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Honouring the national anthem during the '04 WFC.
USFA Meeting Reports
History of the USFA
Floorball is a relatively new sport but over the past few years Sweden has grown to become the dominant nation. Sweden has won all 4 World Championships played. In '96 they won the final in front of a home crowd of 15 000+ spectators. Floorball is large in the Nordic countries and is growing all around the World. There are claims that floorball actually originated in the States and considering the ball, this might well be true.
The initial introduction of the sport was through players from Sweden/Finland who didn't want to leave their favorite sport behind when they traveled to the states. Such was the case for a Swede arriving at M.I.T. in Boston some time during '91. He started a team there, it stuck and has continued to grow at M.I.T. Floorball spread and reached a few of universities where it is played on a club level without competitions between various universities. Other teams also exist, usually stared by people from Scandinavia working in the States or by people from the States who have learned about the game while working and/or living in a Scandinavian country. A list of all floorball groups playing in the USA is currently being compiled and will be updated as more groups and teams register with us.
The first step towards an IFF membership was taken in '94 when floorball found new ground in California, at Caltech to be precise. In an attempt to be able to send a team to the World Championship, Adam Troy lobbied to make Caltech the seat of the U.S.F.A and this succeeded in '98.
Due to a variety of reasons, the main one being a lack of sponsors, a national team was not formed to participate in the World Championships in Norway.
Troy did not give up and was slowly able to gather American players from throughout the world. Players came from North Carolina, Massachusetts, New York, Texas, California, Sweden, Finland, Norway and Switzerland. In 2001 this team was finally signed up to participate in their first World Championships, representing the USA, while a little later, in December of 2001, the USFA was officially incorporated in the state of North Carolina and became an entity recognized by both state and federal governments.
The members of the team gathered in Helsinki, Finland a week prior to the WC, played 2 friendly games and had several practices to get off to a quick start. The results of the games where not anything to write home about but still, considering the various backgrounds and differences in floorball experience (some of the USA based players had never even played on a floorball court, with goals or goalies), the performance of the team was constantly improving. A new stage in the history of the USFA started on September 1, 2002, when it was officially announced that Ollie Rupp was the new president of the USFA and the seat of the USFA was moved to Raleigh, NC.
Since then we have been making slow progress with floorball in the USA.
 We have had some first time tournaments that seem to be on their way to becoming annual events.
We have had a women's team compete at the 2003 World Championships in Switzerland where they earned 14th place overall.
We have started to offer membership in the USFA for clubs and individuals.
We have held two training camps for the men's national team, one in Uppsala, Sweden and one in Raleigh, North Carolina.
We have held a referee clinic where we certified the first ever referees (19).
We are planning on holding a training camp for the women's team in September 2004 in Raleigh, NC in preparation for their participation in the 2005 floorball world championship in Singapore.
For the future, we are looking at establishing U-19 teams for girls and boys but most importantly, we are working on getting girls and boys playing the game in schools, recreation centers, churches, youth groups and the like since youth is where the future of our sport lies.
If you want to be a part of shaping floorball history in the USA, register yourself and (if applicable) your team, group or club on our registration page so that other floorball players can find and contact you. Then, support and take ownership of floorball in the USA by becoming a dues paying member of the USFA. Membership fee is $50.00/year per player. The membership year starts on April 1 and ends on March 31 with the renewal period beginning on January 1 of a given year. If you sign up for membership in December of a year you would have to sign up again at the latest by March 31 of the following year to keep your membership active and current.
So Join the fun of floorball! Sign up now! |
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Floorball California's Report from the U.S. Championships!
10.08.31 The US National floorball Championship tournament hosted by myself, Erik Larsson of floorballca.com, was played August 14-15, 2010 at The-Rinks in Huntington Beach, California. It was played in combination with the 3rd annual US Open Championships. 
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Taking Aim at 2012!
10.08.23 In February of this year the U.S. Men’s Team fell to Canada but preparations for the next World Floorball Championships Qualification games are already in full swing.
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The USFA becomes the USFbA!
As you might have noticed the USA Floorball Association acronym has been changing on the website. The work is not yet complete but we feel we should inform everyone why. The simple fact is that the USFA is the US Fencing Associaton.
We where not aware of this and aplogise to the USFA for any inconvinience this might have caused them. We also send thanks for their understanding in this matter.
We will continue the work with changing the acronyms on the website until it is complete. So from now on the USA Floorball Association is know as the USFbA. |
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