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: http://www.handballaustralia.org.au/Junior_Women.htm