The Australian Junior Women have faced stiff competition at the Junior Women’s World Championship in Macedonia. So far they haven’t come close to winning a game against the likes of Macedonia, Croatia, Brazil and South Korea. But to their credit they have put together one of the better web pages I’ve seen in regards to a team’s participation at a major tournament. The webpage is loaded with quality pictures and reporting on what the team is doing both on and off the court.

All too often teams from developing handball nations participate in a major tournament with barely a word of their exploits being reported. While this may seem like a rather mundane task the importance of getting the word out is more important than you might think to the sports development. As the old saying goes, if a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, does it still make a noise. The same can be said for a handball team that goes abroad. If a team goes abroad and nary a word is reported, does it increase the interest and support the development of the sport back home?

There might be only a few hundred people that care about Handball in Australia, but with the reach of the internet quality reporting just might add to that number. And who knows, perhaps there is some grade school athlete who will soon be introduced to the sport in Physical Education class. She’ll think, “kind of a cool sport, but what good is it?” She goes home, checks for more information on the internet and learns that in a few short years she could represent her country in a major tournament in Europe. From the pictures and text she makes the determination that this is something she wants to check into more. Conversely, if there is nothing or next to nothing posted, she never gives it a second thought. It’s these type of little things that can help build a program.

The Australian Junior Women will now play in a placement group with other teams that didn’t qualify for the main round. This should give them a chance to notch a victory or two. You can follow their exploits here: -link-

Mohamed 27 Jul : 12:20 Reply to this

I life how the pics are taken and I mean the pics through the game, because it looks professionally which we don't have here in USA for handball. The funny thing in your quote about the tree and the forest that we use different quote but gives the same meaning, we say if there a gun shot and nobody injured, it still makes a noise which is the same meaning to what you said, may be your quote is more peaceful Lol.

Kathy 30 Jul : 20:28 Reply to this

Apparently I need to write Cathy Kent and see what the heck kind of camera she is using, b/c we tried and tried and tried for 2 years with the WNT but i've only got a hard drive full of dark, blurry, poorly framed and poorly timed photos to show for it.

Kathy 30 Jul : 20:35 Reply to this

Guess I will ask her in person... Bouillargues plays Cergy October 25th! Small little handball world.

Mohamed 07 Aug : 20:40 Reply to this

Kathy, Here is this link would answer your question -link- , but these cameras are really expensive and you have to know to adjust the settings to take sport shots, and there cameras could cost a lot of money.

Mohamed 07 Aug : 20:44 Reply to this

Kathy, Sorry I think the link I add it is little bit old (2006), but the best cameras are the Canon of the Ikons, and they say Sony might get really good cameras by the end of this year, but what you need is this huge cameras with big lenses, but we are talking about $2000+.