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IFBA Executive Committee

Rick Przybysz
IFBA President/CEO

Occupation: Professional Fire Fighter

His long time relationship with the sport of Broomball began in 1968 as a player in London Ontario, Canada, before he joined the Navy. During his military carrier the passion and drive for competition was incentive enough to organize the first broomball league on Vancouver Island located in Victoria, BC. As broomball began to grow, he was recognized as the Broomball Coordinator for the BC Winter Games and elected to the BC Broomball Society in 1979. After being a competitor for 10 years, officiating came next and in 1982 he refereed in the Canadian National Championships in Cornwall, Ontario. Rick held many positions with the BC Broomball Society including Public Relations, Referee-in-Chief, VP-Admin and President for 8 terms. During this time he was elected to the Canadian Broomball Federation Executive as VP-Admin for 6 years and then elected to his current position as President.

His most notable commitment to the sport came in 1988 when he had a vision to take the sport to the next level of competition, a World Championship, which has now become the Challenge Cup for Broomball. With the assistance of people he met through the Internet, he organized and chaired the first World Broomball Championships in Victoria, with a total of 44 teams and 800 participants. By 1998, Italy had requested to host the Challenge Cup so the next item of business for him was to form the International Federation of Broomball Associations. Delegates from Italy, Canada, Japan, Sweden, USA, Australia, and Switzerland voted unanimously to adopt a constitution and bylaws forming the IFBA and elected Rick Przybysz as the first President/CEO where he still holds office.

Marc Desparois
Vice President Operations
vp_operations @ internationalbroomball.com

Marc started his broomball career at an early age, playing both hockey and broomball for many years. Although successful in both sports, he chose, in his early twenties, to concentrate his efforts and energy on competitive broomball, playing hockey only for fun. Since 1976 Marc played both civilian and military broomball including 20 years with the Canadian Forces, where he won multiple team and individual awards, including league, provincial, and national championships. Although Marc won numerous MVP awards, his most important awards were, without a doubt, the team awards. While playing in the military he was recruited by a civilian team in Quebec City, becoming their captain for many years. When he was transferred to Kingston, Marc continued to play with the same regularity, once again bringing success to his team and increasing the profile of broomball, overall. When relocated to Montreal in 1990, the hard-hitting Montreal team Contrecoeur, now the Titans Montreal, recruited Marc. He played with them for the next 15 years and, in this past year, coached the team into wining the provincial championships; the team will be representing the province of Quebec at the 2006 Canadian national championships.

Marc also took his Montreal/Contrecoeur team to Bolzano Italy in 1998 and won the World Broomball championship as a coach/player. He and his team were also finalists in the last 3 world cup championships, held every second year in an international city. Marc is an offensive defense man, who possesses strong leadership qualities. He is known for being a fierce competitor on the ice, who always plays to win and will never quit until the game is over. Marc reminds his teammates about fitness and the importance of being in shape; advice that he follows daily and which gives reason for his excellent personal health and stamina; all of which allowed him to remain in a valuable elite player into his forties. As Marc excelled over the years in broomball, he grew to truly appreciate the sport and recognize that it’s one of the most demanding competitive sports in the world. As such, Marc has been a leader in recognizing the importance of getting broomball into the Olympics. For this reason he decided, in the year 2000, to join the IFBA executive as VP Operations to help promote the broomball and have it recognized as an Olympic sport.

Conrad Morneau
VP Technical Program
Armed Forces (Retired)

Conrad’s first initiation to Broomball was in 1962 at the recreational level; upon joining the Air Force in 1964 he began to play at the competitive level and stayed very active as a player till 1992. During that active period of time, which enabled him to travel all across Canada as an elite player and during his military career included Germany. His passion for the sport provided leadership in organized leagues, instructing player clinics, coaching national level teams and became a certified official.

His renewed commitment to the sport as the VP Technical is a welcome addition to the IFBA Executive and he is now actively developing technical programs for officiating and coaching to ensure the highest standards are available to the highest level of competition available for the sport of Broomball.

Pat Cunningham
IFBA General Secretary

Pat was the first president of USA Broomball Association, and currently holds the title of President Emeritus. During this tenure, he and the executive board of the day were responsible for forming the State Organization program, which has been the template for growing the sport of Broomball within the United States.

For 30 years Pat has been an active player and administrator within the sport of Broomball. His claim to fame is playing for the International Broomball Wizards, “America’s Oldest Broomball Team.” As a result of international aspects of the sport of Broomball, the Wizards are the first venture abroad to form a sister team, the Tokyo Wizards, located in Tokyo, Japan.

Pat resides in the city of Mendota Heights, MN, USA, and is married with three daughters. Pat has a Masters degree, and is employed as an industrial safety consultant for Xcel Energy, a large electric utility.

Pat became involved in the administration of Broomball for three reasons: 1) to give back to the sport before retiring, 2) to be a voice for the recreational level of players within the USA, 3) to assist in planning the ultimate goal for the sport of Broomball and that is to reach the Winter Olympics. A dream all broomball participants look forward to.

In his current position, Pat is the first non-Canadian member of the Executive Board of the IFBA, which demonstrates the IFBA’s outreach to the rest of the affiliated national broomball sport organizations. Pat is very appreciative of his opportunity to volunteer his time to the sport at the international level.

BOARD OF GOVERNORS

The Board of Governors are selected or elected people from member countries that have paid membership fees and are in good standing with the IFBA. The responsibility of member countries is to submit one name as their representing Governor to the IFBA Board with membership payment.

Individuals whose names are not endorsed by the Senior Executive member of their National Sport Governing Body, or who have conflicting interest in broomball business contrary to IFBA sponsorship programs, will not be accepted as a representative of a National Sport Governing Body or a Governor of the IFBA with voting rights.

The IFBA is to ensure there are no language barriers during meetings by ensuring interpreters are available upon request from specific individual’s at all sanctioned meetings.

Each IFBA Governor carries one vote during all sanctioned meetings.

Those Governors who fail to attend two consecutive meetings without valid reasons will have their attendance reviewed by the IFBA Executive for possible sanctions including recommendations to remove the Governor.

The duties of the Board of Governors:

1. Attend all meetings pertaining to the IFBA including:
   1. Annual General Meeting
      1. Conducting the overall business of the Federation.
         1. The Governor is entitled to one vote. If necessary, a tie-breaking vote will be cast by the President as per the IFBA Constitution.
         2. The Governor may provide in writing to the General Secretary, issues for the AGM up to 60 days prior to the meeting.
         3. All issues, proposals, amendments to the constitution and bylaws will be circulated by the IFBA General Secretary 45 days prior to the AGM.
   2. Development Meeting
      1. A meeting to discuss and propose future policies for the sport of broomball internationally pertaining to administration, Coaching certification, Officials certification, Junior Development, and inclusion into multi sport events
         1. The Governor should be cognizant of building programs to ensure sport policies are within the guidelines of the General Association of International Sport Associations.
   3. Finance Meetings
      1. A special meeting to discuss and prepare a working budget conducive to the operation of the IFBA.
         1. Governors will be required to submit information from the Sport Organization they are representing pertaining to the sport governing body’s yearly operating cost.
   4. Extraordinary meetings called by the President.
      1. The President will call any Extraordinary Meetings requested by a governor pending the availability of funding.
      2. Attend the World Broomball Championships bid proposal and be a part of the site selection committee.
      3. Responsible to the National Sport Governing Body Executive for the distribution of information pertaining to IFBA business.

Submitted: November 4/02 (IFBA)
Amended: November 1, 2004 (IFBA)