Note: This is part of an ongoing series, Charting a Way Forward for USA Team Handball (2019 Reboot): Link

Parts 1 and 2 of my review of U.S. clubs focused on Men’s clubs.  Part 3 looks at our Women’s Club Programs.

USA Women’s Clubs:  A Small Footprint

As a reminder here are the U.S. demographics from an earlier installment of this series.

Breaking this down further there are around 150-200 female handball athletes playing club handball in the U.S.  And, of that 150 – 200 there are perhaps 60-80 that are American citizens. 

The tables below (and the map above) further break down the Women’s club program in the U.S. that played at least 1 match last season.

The demographics are similar to the Men with most of the teams being expat majority except for collegiate clubs and a couple of geographically dispersed clubs (Rogue and Carolina Blue).

While similar, however, the overall total numbers of clubs are lower.  Last season there were a total of 36 Men’s clubs that played at least 1 match (At-Large (21) and Collegiate (15)].  For the women, there was only a total of 12 clubs [At-Large (9) and Collegiate (3)].

Why Fewer Women’s Clubs?: Less Interest and…Surprisingly, More Opportunity (in Relative Terms)

An earlier article highlighted some of the inherent challenges with developing women’s handball.  Those challenges include handball not being a “school sport”, a smaller pool of interested athletes (relatively to men).

This less relative interest is manifested in two ways.  Overall, there are fewer women interested in playing sports competitively.  Anecdotally, I think most people will agree this true, but there are also several studies that back up this view.  For grades 3-12 roughly 8 million girls participate in organized sports compared to 12 million boys.  I would suspect that these rates of participation continue in older ages and may even increase.  Meaning all things being equal there are fewer women interested in playing a club sport like handball.

But, I would argue that when it comes to club sport’s interest in college all things are not even equal.  And, this is somewhat bizarrely due the great equal opportunity requirements of Title IX which mandates equal participation rates for men and women.  It hasn’t been fully realized, but the number of scholarship and participation opportunities for women is roughly the same as it is for men.  Meaning that in relative terms NCAA collegiate scholarships for established sports dig deeper into the smaller women’s pool of available talent.  This, in turn, leaves fewer women athletes left looking for a sports club outlet and the raw talent of those athletes also being somewhat lower.

 So, with these handicaps it shouldn’t be a huge surprise that there are fewer women’s clubs, both with At-Large Clubs and Collegiate Clubs

This concludes the review of the demographic numbers for U.S. Clubs. Part 4 addresses some of the “why” behind these demographics. In particular, why clubs in the U.S. tend to be majority Expat.

Note: This is part of an ongoing series, Charting a Way Forward for USA Team Handball (2019 Reboot): Link

Part 1 of my review of U.S. clubs focused on our At-Large Men’s club.  Part 2 looks at Men’s Collegiate Club programs.

Collegiate Clubs:  More Americans, Younger Americans, Plus Structural and Marketing Advantages

The initial review of Men’s club demographics clearly brings home the strengths of our collegiate clubs.

Rarely does a simple tabulation bring home reality so starkly.  These clubs are likely 95-100% American and have an average age of 21.2  This is the one layer of our development pyramid that makes sense.  Sure, we’d like for there to be even more college programs, but it’s a solid start.  And, while a European might laugh at my declaration of “younger” players compared to our At-Large Clubs it is indeed substantially younger.  Sure, we’d like more players at even younger ages, but as I will discuss in future installments, going younger can be pretty challenging due to the constraints of U.S. sporting structures.

College clubs are also the first strong transfer point for athletes from other sports.  This is because there are a limited number of college scholarships available for major sports and many quality athletes won’t make the cut.  These athletes, in many cases will be looking to continue their athletic careers and team handball presents a unique opportunity.

Colleges also have many structural advantages in terms of starting new clubs.  For starters, there’s a captive audience of potential athletes all conveniently located in the same place.  Most colleges also encourage club activities and gym space for a handball court exists, even if a handball club has to compete against other activities for its use.

Finally, collegiate clubs have built in branding associated with their college.  Maybe around 1,000 people in the U.S. have even heard of our At-Large Clubs like NYC and SF Cal Heat.  Whereas millions of Americans immediately know what North Carolina Tar Heels and Ohio State Buckeyes means.  And, alumni of those institutions are inclined to support clubs from their alma mater even if they don’t know a whole lot about a sport like team handball.

Collegiate Club Demographics

While the snapshot of college clubs from last year’s national championship provides a top level overview there are several other collegiate clubs in the U.S.  Here, again thanks to Bryan Cothorn’s database, is an overview of every collegiate club that played at least 1 match last season (2018-19)

Some notes on this compilation

• Last season the U.S. had 15 Collegiate Men’s that played at least 1 match.  Seven of these 15 clubs fielded more than one team for a total of 22 teams that played at least 1 match. 
• The clubs highlighted in Green are discussed below

Upper Appalachian Conference?

You never know sometimes how things will grow organically (from within/naturally), but for whatever reason a natural grouping of collegiate clubs has sprung up in Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland and Virginia.  In fact, over half of the collegiate clubs last season (8 of 15 highlighted in the table in green) are located within those 5 states. These clubs are also relatively new and evenly matched.  The engineer/program manager in me hates to jump right to solutions, but this appears to be a no brainer gift that should be capitalized on in some way.  Not sure what I would call this conference, but the Appalachian Mountains do split the 8 schools. Perhaps the conference could be split into an East Division with Penn St, Johns Hopkins, Virginia and James Madison and a West Division with Cincinnati, Ohio St, West Virginia and Pittsburgh. Such a split would result in no more than a 5 hour drive within each division.

Sustainment:  Always an Issue for Clubs where Players Graduate every Year

Long time readers will surely remember seeing this grim map before

It’s a very stark reminder of the collegiate clubs of the past.  Clubs that surely started with promise, took the court with dreams only to all die an untimely death a few years later.  There are multiple reasons as to why clubs fold, but in most cases it can be attributed to a dedicated coach’s departure or the graduation of a key cohort of seniors.

The data in the table can’t fully predict which clubs will stay and which clubs will go, but the # of games played is a rough indicator.  If you can’t field a team to play games chances are that your days as a club are numbered.  For sure, a willingness to spend the time and money to travel is literally and figuratively where the rubber hits the road.  Of course, it’s just an indicator.  For example, Texas A&M is a pretty solid program and its limited number of matches is directly attributable to being located in a handball desert.

Beyond Existing Clubs?

While there are only around 13 existing clubs dozens of colleges and universities play team handball as an intramural sport. In all likelihood, the handball being played is just a rough facsimile of the real game. Often the games are played with less contact and fouls being called like a basketball game. Which is not too surprising since such games are likely being played by athletes that have never played the game and officiated by refs who haven’t been trained. And, being intramural sports probably coached by a student who maybe played the year before.

This is nothing new, but good things can come from such intramural programs. The 1977 Air Force Academy club team went to the U.S. National Championships and spent the first day learning all sorts of new rules that they had been playing wrong and almost still came away with winning the tournament. (It doesn’t hurt to have several Div 1 basketball athletes and two future handball Olympians on your roster.)

Colleges with intramural programs are a great place to start. Even if they aren’t playing the game properly they are playing it and can be taught. Plus they are motivated and already have equipment (goals and balls). Although, I’ve heard sometimes alternative sized balls and goals have actually been used instead of the real thing…

College Development:  Already being Worked

The IHF has already indicated that they will financially support college development and a Working Group has been established to work college development.  According to an August USA Team Handball Newsletter their very clear mission is to: “establish a sustainable approach toward helping colleges and universities establish collegiate team handball clubs.” A challenging mission, but a worthwhile one.

Next up:  Part 3 will look at U.S. Women’s clubs both At-Large and collegiate.

Note: This is part of an ongoing series, Charting a Way Forward for USA Team Handball (2019 Reboot): Link

Previous installments in this series have focused on our national teams.  This installment takes a closer look at U.S. clubs and how they are different from typical clubs in Europe.

Clubs:  The Key National Team Building Block in “Almost” every Nation

Perhaps for European readers this title is self-explanatory, except for the curious notion of italicizing and putting the word, “almost” in quotes.  As in, “What do you mean? How on Earth could you have a National Team without clubs underneath developing players?”

Well, I won’t regurgitate the history of U.S. national teams for the last 40 or so years, but for the most part our national teams have been comprised of athletes that have transitioned from other sports.  Many of these athletes never even played handball before they joined a National Team Residency Program.  Some, had only a brief stint with a club before they made the transition.  And, then only a handful have started as a youth and done the bulk of their initial handball development as a club participant before eventually being identified for the national team. 

Of course, this has changed recently with the greater use of expat Americans on U.S. National Teams.  Yes, the U.S. is now actually using the European Model more, but only because many athletes are dual citizens who have lived most of their lives in Europe.

U.S. Clubs:  A Level of Play Substantially Lower than other Handball Nations

Comparing the level of club play in the U.S. to clubs in Europe can be complicated and it depends greatly on your reference point.  My point of reference is the one season (2002-03) that I played handball recreationally in France as a member of Levallois Sport Club, a suburb of Paris.  It was the 2^nd level of play in the Ile de France region.  We practiced once a week and played one match every weekend.  For reference, there are five levels of play at the national level in France.  (LNH, Pro Ligue, NM1, NM3, NM3) and I was playing two levels below that, so in a sense I was playing in the… 7^th Division.

And, here’s the eye opener that’s shaped virtually every commentary I’ve written for the past 12 years.

The team I played for finished middle of the table in our pool and I would assess that if I could transport that very same team to our most recent U.S. National Championships we would beat every team except for Cal Heat, NYC and NYAC and LATHC.  Yes, a middle of the road 7^th division team in France would have been the 5^th best team at the U.S. Elite National Championships.  Which then led to the following conclusion.  Sorry, if it sounds overly negative, but that conclusion is… “What the hell are we thinking?”

Of course, this conclusion is way overly simplistic.  There’s a lot of nuance and complications with our existing structures that resulted in our “thinking” over the years.   Still…

U.S. Handball Clubs:  A Grouping of Handball People that is Familiar, but Different

So, was the little club that I played for in France radically different?  Answer:  Yes and No.  The practices were very similar to the ones that I with the Condors in the late 80s; actually similar to practices I had with the U.S. National team.  Handball is handball.  Pretty much like basketball is basketball.  It’s just that the level of play and intensity is different.

The camaraderie of the teams were also very similar.  Teammates became friends through the shared experiences of success and failure.  There’s a special bonding with sports teams and that’s pretty universal.

But, that’s pretty much where the similarities end.  I’ve already described the comparative level of play.  And, while the 7^th Division in France is comparable to our open club championships one only has to go up a couple of levels to find better teams.  Also, significantly different is the citizenship of the teams.  I’m sure there were a handful of expats in our little suburban Paris league, but there weren’t any teams that were 90% expat.  And, here’s an anecdote for you: After one season I decided that my tired 38 year old body wasn’t equipped any more for handball, so I played over 35 basketball for 4 years.  In those 4 years as my club climbed up from the 3^rd Division to the 1^st Division I played around 100 games against dozens of clubs.  And, in all that time I played “America’s game” exactly once against a fellow American.

Several things of note there:  Very few expats, dozens of teams and I think the longest trip I ever took was around 45 minutes to a suburb on the other side of Paris.  And, this was just for the over 35 team.  Most clubs had multiple teams from 10 years on up.  Some like my club even had a professional side sharing the very same gym for practices.  It’s not hard to see how these clubs are the primary building block for developing sporting talent in Europe and much of the rest of the world.

Now, to state the obvious:  There are no handball clubs like this in the U.S.  Heck, I don’t know of any club for any sport in the U.S. that fits this profile.

Understanding U.S. Handball Clubs

So, what exactly are handball clubs in the U.S. then?  Well, to start there are two primary types of clubs:  At-Large Clubs (open to anyone) and Collegiate Clubs (where members are also students at the same college). 

At-Large Club Demographics

Here’s the snapshots of the clubs that I presented in part 1:

As you can see our national championship participants were mostly from other countries and a bit on the older side.   With the aid of Bryan Cothorn’s excellent database here is even broader overview of all the At-Large Clubs that played at least one match last season (2018-19).

Some notes on this compilation

• Last season the U.S. had 21 At Large Clubs that played at least 1 match.  Eight of these 21 clubs fielded more than one team for a total of 30 teams that played at least 1 match. 
• The clubs are split into three main groupings:
  • 13 clubs where the majority of the roster consists of athletes who first learned to play handball outside the U.S.
  • 4 clubs where the majority of the athletes are stateside products and where a majority of the athletes live in one location
  • 4 clubs where the majority of the athletes are stateside products, but a majority of the athletes are geographically dispersed.

• The purpose of this grouping is not to be “divisive”, but to provide insight as to “what we have” in terms of at large clubs.  Any club we have in the U.S. is an asset that contributes to the growth of the sport in the U.S.
• The total number of matches played and whether a club played at the National Championships provides some insight as to the relative stability of the club.  This is because clubs that play a lot of matches and participate at nationals are generally more established.  Whereas a club that plays just a few matches might be either a new club or a club that might be having sustainment issues.

Analysis

• Clubs serve many purposes and ends, but currently our At-Large Clubs have only a very limited relationship to our Men’s National Team.  It’s true that 21 athletes in our current player pool played on At-Large Club last season, but only 2 of these athletes (Sayed Shalaby (NYC) and Greg Inahara (Chicago)) made our 2019 PANAM Games Team. 
• The training environment for these clubs varies dramatically.  At one end of the scale is NYC which is a large club with several experienced players.  I would suspect their practices are pretty competitive.  At the other end of the scale are some of the newer clubs which may even struggle to practice or scrimmage.  And, then there are clubs that are geographically dispersed and may never actually practice; simply gathering together a few times a year to play in tournaments.
• Our At-Large Clubs currently have only a limited role in the development of players for future national team competition.  There are multiple reasons for this.
  • Most clubs are essentially recreational clubs consisting of players who simply love to play handball.  That is their primary focus and… there is nothing wrong with that.
  • There is little incentive for established teams to invest the time required to find and recruit new American players with little experience.
  • Most clubs do not practice regularly enough to develop new talent in a timely manner.  Further, they may not be equipped with the requisite coaching knowledge required.
• Two clubs (The Long Island Tigers and the Team Handball Academy (THA)) in this compilation could play a greater role in developing National Team prospects. However, the THA is not fielding a team this year and it’s future is in doubt.
• Because our At-Large Clubs are recreational it should come as no surprise that most rosters are majority expat.  There are simply more expat handball players in the U.S. who love the game and want to invest the time and energy to play the game recreationally.
• The geography of the U.S. is a major handicap.  Because these clubs are so spread out there is a significant amount of travel required to play matches.  Some clubs pretty much have to fly for competition and virtually every other club has to drive significant distances.  This adds to the level of commitment (time and money) required to play.
• Our At-Large Clubs are a valuable resource for several reasons
  • They provide a competitive outlet for athletes that want to continue their handball careers
  • They provide quality competition for younger sides to play and learn from
  • They are the committed and more likely to be paying members of USA Team Handball, fans that will watch the sport on TV and purchase handball related merchandise.
  • They could, in some instances, provide the ground floor for future efforts.  This could include manpower for development programs or the initial infrastructure and support base for a semi-pro club.

This overview was limited to Men’s At-Large Clubs.  Future installments will take a closer look at collegiate clubs and Women’s clubs.