For most students participating in Broomball next year, registration is now closed and there is nothing left to do but wait for the season to start. But for IRHC Broomball, their work has just begun. IRHC Broomball is the residential student organization in charge of maintaining the rinks, refereeing the games, organizing the schedule, and generally running the entire season of Broomball. Preparations for next semester have already begun, as anyone who has seen the Broomball trailer and rinks set up on Walker Lawn can attest.
What is less evident is the work going on behind the scenes to prepare for the upcoming season. The Broomball Vice-Chair, Alex Pothoff, said that registering teams usually goes smoothly so long as that team meets the deadline and the captain attends the required meeting, but there is one constant obstacle to registration every year. “Every year there are teams trying to get away with references or jokes that would make players uncomfortable that we can’t allow to be in our league,” said Pothoff, “so we have to go through all the team names after registration to ensure they are acceptable and ask teams to change their names as needed.”
After a team’s registration is accepted, their schedule is automatically generated by the Broomball website. When asked about when the schedule will be released, Pothoff said, “Schedules get released between Thanksgiving break and the new year. We usually shoot for them being posted during finals week so teams can put in reschedule requests before the season starts, but there are a lot of teams to schedule so it sometimes takes a bit longer.”
One part of the registration process that players should be familiar with is the $40 registration fee per player per team, up from the $35 dollar fee last year. Given the upfront cost, which can get quite steep for players on multiple teams, students may wonder what their money is going toward.
According to Broomball Treasurer Dustin Krantz, those fees cover just about everything. When asked about how Broomball gets funded, Krantz said that a large portion of Broomball’s funding comes from player fees.”We rely on that large lump sum that comes in at the beginning of every season, about now.” Everything from worker wages to free cocoa at the Cocoa Shack is covered by player registration fees.
However, recent changes to the minimum wage in Michigan have increased IRHC Broomball’s cost of labor, and spread that lump sum over a larger operating cost. Michigan has been increasing its state minimum wage for some time, and it plans to continue doing so. According to the State of Michigan website, the minimum wage at the beginning of 2025 was $10.33/hr. The current minimum wage has risen to $12.48/hr, with plans to increase the minimum wage to $13.29/hr next February.
“So in order to keep playing broomball at an accessible price point, we’re searching for other ways to keep money flowing in or cut costs,” said Cocoa Shack Manager Amy Cochrane. “Cocoa Shack is becoming a volunteer position, but Helmet Hut is staying paid.” The plan is to have members of Greek life be able to receive volunteer hours while working at the Cocoa Shack. A handful of paid workers will remain to assist newer volunteers on their shift: referees, rink-staff, and Helmet Hut will continue to be paid positions and will benefit from earning more than they did per hour last year.
Others working for Broomball are being affected by a tightening budget. The rink staff are the workers responsible for clearing and leveling the ice ahead of games. Rink Staff Manager Harlo Plendl said some of their shovels and scrapers are broken. When asked about acquiring new equipment, Plendl said, “This year, I’m trying to avoid buying a ton of new equipment because we are tight on budget. So instead of buying new shovels, I’m trying to buy new handles for them because we do have the heads, the fiberglass handles just broke last year, so we’re trying to repair instead of buying new.”
While the wider organization is fighting a shortage of funds, the referees are fighting a shortage of staff. Referee Manager Amber Shaw is advocating to continue the previous year’s practice of paying referees more than the minimum wage to incentivise participation. “In previous years, the referees were paid higher than Coco Shack or Ringstaff employees,” said Shaw, “So definitely the wage increase has started a lot of new applicants to come join us, but every year, say we’ll get 50 applicants, only about 30 of them will actually follow through with it.”
Pothoff recommends new players keep tabs on the Broomball website to sign their waiver and check their team’s schedule when both get released. “Other than that, the best place to be is the Broomball Discord for any questions and announcements. Players should make a broom – they should come to one of our broommaking bashes if they need help with that! – and get excited for a fun year!”
For more information about IRHC Broomball, as well as your own team status, visit the official IRHC Broomball website: broomball.mtu.edu/
The Broomball Discord server can be found at discord.gg/hKt8XeewN8 for those interested in working for Broomball.
