It’s a lot like hockey…

By ROB FAULKNER, HWDSB Staff repostHWDSB media desk

Saltfleet’s gym yesterday hosted school- and national-calibre games of floorball, a fast-growing sport that promises to improve skills of students in the HWDSB Hockey Canada Skills Academies as well as student experience as an inter-board sport.By ROB FAULKNER, HWDSB Staff

Billy Green students Taylor Mullen and Michael Ciavarella admit the game is fast, the ball-handling tricky and the learning curve steep in the little-known sport of floorball.

“It’s a lot like hockey,” Ciavarella said inside Saltfleet secondary’s gym yesterday, where Highview won the HWDSB elementary championship in a sport that bills itself as “the world’s most popular indoor hockey.”

Yesterday, Saltfleet’s gym was transformed, with packed bleaches and knee-level sideboards, for this fast-growing sport, one that promises to improve skills of students in HWDSB Hockey Canada Skills Academies, and add to student experience as it flourishes as an inter-board sport.

Floorball is a low-cost type of indoor hockey easy to confuse with floor or ball hockey. But the sticks are extremely light; the ball is like a whiffle ball; and the rink, usually 40 by 20 metres, fits well in community centres and school gyms.

“In Europe, floorball was designed to improve your on-ice skills, off-ice. Obviously it’s more economical to improve your skills off the ice and it’s great for conditioning as well,” explained Rob Blunsdon, special assignment teacher for Programs of Choice, which include the Hockey Canada Skills Academies at Sherwood, Churchill, Ancaster and Waterdown.

“We’ve been supportive of this, and four of our students have been on the national team: two current students and two former students,” he explained. Current Sherwood students on Team Canada include forwards Joel Inouye and Andrew Radjenovic.

After the Highview win, national teams began warming up for game one of a Canada-U.S. series that will determine who goes to the worlds in Finland in December. The game, born in Scandinavia, is tough to win in Europe, said Floorball Canada vice-president Paul Charbonneau. Finland is the team to beat. “We would struggle to keep them under 10 points,” he admits.

But Hamilton is becoming a hub for the sport that draws crowds of 20,000 in Europe. This year’s tournament saw 32 HWDSB elementary teams, up from 20 last year. The finals saw broad representation of schools from across the city, with east Hamilton’s Adelaide Hoodless, the east Mountain’s Highview, Stoney Creek’s Billy Green and Ancaster Senior competing.

“Floorball will be worked into our Hockey Skills Academies because, while they are on the ice twice a week, the stick-handling of floorball has been proven to improve their skills on-ice,” Blunsdon said. “It’s a safe sport, it builds sportsmanship and kids who may not embrace other sports easily get the hang of it.”

In addition, Charbonneau said Floorball Ontario is working with Durham educators to develop a curriculum package to help teachers lead a two-week floorball unit. He said floorball is being played in 150 Ontario schools, and three Toronto youth leagues.

Tomorrow, Feb. 6, Saltfleet will host a morning skills clinic with HWDSB students, before game two of the Canada-U.S. series.

Hockey academy teacher Anthony Herrington brought floorball to Sherwood after discussing training with Sweden’s Bjorn Kinding, who was heavily involved in floorball. Kinding created a skills manual and Herrington order the proper sticks for his class.

“From there, it grew and grew and grew.”