Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Handball in NY State
Press Release November 19, 2007

For immediate release

State Teams Seek Nassau Players For International Handball Teams

The New York State Team Handball Federation has issued a call for new players of the international sport of team handball to fill rosters of two men's and two women's teams to compete against local clubs and prepare for the United States national team.

The New York Eagles Team Handball Club under the direction of Coach Jesse Sorensen, a player on the United States' national team, has openings for a goalie, four wings and two pivot men.

Coach Brian Bednarik, European trained and now playing for the United States, has similar openings on his Long Island Osprey team for beginning and players prepared to compete in the international handball word at a level below the national class. Both coaches acknowledged their search would be centered on locating speedy and tall men between the ages of fifteen and twenty four with good hand-eye coordination and who can cover the basketball-size court and throw the ball accurately.

The Federation also announced openings for women interested in leading two state-wide teams to compete against local club and college teams.

[b]About Handball[/b]
Handball (or "team handball") is a fast-paced game involving two teams of seven players who pass, throw, catch and dribble a small ball with their hands while trying to score goals. The team with the most goals wins the game. A game consists of two 30-minute halves with a 10-minute half-time break.

[b]Even the ancient Greeks…[/b]
The sport of handball as it is played today certainly has a checkered history. The very fact that man has always been more adept at using his hands than his feet lends credibility to the claim made by famous sports historians that he started playing handball much earlier than, say, football.

[b]Ancient forms of handball[/b] The games that were precursors of handball can only said to be distantly related to it in terms of their structure and rules of play. Nonetheless, the games of "Urania" played by the Ancient Greeks (and described by Homer in the Odyssey) and "Harpaston" played by the Romans (and described by the Roman doctor Claudius Galenus in 130 to 200 A.D.) as well as in the "Fangballspiel" (or 'catch ball game') featured in the songs of the German lyrical poet Walther von der Vogelweide (1170-1230) all contained certain features that can be described as ancient forms of handball.

[b]Modern handball[/b]
Modern handball was first played towards the end of the 19th century. For instance, one such game was played in the Danish town of Nyborg in 1897. The real impulses emanated from Denmark, Germany and Sweden. The founding fathers of field handball were probably German physical education experts who gained recognition for field handball as a separate sport at the turn of the century, based on the games of "Raffball" ('snatch ball') and "Königsbergerball" (Konrad Koch 1846-1911). In Sweden it was G. Wallström who introduced his country to a certain sport named "handball" in 1910.

For additional information contact:
Richard A. Benack, Secretary,
New York State Team Handball Federation, Inc.
(516) 640-4265
124 4th Street,
Garden City, NY 11530-5934
dickbenack@optonline.net