By Cristina Cabrera Jarro -

SUNRISE | South Florida, with its year-round warm temperatures and sandy beaches, is a non-traditional market for hockey. Yet the National Hockey League’s Florida Panthers have called this area home for 25 years.

While hockey is difficult to play without ice, a variation called floorball exists that requires no ice, skates, or padding; just some sticks, a ball, two goals, and eager players.

Hoping to boost floorball’s – and by extension, hockey’s – popularity, the Florida Panthers, with help from the NHL Industry Growth Fund, have donated floorball equipment to schools in Miami-Dade, Broward, and Monroe counties, including Catholic schools.

Last month, the Panthers invited Catholic school coaches and athletic directors to the BB&T Center in Sunrise to receive a set of 48 sticks, 50 balls, equipment bags, and two foldable goals for each of their schools. They also received hands-on training.

“I think getting a stick in a kid’s hand and getting it into their physical education classes is the key,” said John Colombo, director of community relations for the Panthers. “Our goal here is really simple: It’s to make sure that these teachers, even if they’ve never seen hockey in their life, can go back at the end of today and be able to feel comfortable teaching it.”

Before even touching a stick, Gloria Oyarzun, a certified Special Olympics coach and adaptive physical education teacher at the Marian Center in Miami Gardens, said she knew that floorball would benefit students of all ages and skills.

“I promised Sister Lidia (the Marian Center’s director) that the kids will learn. I can’t wait to teach them. I’m looking forward to getting floorball into the elementary level,” said Oyarzun.

There are several approaches to floorball, which is what makes the sport flexible. The traditional way, played with teams of five players and a goalkeeper, is like hockey. First played in Sweden in the 1970s, the sport remains popular in Europe, and has exploded to more than 4,000 clubs worldwide.

Floorball can also be played in various other ways, said Matt Janusz, youth hockey manager with the Florida Panthers and leader of the Oct. 8 training. “You can do relay races, create an obstacle course, play red light, green light, and interception (monkey in the middle style). In these variations you can keep students constantly active and engaged, with less waiting time in between.”

That’s just what Michael Carlin, a coach from St. Michael the Archangel School in Miami, likes to hear.

“It’s all about the movement. We want these kids to move. This will be something different for them and I can incorporate this into our athletics,” Carlin said.

He did express concern about a lack of facilities, such as a gymnasium, which most elementary-middle schools like St. Michael don’t have. But floorball can be played both indoors and outdoors, so alternative spaces like a school cafeteria can be used, as well as the tarmac, and even turf.

Regardless of venue, Janusz pointed out a key element to the sport: It’s played on the floor. He emphasized the importance of teaching the proper way of holding a floorball stick, and using visuals like sweeping the floor with a broom to remind students that the ball and stick must remain on the ground. Not too much muscle is required to move the ball.

“The floorball is extremely reactive to the stick. It really is a skilled game,” Janusz said. “The better you are at those basic fundamentals, the better you are going to be at the sport.”

He added that the partnership between the Florida Panthers and the Archdiocese of Miami will continue. “We want this program to be successful and we can put as much money as we want behind equipment and trainings, but unless we have dedicated teachers like yourselves, this program fails.”