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Message from IFBA President Rick Przybysz

Rick Przybysz President/CEO

Congratulations!

The 2006 World Broomball Championships have now concluded and what an exciting week of competition and post event activities during the week! This was undoubtedly the best-seeded competition ever assembled to compete for the World Championships in all divisions. Congratulations to the 600 plus participants for putting such a gallant effort into making the 2006 event the greatest competition ever assembled for the sport of broomball.

Congratulations to the World Cup Champion teams, the Frost from Quebec, Canada, in the Men’s final, the USA Minnesota Selects in the Women’s final and Eastern Ontario Wildcats from Canada in the Mixed division. None of the above teams had an easy ride to win this prestigious award crowned the best Broomball Teams in the world. All of which played to a capacity crowd at the Schwan Super Rink. It should also be noted this was the first time in the history of the World Championships the Women’s Division had representation from Australia and Japan, both of which made a tremendous impact on the USA and Canadian teams with their speed and skill level to compete one on one with the North American best.

The Challenge Cup also provided entertaining, fast and gritty competition in the Men’s draw where the local men’s Konen Construction came up from the bottom tier to just come up shy of winning the tier 2 division by losing to the St Paul Barons by one goal. Great game gentleman! However, the talk of the event was the Women’s Challenge Cup whereby Japan’s Samurai Queens lost a squeaker to the Australian Women by one to nil. An excellent game by any standards! On the Mixed side of this Division the Manitoba Rebels from Canada found their match with an aggressive Italian squad and just managed to win 4 to 3 in the final. The down side for Manitoba came at the awards banquet where an administrative error resulted in the MC announcing the Italians as the winner. The IFBA apologized for this and the cup was returned to the rightful owners the Manitoba Rebels.

Although the North American Cup only had four teams competing, these men (some of which were from “Old Timer Teams”) still provided great broomball action. Colorado Crusaders were victorious over GL Sports, both from the USA. The IFBA is very proud to have the Broomball Association in Colorado using the sport of broomball to host the very popular “LET’S MAKE A WISH” Charity Tournament each year. (www.coloradobroomball.com)

Every World Broomball Championship Host Committee has a unique approach to these events by applying their own signature. Corner Brook in 2004 raised the bar for Host Committees to follow by incorporating a cultural exposition during the event (not to mention the “Screech In”). The 2006 Host Team did not fail in their responsibilities to ensure everyone left with lasting memories maintaining the same level of hospitality and fun as in 2004.

Competition is just one component to staging a successful broomball festival and the staff at the Schwan Super Rink met all technical requirements and introduced the best stats program ever used for these events from Points Streak. As the goals were scored individual stats were posted on the internationalbroomball.com site instantaneously. Still with the Host Committee, in conjunction with the technical side of the tournament comes the fun side and when the Host included the spirited and creative minds from Visit Minneapolis North… this whole event just got better! From the dress up Halloween night pub crawl in Anoka to teams attending the professional football game, then adding in a basketball game for the visiting guests, and the grand finale to the week night activities attending the Minnesota Wild hockey game where the host Wild trounced the visiting Vancouver Canuks (I still maintain the referee calling a penalty shot did not help matters for the Knuckleheads!…personal observation only), a great week was had by all!

Further to these nights, our sincere appreciation goes out to all the volunteers who gave up many personal hours to ensure all visitors were looked after from airport arrivals to the registration night. The local ladies Minnesota Select team hosting the Texas Holdem Night at the Host Hotel, the many volunteers assisting with the Holloween pub crawl…and thanks for bringing the Newfie Team back in one piece...the town of Anoka will never be the same after that yellow (school bus) Newfie “Boombox” left town! To the oldest USA team the Wizards who helped with the on ice awards and working the banquet… Great job everyone!

After a full day of fierce competition, the hotels did their part to make each visitor enjoy their stay with overwhelming hospitality and service. The staff at the host hotel Crowne Plaza Minneapolis North went above and beyond to facilitate the many guests staying there from Japan, Italy, Canada and the USA. Just a wonderful group of people to be associated with during an event of this caliber. Friendly, polite and supportive of the broomball community. What more can one say, thanks Stephonie!

The 2006 competition was the closest seeded ever in the 15 year history of the IFBA. The attending officials under the direction of the IFBA Chief Official did an outstanding job given the low numbers committed to the event. This small but dedicated group of men and one women ensured the safety of the sport was paramount and in most cases gave a text book performance on how to keep the game moving and distinguishing between an aggressive play and over aggressive play and almost exclusively down to good decision making in all games. They all gave off an air of confidence that never once bordered on arrogance and kept their composure through the most difficult of games. The sport of broomball is very proud to have these dedicated officials available for the best broomball players in the World.

A person could write another three pages… but the bottom line…look at the photographs posted on the www.internationabroomball.com web site…they speak volumes…just a great time had by all!

We look forward to having everyone back to the 2010 Olympic City, Vancouver, Canada and the Municipality of Burnaby for the

“2008 WORLD BROOMBALL CHAMPIONSHIPS”