Team Handball News is pleased to announce the results of our inaugural poll for the Top 5 Men’s Club teams in the United States.
1. Atlanta Metro Condors (3) 11-0-1 [5-0-1]
2. Atlanta Team Handball 10-1-1 [6-0-0]
3. New York City 9-0-1 [9-0-1]
4. Cal Heat 3-0-0 [3-0-0]
5. Garden City (1) 0-0-0
Others Receiving Votes: NJ-Adelphi, Cleveland, Utah
The esteemed panel of voters consists of Andrew Washington, Christian Latulippe, Bogdan Pasat, and Karl Laundy.
Poll Methodology:
– Voters submit their top 5 teams (in order)
– Points for each vote are awarded as follows:
#1 – 5 points
#2 – 4 points
#3 – 3 points
#4 – 2 points
#5 – 1 point
– Each individual ranking is then pooled for a total ranking
– There are 4 voters (1 from each National Region)
– Votes will be done roughly once a month
Poll Philosophy and Guidelines (Guidance provided to the voters):
– Current performance in this year’s season should carry the maximum weight. If a team is not actively participating in any matches this should carry significant weight in your assessment. We are trying to encourage competition. Sure, there are many teams that can probably play no games during the regular season and still be a contender (heck, even win Nationals). The purpose of the poll is not to predict who will win Nationals. The purpose is to acknowledge and reward the active programs.
– Quality of competition should carry significant weight. If a team is playing good teams that should be rewarded. A team can have some quality losses and still be considered better than a team solely beating up on weak competition.
– Margin of victory should carry some weight. If a team is winning by large margins that does say something. Of course, it could also say something about the competition they are playing against.
– Significant attention should be paid to inter-regional competition like the Carolina Tournaments. This can provide a rough assessment of the quality of one region against another.
– More recent games should generally carry more weight than games from a couple of months ago.
– Previous National Championship performance can be considered. While these results are old, they are also relevant in that teams are generally at full strength and it is the best opportunity for inter-regional comparisons.
Current Record of Results
The poll, of course, can only be accurate if all relevant results are included. For the first poll, all results (since Oct 2005) in the 3 active USA Leagues, as well as the results of the Tar Heel tournament in October were included. A composite record of the clubs that were considered and their W-L-T record is provided here:
If you feel the record for your club is inaccurate or additional tournaments should be included please contact us with the results of those matches and we will update the database for the next poll.