The USA Women’s National Team posted the following USOC statement to their website on 17 March:
“Christian Latulippe has made an extraordinary effort to develop and structure a quality Women’s National Team (WNT) program. During the last four years he has endured organizational short comings and yet his loyalty and devotion to the success of the overall WNT program never wavered. He was central to the genesis and nurturing of the Resident Program at Cortland University.
Successful qualification for the 2007 Pan American Games is an important benchmark for the WNT for the short and medium term. It is our desire to continue the support of the WNT program with the goal of restructuring the roles within the program in the attempt to use all available resources within existing limitations to bring an energized focus to the goal of successful qualification for the 2007 PAG.
It is also our desire to retain Christian within the future for U.S. Team Handball and to position him to have perhaps a larger impact on the national program including both administration and coaching duties. Christian will begin working closely with Mr. Cavanaugh on a range of High Performance Planning, Event Direction and Technical Planning issues.
We are very optimistic about the realistic chances of the WNT to successfully qualify for the 2007 Pan American Games. To accomplish that goal we will need a total team effort from the athletes, coaching staff and administration supporting the WNT program. Best wishes for continued solid training and preparation for Mexico City.
Jay Warwick Michael D. Cavanaugh
Director – Sport Partnerships Manager of High Performance – Team Handball”
USA Women’s National Team Website: http://www.usateamhandballwomen.com/content/view/132/1/
The statement was read to the Women’s National Team on 6 March and obliquely references Coach Latulippe’s resignation as “restructuring the roles within the program.” The statement also hints as to rationale with the text: “to bring an energized focus to the goal of successful qualification for the 2007 PAG. Later this week, Team USA will be traveling to Mexico to participate in the 2nd Chance tournament in Mexico. The winner of this round robin tournament (Mexico, Chile, USA) will secure the 8th and final spot for the PANAM Games this summer in Brazil.