Miami Student

Issue date: 4/4/08 Section: Campus

The men's club broomball team wins the national championship for the first time since it began competing three years ago.

While the Miami University hockey team fell short in its bid for a national championship, one other Miami team did manage to go the distance this spring.

The Miami club broomball team returned to campus as victors March 31 from the 2008 USA Broomball National Tournament in Fargo, N.D. Knocking off Bethel University, the tournament's defending champions, by a score of 4-3 gave Miami its first national championship since it first began competing in the event three years ago.

Even though the sport often takes a back seat to better known programs such as hockey and the women's basketball team, bringing home the hardware still means a lot to the players.

"I was thinking, 'Yeah, you know, it's just broomball,'" said junior center Ben Metcalf. "But even though it's a pretty obscure sport, being the best in the nation at it is pretty sweet. I was calling my dad about it. A lot of these guys have been playing forever and this is their chance to be the best in the nation at something. It's something that I'm not going to forget anytime soon."

To get to the tournament final,

Miami first had to battle its way through a grueling round-robin format. The team won its first two matches to secure a spot in the championship.

However, because they were only playing with three substitutes and were also playing other matches for the co-recreational team, fatigue soon set in. Miami fell to Bethel in what was a preview of the finals by a score of 8-1 in their last match before the championship.

"I didn't handle that (losing) so well," Metcalf said. "I was kind of pissed off because I was like, 'Oh this (the championship) is going to be a terrible game.' But two hours later everyone was like, 'Alright, let's turn it on now.' It was pretty intense which was weird for broomball because in intramurals most people are like, 'La dee da.'"

Club broomball is quite different from intramurals at Miami. The club team plays on a full ice rink, as opposed to the half court format used at Goggin. While intramural nets are 10 feet by 4 feet, the club nets are 8 feet by 6 feet.

Other rules that intramurals do not have are offsides and icing. The club team plays 18 minute halves under stop-time, unlike intramurals which plays 12 minute halves under a running clock. The differences create a new style of play that is very much like hockey.

Continued...

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