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2003 – The Early Days

Howard Lin was known for the outlandish, but when he suggested that Erb form a broomball team he really got some curious looks. Nonetheless, a brave core of rookies (Cucinelli, Rigterink, Barry, Hamilton, Kirshman, B. Magnus, Wingfield, Baptista and captain Lin) formed an expansion team and took to the ice. In their first game, team Cemp was outfoxed by a tricky law school squad 4-0. Goal keeper Cucinelli was outstanding, but the legal onslaught was too much. Game two went similarly as Cemp was again humiliated, this time by a group of chemistry grad students who had the audacity to write chemical formulas all over their homemade jerseys! Finally in game three the Cemp rookies slid their way to a 2-2 tie with the group winner behind goals by Magnus and Cucinelli (now playing center with Wingfield in the nets). On to the loser’s playoff bracket the team went with chins held high. Player hopes were quickly dashed, however, when the team’s inaugural season was quickly terminated by a winless team of unknowns from another group.
 

2004 – The Turnaround

With nowhere to go but up, captain Lin once again recruited a team. His creative name for the squad the second time around was “Cemper.” This time the team was playing with considerable experience under its belt as all 9 players returned and were joined by rookies Bole and L. Magnus (Erb Broomball’s first SOS).

The team took its first ever lead in a game in the inaugural slide of the season when Brian Magnus scored his second goal of the night on a side angled slapshot with two minutes to go in the game. Unfortunately, hopes of a first victory were dashed again when the opposing squad beat Cucinelli to the near post in the closing seconds. The team had the second draw in its history, but still no W. Game two of the season was another setback, although Liz Hamilton found the net for Erb’s first two-point female goal. In the final game of the regular season, the team finally came together in the face of adversity. Cucinelli (who had carried the team on his shoulders for its first two seasons) went out with a knee injury, making Wingfield the keeper for the rest of the season. This meant Magnus moved to his natural swingman position, opening the door for seldom used rookie forward Bole to take face-offs for Cemper. Winger went on a legendary steak in the nets, recording 5 straight shutouts as Cemper advanced all the way to the finals.

As Winger thrived in the net, Bole grew into the most prolific scorer in Erb broomball history, finding the nets in all five pre-finals games. Baptista developed his trademark belly defense, logging extensive minutes as the point man for the impenetrable Cemper defense. Magnus and Kirshman moved fluidly at mid-ice and Hamilton proved the ultimate line mate for Bole. The semifinal game featured a great moment when Kirshman took the puck deep in her own end, hurtling the stick of the other team’s center as she streaked down the sideline in front of the Erb bench. Just as the opposing goalie committed, Kirshman flicked the puck back post to Hamilton whose goal sent Erb to the final game, with a chance to play for the coveted broomball champions t-shirt. Sadly the team was forced to put its championship dreams on hold as the Armenian students association rallied behind a late female 2-pointer to out slide the Erbers. Winger was brilliant again, but Bole showed the first evidence of the downside of his attacking game, spending most of the second half in the penalty box.
 

2005 – The Program

Its legend firmly established, Erb broomball opened the 05 season a favorite for cotton. Everyone wanted a piece of the action. Captain Lin, recognizing the need to develop players for the 06 season when most of the legendary inaugural squad would be gone, created a farm team known as the “Up and Comers.” Lin renamed the “A” squad “Kick Ass,” and held the first ever Erb broomball practice on Cyndy’s pond in late January. Due to a scheduling problem it became clear that the “Up and Comers” would open their season against Kick Ass. This caused a heated war of e-mails over which team would get coveted rookie Sarah Winkeller. As Up and Comers struggled to find their groove, Kick Ass seized the uncomfortable moment behind three goals by Bole and a two-pointer by Hamilton. One bright spot for Up and Coming was the scrappy play of Alex Keros, who beat Winger early in the second half.

The loss proved devastating for Up and Coming as the youngsters went on to lose all three regular season games and their inaugural playoff contest. Kick Ass, however, was true to its name, avenging the losses of its farm team with ferocious victories of 7-1 and 11-0. These high scores were made possible by several multi-goal games Hamilton and Bole and an amazing female hatrick from rookie Sarah Hines (Erb’s greatest moment to date). Kick Ass entered the playoffs as the top seed, where a group of upstarts stunned them to put an abrupt end to an amazing season.
 

2006 – The Masses

With the program growing, Erb fielded three teams in the ’06 season. Now captain Bole borrowed the MAP Office’s algorithm to determine who would play on which team. When all was said and done, Bole’s eight-point criteria yielded “Cyndy’s Pond Squad” (Bole, Flanigan, Hines, Martin, Stout, Burgess, Wang, Gearen, Christensen, Swett), “Feedback Loop” (Harris, Jadd, Glancy, Koenig, Shopoff, White, Putterman, Horn x 2, Gross, Nothwang), and “Erbal Remedies” (Chase, Arbitman, Sachse, Wein, Baker, Edison, Baratoff, Lin, Nelson, Felt, Diener). While Cyndy’s Pond Squad was primed to take the cotton, it was Erbal Remedies that ended the season with the best overall record. Their pivotal game, in which they rallied from a 5-1 deficit at halftime to win in the final seconds, raised the bar for all future Erb teams. The ‘Squad had some early setbacks, and Feedback loop was just plain bad, with no wins in the regular season. If it wasn’t for a last second two-pointer by White during the last game of the regular season, Feedback Loop wouldn’t have even made it to the playoffs (their stellar record to close the regular season was 0-2-1).

2007 – Season Outlook

After four years of blood, sweat, and tears, is Erb broomball finally ready for triumph? Only time will tell. With a solid roster of ‘09’s and scores of returning ‘07’s and ‘08’s, it’s looking good. Really good.