
honestly, he plays for the Panthers—he’s
a good QB, not God), has gone right for
Newton lately. Coming out of college,
he was a Heisman trophy winner fresh
off of a perfect season capped with a
BCS National Championship. He was
the number one overall pick in the draft,
and consequently handed a fat rookie
contract. At the end of his first preseason,
Ron Rivera declared Newton his starting
QB. The stage was set. The curtains had
been drawn. The audience anxiously
awaited the first act. And he delivered.

figures now lined up against him. I was
wrong. He slices through defenses like
a hot knife through butter and still uses
his size quite effectively. I look forward
to the day when he finally matches up
against the Eagles...Asante Samuel,

the only player ever known to record
negative tackles in a game (I kid of
course, I think...), may just take the day
off.

With three games of over 350 yards
passing in his first five games, and likely
four in six by the time you read this
article, the sky is the limit for young
Newton. The Panthers...not so much.

Cam Newton