It's been three months since Brian blogged, but if you've been following the team's social channels, he hasn't been sitting around! Learn why he's so passionate about floorball.
As business owners we are passionate about what we do and why we do it. That’s why we opened a business! For Leigh and me, our passion was to show others the game of floorball and to give others the chance that we were given when we moved to Texas in 2013. From a community center in Flower Mound to the North Texas Floorball Association, our boys grew in the sport and the family’s love and familiarity with the game deepened.
Then our oldest (Tyler) was selected to wear the Stars and Stripes and play with Team USA first at the Storvreta Cup in Uppsala, Sweden in2018 and then at the World Floorball Championships in Halifax in 2019. He scored a goal, had what he called “the single greatest week of his life”, and our family got even deeper into floorball.
Why do we love the game so much that we bought a team? Because it’s new and exciting. Because it’s so accessible – all you need is a stick and a ball, about $30-40 total on our equipment sponsor’s website at Floorball Planet. (Click the banner in our shop to be redirected there and support the Jags while you get to know the game!)
We love it also because of the community.
It’s international – I have met more people from around the world in the last three to four years than I ever could have imagined. I have more Finnish, Swedish, Czech, and Swiss bookmarks on my browser thanks to Google Translate than I have ever had.
It’s competitive - the people that make up this community are lovers of sport and lovers of competition. I’ve both refereed and played in matches where the players were pumped up and were driven to compete, getting furious with each other because of a perceived missed call or insult. These are the same players that are laughing with each other watching another game the next day because of a shared love of the sport.
It’s supportive – floorballers want to help each other. We encourage each other in what works to grow our game and get better. Social media groups spring up around it, and content is shared to help grow the game. Adam Troy in Uppsala, Sweden, is a great example of that support. He has always been willing to work with us in the States to help grow the game in the federation that he founded. The amazing images you see associated with US Floorball almost all came from Adam's amazing touch with a camera!
Another example of the support that I love to share is in the floorball referee’s community – a truly small group on a global scale. One referee friend of mine heard I was going to be in Sweden at the Storvreta Cup in 2018 and knew I wanted to grow in officiating. He took the opportunity of us being in Sweden to get me four games of international floorball experience…and I learned more on that snowy afternoon in Fryishov than I ever could have stateside. I’ve tried to bring that back and pass on what he taught me there.
And finally, it’s uniting. I have made more friends around the country from more walks of life than I could have ever hoped for. It’s the opportunity to fly to Chicago and eat in a good friend’s restaurant. It’s the ability to walk into a San Jose rink for only the third or fourth time and see good friends. It’s such a close community that our family detoured into Colorado Springs on a two week camping trip specifically to play floorball with the crew there…and that they changed their schedule to have an extra night to play with us. We’ve opened our home to people we barely know and had them open theirs to us.
That’s why at midnight on a weeknight with another day at the office at the real job ahead of me, I’m still typing. The main job has been busy, but as you know from the social posts of our player announcements, we have been staying active behind the scenes. Tonight, we got our insurance finalized, so that in the next week you’ll see announcements about our venue and another exciting opportunity to share the game we’re so passionate about. I spent 90 minutes on the phone with the NTFA Board discussing the options for growing the game and devising a membership poll to better serve our members.
I also spent 90 minutes on the phone with our marketing team and I’m eager to show everyone our new media guide that will soon be public. On Saturday we’ll have a team call with Europe and America together on video, and on Sunday I will get to record two exciting player announcements to share with you all next week.
Yes, it’s been a long time with no blog, but stay tuned – what the team has in store will only continue to turn up the excitement of a great first season of high-level US floorball!
