[html] The official paperwork, naming the UTHF the new team handball NGB, was signed, sealed and delivered to President Esch yesterday (Tuesday, April 29). With it, in an instant – pooof, the UTHF has gained the ultimate legitimacy. It was a day of reckoning, the dawn of a new day, in our sick and twisted US team handball universe.
Just two days following the Chicago Inter Team Handball Club's (M) win of the West Point sponsored and soon-to-be-asterixed 2008 Lake Placid National Championship — and only a day removed from what had to be the biggest *positive* headline to have graced the US team handball world in … decades (?!) – Tuesday’s NGB announcement was just that. An announcement. .
In less than 48 hours, the US handball world got some much needed action. Not sure that the average fan even noticed the back to back to back newsflashes. And even more important was his/hers level of comprehension. And, NO! — it has nothing to do with the wisdom or IQ (although I do know of one Gilbert Grape hiding in his mother’s basement giggling uncontrollably…) of the average US handball fan.
It’s just that it is not every day that you have major news stories coming from three different pasrts of the US.
And none was more breathtaking than the Paris press conference, announcing the Frenchies were coming to Miami next April! Cristian Zaharia, (Coach Zaharia that is), quietly achieved what no organization (let alone individual) has ever been able to achieve before him. Bringing professional handball – team handball – to the US and A.
It will indeed be interesting to see how will the US team handball community rally behind such a great event. Some, if not most, will expect the new Federation to DO SOMETHING – anything – to seize this unique opportunity.
Having watched this project develop from the sideline, I can only hope that the US handball community will understand the sheer magnitude of this celebration. This is not the time for finger pointing. I wrote on this very topic before. So has John Ryan and Bjorn. We need to let our collective actions speak louder… Once and for all. No more armchair quarterbacks.
Do you have an idea? Great? Don’t debate it. Just do it! Lead by example. Create, build, open doors, make phone calls, volunteer time and money… Then, watch and see what it feels like to have others (US handball’s version of bums, leeches and hypocrites) come to you with “advice” and “constructive criticism”.
Miami 2009, represents the opportunity to ask “not what handball has done for us but what have we done for handball?”
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