(Submitted photo/Dean Demers)

By Nolan Kowal

Clean sweep

‘Amazing accomplishment’: Debden basking in broomball glory…again

Apr 9, 2024 | 12:00 PM

A group of young women are putting the tiny town of Debden, Saskatchewan on the map.

For the third straight year, the Debden Roadrunners have won the U20 girls national broomball championship. The team beat Ontario’s Eastern Thunder 2-1 in the finals.

“These girls should really be commended for that…all these girls are from small town Saskatchewan, and they’re the best team in Canada three years in a row,” said coach Dean Demers, who guided the team to the title in Portage la Prairie, Man.

“That’s really an amazing accomplishment for us to beat all these big city teams coming out of the east.”

Demers added that his team this year had a target on their backs as the two-time defending champs.

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“The first year we showed up at this tournament, nobody knew who the Debden Roadrunners were…we were just another Saskatchewan team that never wins,” said Demers. “But now that we had won the last two and coming into this year, holy smokes this year those other teams really stepped up their game play when they played against us.”

“Those last six games, the girls really had to work hard for those victories. None of those last six games were even decided by more than one goal.”

Broomball is played on ice and has a lot of similarities to hockey, Demers said.

“It’s just like hockey except instead of skates we use shoes and instead of a puck it’s a big orange ball, instead of a hockey stick I guess it’d be called a broom,” he said. “I know broomball is still a developing sport for lots of people in Canada especially with the shortage of rinks that we do have.”

“With the shortage of rinks across Canada, it’s going to be hard for any sport to grow when there’s not enough facilities to handle all of these sports that need them.”

Saskatchewan had never won a U20 championship in the girls division prior to the Roadrunners’ first title in 2022.

“It’s a huge accomplishment just for the Debden area, but for the whole province of Saskatchewan actually, we’re kind of putting girls broomball on the map here.”

Demers said they’re eyeing a fourth straight title next year at the 2025 nationals in Quebec.

“We’re going to go back to Quebec and try to win this four times in a row…that would be totally unreal,” he said.

Demers said the majority of his players are from the Debden area.

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nolan.kowal@pattisonmedia.com