Running on thin ice is harder than it looks.

About the only thing racing through Brett Ferruccio’s mind when the miniature ball rolled toward him was slapping it as hard as he could into the back of the net, he said.

Parked right in front of the goalmouth, Ferruccio wound up for a shot and began to lose his balance on the slippery ice. As he swung, Ferruccio missed the ball completely and fell flat. The orange ball, about five inches in diameter, still managed to find its way into the net. But the referee nullified the goal because Ferruccio landed in the crease.

‘The ball moves so much slower than a puck would in hockey and timing is everything,’ Ferruccio said. ‘You have to stay on your toes. If you start to lean back, you’ll slip and fall like I did, right on my ass.’

Often described as hockey without skates, broomball is sweeping Syracuse University. Though few players have experience, they’re anxiously slipping into warm-up pants and hockey jerseys to hit the ice on Wednesday nights.

Ferruccio, a freshman broadcast journalism major, played his first game of broomball Wednesday night on Feb. 6 with friends from Sigma Nu fraternity at the Tennity Ice Skating Pavilion. Sigma Nu is one of six teams playing in this year’s Tennity Winter Broomball League.

Broomball is more than a sport people play to lose weight or get in shape — it’s a social event.

Sigma Nu decided to join the intramural league this winter after it played in a broomball tournament hosted by the Interfraternity Council on Jan. 26. The tournament was designed as a social event to bring fraternities together.

‘We all had a good time,’ Adam Landsman said. ‘None of us played more than once, but we were all good at it and it’s a lot of fun.’

Tennity manager Nick Wetter hopes that broomball, along with recreational skating and club hockey, can boost attendance at the ice rink. Tennity employees have formed a broomball team of their own, called the Rinkrats.

‘We’re trying to program the heck out of this place,’ Wetter said. ‘We want people to come to the rink and play broomball.’

Tennity has been promoting broomball to the Greek houses and posting flyers and advertisements in all of the residence halls. The rink’s advertising campaign persuaded eight teams to sign up for the league, but only six joined before the Jan. 30 deadline.

Wetter says the momentum is rising.

‘People are still learning about it,’ he said. ‘It’s something new and different that most people have never done before. But people come out and think of it as more of a social event, sort of like a pick-up game of volleyball.’

Landsman, a sophomore information studies major, said the great thing about broomball is anyone can play, though running on ice was a skill that he and Ferruccio learned the hard way.

Game on

‘The fact that it was on ice freaked me out a little,’ Ferruccio said.

The ice on Wednesday night was more slippery than usual because not many people skated on the surface during the day. In the future, Wetter hopes to schedule broomball games right after the men and women’s hockey clubs play because the ice is chopped up and less slippery, he said.

At 6-foot-4, Ferruccio was the tallest player on the ice and had difficulty keeping his balance. So did the other players when Sigma Nu and the Rinkrats played Wednesday night. Falling down became routine for every player. By game’s end, Ferruccio figured out how to stay on his feet.

‘You have to keep a low center of gravity,’ Ferruccio said. ‘Small players definitely have an advantage.’

Broomball adapts the strategy of hockey; each team has six players, a goalie, two defenders and three forwards with up to 14 players on the bench as reserves. The team that scores the most goals wins.

The pace of broomball is not as fast as hockey and is slowed down by players falling and failing to connect on passes or shots. Ferrucio’s point blank attempt in front of the goal is a case in point.

By contrast, Christine Mantz, a Tennity employee, was one of the most effective players on the ice. Mantz used her 5-foot-2 stature and deceptive speed to push her way past the taller Sigma Nu defenders. Mantz played in last semester’s broomball league and was invited to join the Rinkrats squad.

‘It’s all about how you run on the ice,’ Mantz said. ‘You have to take heavy steps when you run. You can’t go at top speed or else you’re going to fall.’

Having played field hockey for four years in high school, Mantz displayed a skill in moving the ball up the ice with her stick. But rules prevent her from taking golf-like swings: her stick cannot rise above her shoulder.

Broomball players do not use the straw broom found commonly in kitchens as they once did in the early 1900s when the sport began in Canada. The closest theory to the origins of broomball comes from the Indians of Eastern Canada who played a game using a ball, stick and tree stumps for goal posts.

Instead, Mantz used a rubber high-tech paddle — shaped like the end of an ice scraper — attached to a wooden shaft.

In addition to the sticks, all players are required to wear helmets. Tennity provides all of the equipment. Some players strap on additional pads for the knees and shins. Players run and slide on their sneakers always anticipating the fall.

‘You want to slide when you know you might fall,’ Tyler Masterson, a freshman information studies major said. The Sigma Nu player was able to adapt his roller hockey skills to the game. He scored two goals in a 4-1 win over the Rinkrats.

‘I only fell a few times and I had the stick handling down, but you have to worry about your feet more,’ he added.

Broomball attracts new players who may be non-ice skaters. Played coed, the contact sport is very close to hockey.

This semester’s broomball league holds three games every Wednesday night. Teams play two 20-minute periods and games usually start at 8 p.m.

Sweeping the area

Just 12 miles north of the Hill, Dave Boland runs a six-team league in North Syracuse that plays every Sunday and Monday evenings at the Sunnycrest Ice Arena on 7669 Linda Rd.

The Syracuse league has been around since 1969 and is one of 11 leagues in the nation, according to usbabroomball.com. Canada and Minnesota are hotbeads for broomball, where teams play between 70 to 80 games a year, Boland said.

Boland’s team, the Barres Tavern, is the defending champions of the United States Broomball Association. This year’s national championship will be held in Rochester from March 22 to March 24. While broomball is just starting on the SU campus, the sport has long been a fixture in the Syracuse area and is continuing to attract newcomers.

‘We’ve picked up 15 young players,’ Boland said. ‘Anybody can play the sport.’

At SUNY-Oswego there are more broomball teams than there are intramural basketball teams, Wetter said.

The largest college broomball program can be found in the Midwest at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Four hundred and fifty teams and 6,000 students participate each year. MU will host the first Midwest Collegiate Tournament this October. There are a total of 28 collegiate broomball programs nationwide and most of them are located in the Midwest and Northeast.

Anyone who wants to play or start his or her own team can do so for $40. The deadline to register for the spring league is March 20. League play begins on March 27 and will also be played every Wednesday night.

Published on February 20, 2002 at 12:00 pm