USA Team Handball has established a Competition Committee to develop a comprehensive plan for next year’s club competition. The committee, which is composed of a diverse group of club members and national federation staff has been given instructions to “examine formats for regular season competition, regional seasons and tournaments, and post-season championships in youth, open, elite and collegiate divisions.”
This is a very much welcomed move to me and others who have voiced concerns that the new Federation has not involved its dues paying membership sufficiently in areas that directly impact them. Importantly, it also appears the Federation is empowering the committee by giving them basic overall objectives and then sufficient leeway to come up with a comprehensive plan on their own. Rest assured it will not be a simple task. The U.S. is a vast country with handball developed unevenly throughout it. A one size fits all format won’t work and inevitably a number of compromises will be required.
Finally, I think its fairly safe to say that almost anyone involved in USA Team Handball has at least one member of that committee that they are comfortable with enough to discuss key competition issues that will affect their club. If you have suggestions on what should be done, it behooves you to contact those individuals now and in the upcoming months…. Instead of later, after the fact.
USATH Website Article: http://usateamhandball.org/news/article/13662
Earlier Commentary: USA National Championships (Format Problems and Solutions): http://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.745