By Nathan Kanter

Saulteaux Warriors to compete in Broomball World Championships

Sep 23, 2016 | 7:00 PM

Eighteen years is a particularly long time to go between appearances in a best-on-best world championship tournament, but that’s exactly the position some of the Saulteaux Warriors find themselves in this fall.

The Warriors will compete in the 2016 World Broomball Championships in Regina from November 1-5. There are four players on this year’s roster that also played on the 1998 team that competed in Victoria.

“It’s been a long time since we’ve gone,” Sean Fauchon, goaltender for the Warriors, said. “We’re all super pumped to go. It’s going to be a great experience again.”

To those not familiar with broomball, it’s very similar to ice hockey.

Same rink, same scoring system, only you’re not on skates and you don’t use a puck – instead it’s a large rubber ball.

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“You use a specialized shoe instead of a skate,” Fauchon explained. “Your offside is the centre red line instead of the two blue lines and other than that it’s pretty much like hockey: you’ve got five on five [plus] a goalie.”

The periods are also slightly different in broomball, with two 18-minute halves instead of three 20-minute periods, and players wear less equipment – usually just shin pads, elbows pads, gloves and a helmet.

But there are still tons of similarities to hockey, including body checking.

Just like in hockey, getting hit with the ball also stings. Fauchon said in 1998, a player by the name of Lyle Weiman won the hardest shot competition with a 98 mile per hour rocket.

And yet, Fauchon decides to wear significantly less padding than his peers.

“Lots of goalies like to beef up and wear goalie hockey pants and a goalie chest protector and the shin pads and a blocker… but I don’t like that, it’s too bulky,” he said. “I use a baseball chest protector so it gives me more room to move.”

Fauchon learned to be more mobile in goal from Denis Night, who got many in the Saulteaux community into broomball when they were young.

The Warriors are an all-Aboriginal team, which is a rarity, and they now play in Night’s honour, after he took his own life many years ago.

“Out here we wouldn’t have even known the sport [without him],” Fauchon said. “He brought us all into this.”

More recently, another Warriors teammate passed away – Barry Caplette.

“[Caplette] was always with us and he was always a leader,” Fauchon said. “He passed away a few years ago so basically we just play for those two now, to keep that going.”

The Warriors still have some fundraising to do before they compete as one of 11 men’s teams in November’s international tournament.

They’ve been working extremely hard to raise funds, doing everything from sports tournaments – both soccer and baseball – to a 50/50 draw at a hockey tournament in Saskatoon, to holding a steak night in May, to getting local businesses like Battleford Animal Hospital and Anderson Pump House to help sponsor them.

They’ve come a long way, having raised roughly $16,000 of the $20,000 needed to cover all costs.

On Friday Sept. 23, they’re holding a second steak night to try and close the gap.

“We’ll see where we sit [after Friday] and then hopefully some more businesses will step up,” Fauchon said.

On the ice, the team is preparing with both cardio training and practices. The Civic Centre ice is now much harder to book with the North Stars and AAA Stars beginning their seasons, but Fauchon said six practices are planned, many of them now being moved to the Battleford Arena.

“It’s a really fast game if you know how to play it,” Fauchon said. “If you can move that ball around quick enough, you control the game and you don’t have to run. If you can’t, you’re going to be running in circles. You’re going to be so dog tired trying to get that ball from people.”

Canada will send a total of five men’s teams to Regina, while the U.S. sends two, along with one each from France, Italy, Japan, and Switzerland. There are also 10 teams competing in the women’s division – including seven Canadian teams – 16 teams in a mixed division and 10 teams in a master’s division.

The reason countries can send multiple teams is because often there aren’t enough teams to fill an entire division, and so the host country can opt to bring more than one group. This happened at the tournament in Japan two years ago, when the Japanese had multiple squads.

One Canadian team in particular that may give the Warriors trouble is the Bruno Axemen, who hail from Bruno, Sask., a small town just 90 km east of Saskatoon.

“Bruno is a very strong team,” Fauchon said. “It always used to be us and Bruno always battling it out in provincials.”

The Warriors now have less than six weeks to prepare for the Axemen, among other opponents, but they know even just competing will translate into a time well worth it.

“The best of the best go to [this tournament],” Fauchon said. “You’re going to see the best broomball players in the world there.”

Nathan Kanter is battlefordsNOW’s sports reporter and voice of the Battlefords North Stars. He can be reached at Nathan.kanter@jpbg.ca or tweet him @NathanKanter11