Photo by Samantha Davis. Players attempt to crash toward the goal while playing in a broomball tournament at Red Baron Arena on Saturday in Marshall. There were around 40 participants who signed up to play in the new tournament, which spanned throughout four hours.

MARSHALL — Lacing up their tennis shoes, snapping on arm and leg pads, picking up a broomstick and strapping on a helmet, the Lockwood Motors Rink at Red Baron Arena filled with eager players Saturday afternoon to participate in a new broomball tournament.

Broomball is similar to hockey and is played on the ice, but without skates and uses plastic sticks that resemble brooms, with a wooden shaft and a rubber-molded triangular head.

“We’ve never hosted a tournament,” Marshall Recreation Coordinator Cam Bailey said. “We used to have a broomball league back at the old arena and we played Sunday night.”

The tournament brought in six teams, and the participants played in a series of games over the span of four hours throughout the afternoon.

“Since we’ve been in the new arena (Red Baron), there hasn’t been a lot of interest. But, there’s a group of community guys that are playing in the wintertime just over at Independence Park,” Bailey said regarding how the tournament came about. “We collaborated and said, ‘Hey, let’s try to do something indoors.'”

Jacob Hart, a captain of one of the six teams, is a part of the group that plays pickup broomball at the park and enjoyed the opportunity to bring people together for a widespread community event. There were around 40 people who signed up to play in the new tournament.

“We pretty much got what we were expecting from the guys that are in our church group. There’s about 25 (people who signed up) there, and then there’s one other team that signed up (that has never played) just from being open to the whole city,” Hart said.

The games are played in two 20-minute running halves, beginning with a face-off at center ice, like hockey. The ball, which is plastic and slightly larger than a softball and smaller than a soccer ball, is passed between players using the stick with no kicking allowed.

There are five players on the ice for a team at a time, including the goalie.

“This (broomball in Marshall) started actually, with soccer in the summer, and a lot of things translate over well. I mean, you’re using a stick instead of your foot, but you know, just the gameplay of soccer and hockey to broomball. If you’re good at one, you understand the others,” Hart said. “It’s more like field hockey, since you don’t wear skates. It’s a little bit more slower paced obviously, since you’re trying to run on ice and not flying down like you would in hockey.”

Goalies also can use their hands while in the goal to catch or freeze the ball, as long as their body remains in the crease. Once they have the ball, they have five seconds to get rid of it and throw it back out.

Broomball has history in Marshall, and Hart has been a part of the group that consistently plays as a frequent hobby each winter for several years.

“It’s mainly been just random pickup games from guys like in our church, youth group, college. This last year, it was a lot more guys that are a little older or out of college anyways … There’s been a bigger group of young adults that just like doing stuff,” Hart said. “Independence Park has an outdoor rink, same size as this (Red Baron) over here, and that’s what we’ve been using for broomball … People wanted to do something in the winter, so broomball it was.”

As the games went on, the rink filled with laughter between the players having fun competition and the arena earned a sizable crowd of intrigued bystanders as the afternoon went on.

“I hope we do it again,” Hart said. “If it goes well here and people want to do it again next year, then we will do it again next year. Maybe even instead of just one time, maybe a few times.”