The Bethel Royals ended their regular season with a 5-5-2 record, which exemplifies a season filled with ups and downs. The Royals featured 8 new players this year, which led to some rough adjustments as new players learned their positions while trying to adjust to the nuances of the indoor game.

Though they were unable to win any games in the Midwestern Championships the weekend of the 22nd, they lost two games by just one goal and scored twice on the "B" Outdoor State Champion Bogeys. The Royals received high praise for their competitiveness, potential and willingness to take on such a challenging and prestigious tournament as Midwesterns is. The team saw marked improvment in many areas over the weekend and hope to carry those lessons into the National Championships at the end of March. There the Royals will look to defend their 2007 Collegiate title, as well as spend time watching games and meeting players.

The Bethel Royals will wrap up their Blaine League Playoffs this Thursday night, the 28th, when they play Pigs Eye Pirates for the consolation bracket championship. Come out and see the Royals while they're still in the state because the next time they play is in North Dakota!

The Bethel Royals wrapped up the first half of their regular season schedule with an ugly 8-3 loss to JB Crew this past Thursday, which dropped them to 2-3-1 on the season. Missing their goalie for the second straight game (both of them losses, not surprisingly) the Royals were unable to protect their stop gap keepers from the Crew's dangerous offensive attack.

The Royals will look to rebound after the break but they will have to do it minus their two leading scorers. Matt VanBenschoten and Marcus Kramer will be spending the month of January in Europe, returning just after the Winter Carnival Tournament at the end of the month. It will be a rough stretch for the team but Captain Luke Dornbush is hopeful, "[Matt and Marcus] are two of our best players and it'll hurt to lose them for a whole month in the heart of our schedule. But without them to lean on it's a great opportunity for our younger players to step up and make some plays," he says. "I think it'll be better for us in the long run."

Season Stats:

8 - Matt V.
3 - Marcus K.
2 - Chris P.
2 - Neil J.
2 - Tim V.
2 - Matt M.
1 - Cooper
1 - Paul F.
1 - Cory L.
1 - Luke D.

 The Bethel Royals are returning a very talented first line from last year's squad but there are a lot of question marks beyond that. After graduating four seniors last year, following their Collegiate National Championship, the Royals are expected to field up to six new players that are largely inexperienced in competitive broomball. But team captain Luke Dornbush isn't worried. "I was kind of nervous when I realized that those four guys basically equated to an entire line, " he said, "But since we've started practicing, I have become more excited about our potential. Sure there's gonna be a few kinks to work out early on. But I expect us to be leaps and bounds ahead of where we finished off last year by the time tournament season roles around."

"We're going to surprise some people again this year," said Co-Captain Chris Painter. Painter insists that the Royals won't be hurt by the loss of last year's senior class. "They were good, don't get me wrong, but the numbers are deceiving." Chris is referring to the fact that, of the four seniors on the team, two of them joined just before Nationals. The other two also joined late, coming in half way through the regular season.

"We have a great mix of experience and potential and I think that's what a collegiate level team needs to have in order to stay consistent in the midst of yearly roster turnover," said Dornbush. No one knows quite what to expect from this young squad of up-and-comers. And that's the way they want it.

The 2007-08 schedule for the Schwan's Super Rink league was released on Friday, October the 12th. The Royals will play 10 regular season games, as well as participate in a minimum of two playoff games. Our full regular season schedule can be found, in detail, under the schedule section of the site.