More than 830 broomball players from across Ontario converged upon Barrie and arenas in Stroud and Innisfil to compete in the Ontario Broomball Associations Provincial Championships on the weekend of Feb. 8-10.
Held annually, this tournament sees teams from the major broomball centres in Ontario including Central West (Blyth, Seaforth, Mildmay and Palmerston) Windsor, Ottawa, and the Barrie area compete in the various age groups.
Palmerston Junior Broomball sent a team in each of the seven age categories including Pewee, Bantam Boys and Girls, Midget Boys and Girls and Juvenile Boys and Girls.
The Bantam Boys started the tournament with three straight wins over Cannington, Windsor, and rivals in Mildmay, a marked improvement over the 2011 and 2012 tournaments when they were eliminated after two games. These wins guaranteed them a medal, the next two games would determine the colour. In a field of nine teams, the boys were not handed anything, they worked incredibly hard for every goal they scored, team officials state.
Saturday night, the Palmerston Predators faced off against a very strong Ottawa team, the Warriors, which had won handily over the two previous teams they had faced.
Palmerston managed to hold them off for the first nine minutes of play before allowing a goal. Though there were struggles over the next few minutes of play, the Predators won the second period.
“Despite losing 4-1, the Predators can be proud knowing this was the closest game the Warriors had throughout their weekend,” team officials state.
In the semi-finals, the Predators experienced a number of penalties that never fully allowed them to play their game. When a fluke goal was scored by the opposing Devils with four minutes left in the second period, the Predators had to dig deep and leave everything they had on the ice. In spite of having played four other games in the last 41 hours, the Predators can honestly say they gave everything they had.
The coaching staff states they and the team’s fans are “incredibly proud of the hard work these boys showed through out the tournament.”
Though all local teams experienced varying degrees of success over the weekend, three Predators teams were able to capture bronze medals: the Bantam Boys, Midget Girls, and Juvenile Girls.
“Congratulations to all Palmerston Junior Broomball players on a great season and tournament.”
