Bios

John Ryan

John first started playing Team Handball as a Sophomore at the U.S Air Force Academy in 1984. He played the sport for two years in intramurals and then on the Academy’s Club team as a Senior. After graduating from the Academy john joined the Condors club team, which was then based in Ventura County, California. From 1992-93, he was member of the US National Team and participated in the World Championships in Sweden in 1993. (John played the 3 position defensively, principally to keep Darrick Heath fresh on offense). In 2000, he helped start a local club team, the DC Diplomats in Washington DC. From 2002-2007, John lived in Paris, France where he played recreationally with a Departmental level club (Levallois). John now lives in Las Vegas with his wife and 2 daughters.

Clubs (player):
Air Force Academy (1986-87);
Condors (87-91); Active member while living in California
Condors (91-04); Active member only at National Championships)
DC Diplomats (00-02);
Levallois, France (02-03) Department level Club Team

Clubs (coach)
Air Force Academy (91-94)
DC Diplomats (00-02)

US Olympic Festivals (89, 90, 94)

US National Team (91-93)
12 International Games; participant, World Championships (93)

US Military Teams
Participant, Conseil International du Sport Militaire (CISM) World Championships (97)

March 11, 1993: The high water mark in a short and unremarkable career. (John is #17 and in the foreground is Magnus Wislander, AKA the handball player of the 20^th Century. Team USA was blitzed 32-16 by host Sweden in Gothenburg during pool play at the 1993 World Championships. But the first half was a respectable 13-9 and John takes some of the credit for the 1=Underkänd ranking for Staffan Olsson as he was matched up defensively against him most of the evening. If John had to compare his skills to today’s players, he would say that he was a poor man’s Didier Dinart or a bankrupt, homeless man’s Oliver Roggisch.

Christer Ahl

Christer has been involved with Handball as a player, coach, referee and an administrator for over 50 years; first in his native Sweden and then in the United States since 1974. Christer currently lives in the Washington, DC area with his wife.

Handball Biography:
Player (and assistant coach) on school and university teams in Sweden 1957-1969
Referee since 1959
International referee 1979-1992; (over 60 international matches);
Referee administrator and instructor, Göteborg region, Sweden 1972-1974
Referee Chief in USA 1974-1996
Referee Chief in PanAmerica 1980-2004
IHF Rules&Referees Commission (IHF/PRC): Lecturer 1977-1992
Associate member of IHF/PRC for Panamerica 1984-1992
IHF/PRC member for Panamerica 1992-2004
IHF/PRC President 2004-2009

Bogdan Pasat

Clubs: SG142 (Romania), Steaua (Romania), ICMP (Romania), Houston Stars (USA)

Bogdan began handball as a 5th grader in his native Bucharest, Romania. Like most youngsters starting out, he was only 9 years old. Short and quick, Bogdan was a pivot (circle runner) until he turned 16. By then, as a skinny 6’2″ player, fresh off departing the club he loves, Steaua, he moved on to play in the 4th division in Bucharest. 18 months later he was off to the States.

A decade or so later, Bogdan rediscovered handball in Texas, of all places. Soon after joining the Stars he became obsessed with taking team handball to the next level. Since 2002 Bogdan has worn many handball hats: web editor of the Houston Stars website – Houstonhandball.org -, coach, club director, public relations director, event organizer, etc.

Bogdan was also certified as a licensed USATHF team handball referee, officiating several USATHF notable tournaments, including the Finals of the 2007 College Nationals , 2006 Tar Heel Invitational in NC, 2007 West Point Invitational, 2007 Chicago Invitational and the 2005 USATHF Nationals.

Bogdan’s developmental platform for the sport of team handball has always been about the “grass roots”. Several years into this project, Bogdan laid the foundation for a strong handball program throughout Houston, Missouri City and Sugar Land and other Texas cities. He is the official team handball technical adviser for a number of surrounding school districts (HISD, AISD, FBISD, CISD).

His journalistic background and TV/Radio handball broadcasting experience coupled with many years of local community involvement have made him synonymous with Houston handball.

Bogdan was the first LiveSportsVideo webcast play-by-play announcer of the 2007 and 2008 Miami Tournament Invitational. In April 2009, Bogdan was named the official American Airlines Arena emcee of the inaugural French Coupe De La Ligue tournament hosted in Miami, FL.

In September 2008, Bogdan served as the resident Team Handball Expert for the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics’ webcast coverage .

In November of 2010, Bogdan was hired to cover the Women’s handball programme for China’s Xinhua News Agency.

In his monthlong leadership assignment role as the AGNS Sports Information Specialist for the Guangzhou2010 Asian Games, Bogdan trained and managed the Guanggong Gymnasium press team to provide the best event game news coverage. The coverage consisted of flash quotes, press conference highlights, event, match and daily reviews/previews.

Bogdan took to the Houston airwaves as well. You can now listen to him live every Saturday morning from 9:00 AM to 10:00 AM 1560AM, where he co-hosts THE ORANGE SLICE – a local weekly soccer radio show. Handball is sometimes a “light” topic of conversation.

To contact Bogdan, please email him at -email- or call him at 832.493.4715.

Björn Brembs

Björn started playing handball when he was 9 or 10 years old. That means he has been playing continuously for about 25 years now. Björn grew up in his home town of Würzburg, Germany and played with a local club in various leagues until he moved to Sweden to study. In Sweden, he joined the team Sävar IK which then played in the Swedish div. 2. When he came back to Würzburg, his team was coached by Horia Markel, a professional coach with the highest certifications. It was from Horia that Björn learned most of his handball.
After graduation in 2000, he moved to Houston, Texas and co-founded a handball club there. As the club was too small to field its own team, he played for the Condors from Atlanta. His biggest success with the Condors was winning the Gold Medal at the 2004 Itajaí Handball Cup in Itajaí, Brazil.
After his move back to Germany, Björn first played in two clubs in Berlin. Then for the BSV Luckau just south of Berlin in the state of Brandenburg (4th division, Berlin-Brandenburg league). Björn later went back to Berlin to play for the PSV Berlin, when multiple ankle injuries ended his career as a player.

The highlight in his career as a player was a one-week stint in fall 2004 in Pamplona, Spain to practice with the Spanish champion of that season, Portland San Antonio. Judged to be one of the best teams in the world, this club was home to such celebrities as world-handball-players Jackson Richardson and Ivano Balic, 1984 Olympic Bronze Medal winner Alexandru Buligan, Champions-League winner Demetrio Lozano and World-Champions Mateo Garralda, Juancho Perez and Albert Rocas.

Björn is now starting to learn how to coach handball. On Mondays he conducts the shooting/goalie practice for Rotation PB Berlin.