During this past weekend’s Air Force Invitational I conducted several interviews and they are all featured on the latest podcast for download.
Interview 1) William Kennedy of Texas A&M and Moshe Mukori of Concordia College talk about playing for Dallas THC at this tournament and their efforts with their respective college programs. – Video: Link – Subscribe to the Team Handball News YouTube channel: Link (so, you don’t miss videos like the exciting end to the Championship Match: Link)
Interview 2) North Carolina’s Alex Laws discusses the Air Force – North Carolina match, the current state of collegiate handball and the challenges of recruiting athletes for the collegiate game. I also ask him a variation of the Jay Cutler challenge: Could a select group of UNC football and basketball players beat the Carolina Handball team?
Interview 3) Tournament MVP, Air Force Nate Luther after the Championship game, Air Force’s defense strategy and his evolution as a player over four years. And, also whether a group of AF football and basketball players could beat the AF Handball team
Interview 4) Air Force coach, Mike Cavanaugh, reflects on the tournament, the waning days of stickum, some of the challenges with roster integrity and the last time Air Force beat West Point. (Note: I was a bit confused regarding Air Force’s planned trip to the Netherlands over Spring Break; Their spring break is a different week from Ohio State, so it’s a separate trip.)
Don’t miss an episode: – Subscribe to the podcast in iTunes: Link – Or use this RSS Feed to sign up for the podcast in your favorite podcast aggregator: Link
And, be sure to check out the podcast archive with interviews and great handball discussion going all the way back to 2006: Link
The podcast was sponsored by Aspire Products, EMST150 Training Device. Check it out and don’t forget to use the promo code THN30 for a 30% discount.
Air Force on offense vs North Carolina this past weekend at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs.
Air Force and North Carolina met this past Saturday in a key collegiate team handball showdown that will certainly have implications on the Top 5 Collegiate Poll and seeding for the College National Championships.
Coming into the North Carolina was undefeated with an 11-0-0 overall record and a 5-0-0 record in collegiate competition. Winners of the Carolina Blue Cup and a #2 ranking. Meanwhile Air Force had been in and out of the Top 5 and a far less gaudy 2-0-11 record, arguably against tougher competition.
Earlier in the day North Carolina lost to Dallas THC, 29-23, meaning that the pool play match between the two teams would also likely see who would make the championship match.
The match started out competitively with Air Force taking a two goal lead in the first ten minutes. Gradually, though, Air Force started to pull away from Carolina. To stem the tide, North Carolina used a somewhat unique 7 vs 6 attack with GK, Jack Moore leaving the goal and essentially playing center back. This strategy had mixed results offensively and Air Force failed to fully capitalize on several empty net opportunities. Regardless Air Force was able to extend their lead to 12-6, before North Carolina went on a mini 3-1 to close out the half and limit Air Force to 13 – 9 halftime lead.
The second half featured more of the same with Air Force gradually extending their lead and North Carolina never really threatening to get back into the contest. Air Force’s peak lead was 25-15 and the final score was 26-18.
Air Force used a variety of defenses including a pressure man to man defense which prevented North Carolina from ever getting into a comfortable flow. This defense along with an outstanding performance by GK Austin Faulkner limited North Carolina to just 9 goals each half.
Speaking with North Carolina leading scorer, Aaron Hamm, after the match he highlighted that it was a well deserved win by Air Force, but that they missed having their #1 GK Jared Floyd, who couldn’t attend due to a family emergency.
Air Force team captain, Austin Faulkner was pleased with the Air Force performance noting that North Carolina had beaten Air Force last year at College Nationals and the win was a big confidence booster for the club.
Air Force has no more stateside competition prior to College Nationals, but most of the team is headed to the Netherlands over spring break for a training camp.
Air Force Scoring Nathan Luther 6 Kyle Gruzka 5 Richard Vaughn 5 Quinton Riddle 3 Anthony Sanders 3 Mark Simpson 2 Tevin Miller 1 Brian Brown 1
North Carolina Scoring Aaron Hamm 8 Philip Schwarte 4 Alex Laws 3 Jack Moore 2 Joe Reinhardt 1
Tournament Results
Pool Play Air Force 33 – 18 Air Force (2nd Team) Dallas THC 28 – 20 Salt Lake City North Carolina 30 – 24 Air Force (2nd Team) Air Force 34 – 21 Salt Lake City Dallas THC 29 – 23 North Carolina (Video Excerpt: Link) Salt Lake City 27 – 26 Air Force (2nd Team) Air Force 26 – North Carolina 18 (Video Excerpt: Link) Dallas THC 36 – 22 Air Force (2nd Team) Air Force – Dallas THC (Not Played) North Carolina – Salt Lake City (Not Played)
Pool Play Standings
Note: The last 2 pool play matches were not played since they would have been meaningless matches between the same teams that would later meet in the Championship and 3rd place games. Instead a friendly was played between the Air Force 2nd Team and North Carolina’s reserves.
3rd Place North Carolina 25 – 20 Salt Lake City
1st Place Air Force 28 – 27 Dallas THC
This was an outstanding back and forth competitive match which saw tournament MVP, Nathan Luther score the decider in the closing seconds. Be sure to check out the video of last 8 minutes of the match: Video 1Video 2
Awards Top Scorer: Paul Assfalg: Dallas THC Most Valuable Goalkeeper: Austin Faulkner Most Valuable Player: Nathan Luther
During the 2020 Men’s European Handball Championships this past January I conducted a little betting experiment with “Samo”, a professional handball bettor from Slovenia. We each started the tournament with 1000 Euros and made a variety of wagers almost every day. My imaginary bank roll of 1,000 Euros took a 115 Euro hit, leaving me with just 885 Euros. Meanwhile, Samo fared considerably better, netting a profit of 860 Euros. That’s a solid return on investment.
Overall, most of our wagers were around 100 Euros. My W-L-D record was 7-8-1 (46.7%) and Samo’s was 12-4-1 (75%). Because we each had several bets that weren’t 50-50 point spreads these percentage don’t tell the whole story, but they tell a story. 50% is about one would get by throwing darts. 75% is doing pretty damn well. Historically, professional bettors are very happy with 55-60 %.
Side Note on My Personal Sports Betting History
Back in the day I was a much more active sports bettor. Frequent trips to Vegas and parents living there accommodated this hobby. For the most part I bet American Football and basketball and bet on the teams I liked when I thought they had a good line. I learned the hard way to never bet on my teams when I thought they would lose. Why? Well, it sucks to root for your team to lose. (I guess if I was more serious about my “hobby” I wouldn’t care.) Anyway, after awhile I decided to meticulously track my wins and losses. And, what did I find out? Well, I found I was right almost exactly half the time. Yes, there was a diminishing sine wave that would start at 60% to 40% and then over time dampen from 55% to 45% and so on.
So, I couldn’t stay above the magical 52.38% (The break even % with the Vegas house cut), but proved to myself that if the wager size didn’t get out of hand, it was pretty decent entertainment that wouldn’t break my bank. And, if you’ve ever been to Vegas during the NCAA basketball tourney with 16 games on Thursday and Friday for 12 hours of non-stop action and hundreds of people cheering, it can be phenomenal entertainment. (Trust me, if that experience is not your bucket list it should be.)
Anyway, the point of this personal history is to make it clear. Done right, there is nothing morally bankrupt about sports betting.
Wrong Handball Betting
Of course, handball betting can also be done wrong… very wrong. And, there can be no more troubling example than the 2012 Montpellier scandal. As new people in the U.S. are always discovering handball they may not be aware that one of the greatest handball players of all time, Nikola Karabatic and his brother Luka were found guilty of being a part of a match fixing scheme. I’m always a bit amazed at how handball can somehow sweep history like this under the rug, but swept it has been for the most part. Even more amazed that the penalties were so minor. Seriously, Shoeless Joe Jackson and Pete Rose would both be in the Hall of Fame if baseball adopted handball’s penalty structures.
Evolving Views on Sports Betting and a Way to Help Popularize Handball
For some perspective on the evolving situation check out my commentary from 2008 on sports betting. Yes, 12 years later the times are a changing big time. U.S. leagues are now talking to sports books. They are even signing data partnerships to ensure the integrity of the game. The Las Vegas Knights play in the NHL and the Las Vegas Raiders are joining the NFL. The NBA even wants a cut on sports bets made on NBA games! These moves were almost unthinkable 12 years ago.
Even more dramatic: Sports betting is legal now in 13 states. Christ, there are sports books in Iowa now for crying out loud. And, more and more states are allowing mobile betting from the comfort of your own home.
Further, there are now more interesting ways to bet sports now. The proposition bets on individual players used to be a Super Bowl only opportunity. Now it’s every game… And, even for handball. If you think a certain player is going to struggle to get his goals because the defense a team plays you can bet that. There are a ridiculous number of possibilities.
And, the possibility that handball betting could help popularize the sport in the U.S. shouldn’t be loss on anyone trying to grow the game in this country. During the Xavier O’Callaghan interview with Barstool Sports the subject of gambling on handball came up briefly. And, why wouldn’t they ask that question. The popular sports website is selling a 36% stake in the company ($163M) to sports betting company, Penn National Gaming, with an option to take that stake to 50%. Yes Barstool Sports is well on its way to becoming a gambling company with a website and podcasts.
In the not too distant future could we see the Barstool guys debating the line on Paris SG – Kiel? Or whether Mikkel Hansen will score more than 6.5 goals? Could be. And, make no mistake that could help popularize the game, big time.
My Favorite Handball Bad Beat
ESPN does Sports Center segment where they review the bad beats of the week. The bets you thought you had won only to lose in the end.
Well, watch the closing minutes of the Spain – Croatia match where I had Spain at -2.5 Link (at around 2:00:00 on the efhTV clock)
Two easy chances for Spain to win by 3 and one of those chances foiled by sportsmanship! Well, you know what they say… Losing a close bet is as almost as much entertaining as winning it.
USA Team Handball CEO, Barry Siff, on Play Sqorr TV: Is he really taking Jay Cutler’s side in the ongoing controversy? It sure sound like it and why that’s a bit concerning.
The recent remarks by Jay Cutler and others regarding handball being a sport that American athletes from other sports could easily learn and quickly dominate have stirred up a lot of controversy. On one side is virtually the entire handball world, collectively scoffing at American arrogance and ignorance of the sport they love. On the other side are Americans who’ve been watching American athletes dominate and perform so well in so many sports. Let’s take a look at these two viewpoints with some quotes from the past few weeks.
Americans Just Dominate Viewpoint
Here’s a summary of quotes from the “Americans Just Dominate” side:
Jay Cutler, Former NFL QB (28 January on Pardon My Take: Link)
“I do want to get a team together for the Olympics… I think it’s handball, but it’s basically like a little ball that you throw around and throw into a goal, so it’s like indoor soccer with a ball that you throw. There’s a U.S. team, but I want to go and do that. Just throwing missiles…. I guarantee it that we can put a team together to win gold.”
Domonique Foxworth, Former NFL CB (30 January on ESPN’s Highly Questionable: Link)
“I’m sorry if this is disrespectable to handballers everywhere, but I’ve watched that game before… It’s not like this is soccer and it’s just not a big deal here. I’m sure handball is a big deal somewhere…. You know who plays handball. The people who couldn’t make it in soccer, couldn’t make it in football, couldn’t make it in basketball… So, I know it’s completely disrespectful to all handballers out there, but I don’t care… Me, Jay Cutler and Lebron will go win a handball championship”
Dan “Big Cat” Katz, Pardon My Take Host (7 February on Pardon My Take: Link)
“I mean it’s 100% true. No offense to Handballists. I’m sure you’re very nice people, but you play a sport that if we decided to stop playing all the other sports that that there would be a lot of guys better than what you’re doing.”
“Handball is not easy… It would take 3 months for U.S. pros to train and get acclimated.”
Handball World Viewpoint
And, here are some quotes from the “Handball world” side:
Ty Reed, USA Men’s National Team, Right Wing (1 Feb on PlaySqorr TV: Link)
“They’re very misinformed about the sport and kind of what the possibilities for American athletes are.”
“It’s a great foundation to have basketball, football, baseball; to have those skills, but, handball is a very unique game. The athleticism isn’t really the problem. It’s knowing the tactics of the game and making a positive result out of that.”
“You take Jay Cutler, Lebron, Patrick Mahomes, 3 other scrubs that don’t know how to play they’re going to lose by 30 to Argentina. It’s not even going to be close.”
“They’ve been playing handball since they’re six years old and they know more about the sport than anybody picking the game up in their mid 20’s will ever know, including myself. It sucks for me. I’ve been over here 2 years now and I’m a beginner compared to these kids because I just don’t have the knowledge and experience that they do. Athletically, Americans in general are very much superior to the general European players that are playing handball. The athleticism is not what’s in question. The tactics and the execution of the game and their knowledge of the game couldn’t be further apart.”
Robert Hedin, USA Men’s National Team Head Coach (12 February on the Team Handball News Podcast: Link)
“Funny to hear them talking about handball being so easy… It would be difficult for them to score many goals against a good team. No chance…”
“For them to score 5 goals in one half… It would be impossible. Maybe if they had 2 or 3 years of training they could score 5 goals… but 3 or 4 months, no chance.”
“Because it’s not so easy, if you have never played handball…They are looking at it and they see that they are big athletes and good trained guys, but it’s not enough. Talk about curling. It’s another sport and it looks easy, but it’s also, really, really difficult. Respect to every sports. It’s not just to train for 3 or 4 months and think you can win. It’s no chance.”
Xavier O’Callaghan, Former Player, Spain and FC Barcelona (13 February on the Pardon My Take Podcast: Link)
In response to a question about whether Jay Cutler’s take is insane or has a little truth to it.
“He is insane… He cannot win an Olympic medal in 2-3 months… You have the potential to be amazing athletes to play in a high level, but it takes time to be professional (a very good handball player). So, what I mean. In the short term it is impossible. Insane. In the long term… It takes years. For sure…”
But, in another world, if Cutler was born in Barcelona could he be a professional handball player?
“Of course, and probably one of the best… But, he needs to understand the game. He needs to train every day. So, it’s a matter of technique. It’s not just the physical condition. It’s the technique and the tactics. You need to read the game. To know when you have to move. When to pass the ball. When you have to shoot. Those kind of things; you have to learn them. It’s not a matter of 1, 2, 3 months.”
USA Team Handball CEO, Barry Siff, on the Controversy
Just when I thought the controversy was dying down a bit, USA Team Handball CEO, Barry Siff went on PlaySqorr TV and, to me, it sounded quite a bit like he is taking the side of Jay Cutler, Domonique Foxworth and Pardon My Take. (Minus, the overt arrogance, of course.) Review the quotes below and form your own opinion.
Barry Siff, USA Team Handball CEO (21 February on PlaySqorr TV: Link)
“When we do our tryouts later this year I think we’re going to shock some people in the type of athletes that we’re going bring onto handball and onto our team.”
“I know this is sacrilegious and I’m insulting a lot of people, but I don’t think it takes these 2, 3, 4, 5 years of learning all the nuances and techniques, etc…”
“I don’t think long term that well… I’m only going to be here through Paris, you know. This is like my last stint of full time stuff. And, you know, we got to get to Paris. Long term, we’ve got to be really competitive in L.A., but, my personal goal is to have a team or two in Paris for sure. And, the way to do that is through getting some of these athletes that we’re talking about. These high, high caliber athletes starting to play right now.”
Not convinced? Take a listen to this podcast back from last July
Barry Siff, USA Team Handball CEO (23 July 2019) Babbitville Radio Podcast: Link (at 34:45)
“The concept that I had in 2016 was to have a kind of Netflix, 30 for 30, whatever it is documentary building the next great America sport. What we were going to do was track going out and having tryouts in New York, in LA, San Francisco and Chicago. Having tryouts; bringing these athletes…”
“Our vision was let’s document building this team from scratch. We were going to go out and get football players, basketball players, water polo players. We were going to quietly build this team and then we were going to challenge USA Team Handball to a match. Winner take all. We win: We take over the federation. You win: We walk.”
“That was the idea. I thought it was a brilliant… We ran into political complications, you know, some other matters and we walked away from it. But, I still feel that way. I still feel like we can go out and we can make this media project that will bring interest to the sport. We’ve got to get eyeballs. We’ve got to get people to see the sport.”
To me, as described, this proposed “challenge match” sounds remarkably similar to the Pardon My Take challenge. Again, form your own opinion.
Side Note: The documentary concept also seems to be very similar to the Reality TV show concept that was discussed with USA Team Handball at around the same time in 2016.
Transfer Athletes to Handball?: It can be done… with caveats
It’s pretty hard for me to be an objective neutral in this debate. As someone who started playing handball at age 19 and only obtained a modest level of performance I’ve experienced firsthand how hard it is. And, I’ve also seen how hard it is for athletes way more physically gifted than me. Finally, I have spent an inordinate amount of time and energy assessing this very topic from virtually every possible angle. Link 1Link 2Link 3Link 4Link 5Link 6Link 7
In short, the right question is not, “Can it be done?” Actually, if you listen to the full interviews everyone on both sides thinks it can be done. They just disagree on how long such a transition would take. On one extreme is the viewpoint that it can done with a couple of months of training. On the other extreme is that is takes 10 years and pretty much has to be done starting at age 15 or so. And, the answer is further muddled by varying discussion as to what level of performance would be achieved. (e.g. winning a gold medal to just needing to be able to beat Argentina and Brazil in a few years.
No, the right question is “Should it be done?” And, that question can only be properly considered after asking and answering a lot of questions related to the specifics of the proposed talent transfer focused effort being planned. Such questions like:
How long will it take?
How much will it cost?
What raw talent level of athlete is being targeted?
What are the target ages for those athletes?
What are the overall goals of such a short term focused effort? (How many athletes? What level are those athletes expected to achieve?)
What is the likelihood that such goals will be achieved as a result of this effort?
What are the opportunity costs in terms of lost grass roots development?
Perhaps, all of these questions (and more) are indeed being asked and answered. All, I know is that if the plan is to take athletes from scratch to World Class in 3 years (i.e.; in time to meaningfully contribute to 2024 Olympic Qualification at the 2023 PANAM Games) it’s not going to being easy or cheap. My back of the envelope analysis is that probably the only way it could make sense would be for a reality TV show or a privately financed Pro League to pay for almost all or most of the costs.
Big Picture
If you’re like me, you are genuinely optimistic about USA Team Handball’s future thanks to recent developments like the Verizon Sponsorship, hiring of IPG 360 for additional promotion and the placement of U.S. players with top club teams in Europe. CEO Barry Siff has also sure brought some positive “can do” attitude to USA Team Handball.
But… positive “can do” attitude can only take you so far. Unless sponsorship will soon exceed my wildest dreams USA Team Handball is still very resource constrained. It just doesn’t seem practical at this point in time to start a major talent transfer effort. Not when there are so many other worthy needs competing for resources.
Then again, I could be wrong. I haven’t finished my assessment yet. For sure, I’ll be tackling these sorts of questions in more detail as I work on the “what we want” section of this series: Link
The Team Handball Sub-Channel on ESPN+ (What I Would Like to See, Anyway)
The Bill Simmons Podcast recently had an interesting discussion on how streaming is changing the way we watch sports. Joining Simmons was tech analyst, Ben Thompson, and they covered several topics, but eventually the discussion turned to ESPN and their relatively new Over the Top (OTT) streaming service, ESPN+. Around 16:30 into the episode, Thompson talked about which sports content would be on the traditional ESPN network channels and what sports would find their way to ESPN+
“They’re never going to take the big stuff away from ESPN. ESPN still makes a ton of money. And, also it makes a lot of sense with it being live, advertising… Sports is going to be the very last thing to go to a subscription model.
But, all the other sports, that like a few thousand people care about… there’s literally no time for that on ESPN… There’s 24 hours in a day. Right? And, so all that sort of stuff is a huge opportunity.
Actually, I think one of the biggest missed opportunities that people don’t think about for ESPN is… ESPN was pretty early to soccer and they should have locked up the Premier League a decade ago. Like, if they owned the Premier League and had it on ESPN+. Imagine how huge that would be right now? That was a big missed opportunity.”
There then was a brief discussion on how ESPN had
investigated purchasing the Premier League, but had assessed that they couldn’t
because there just wasn’t enough room for it.
That it would interfere with American football which attracts the
greatest number of viewers.
Thompson then continues:
“Whereas, now that they have ESPN+; their bandwidth is unlimited. Right? They can show whatever they want to on there. So, it’s like a total shift in mindset as to what’s valuable and why it is valuable. It goes from what reaches the maximum number of people… to actually what’s really valuable is stuff that some number of people care intensely about. Because the more intensely they care about it the more they are willing to pay for it.”
It doesn’t take much imagination to review this conversation in the context of team handball. As in, how big might it be for ESPN if they were tp purchase the EHF Champions and other handball content and put it on ESPN+? Or, will it end up being another missed opportunity. Yes, right now it might not seem like a huge opportunity, but in 10 years hindsight might well tell a different story.
As one of nearly 8M ESPN+ subscribers, all I know is that every time I access the app it is painfully clear to me that this is exactly where team handball belongs. That it would provide the very best exposure and chance to grow the sport.
Don’t get me wrong:
I love ehfTV (especially, when it’s not geoblocked), but it stands little chance of exposing the sport to new fans in the U.S.
I love traditional TV channels like ESPN, the NBC Olympic Channel, and even beIN Sports, but it’s tough to get time on those channels. (Christ, it’s often tough for handball to get aired on TV in Europe.)
And, maybe there are other streaming possibilities like NBC Gold and DAZN USA, but those OTT platforms are starting to fall far behind ESPN in terms of subscriber base.
Some other reasons why ESPN just makes sense:
They have had multiple on air personalities like Scott Van Pelt profess their love for the sport.
They recently talked about handball twice on their daily show, Highly Questionable.
They have included handball several times on its popular plays of the day segment. Like these from from 2017 and 2018, as well a couple more from the 2019 PANAM Games and 2020 European Championship. (I wonder how often it would be on if they owned the product)
They have an immense social media presence. As an example when they’ve put handball plays of the day on their Instagram account they gotten up to 2M views.
The EHF Champions League TV rights are opening up this summer. The French and German League rights are already available. ESPN+ is still looking to add content. It just makes so much sense. Who knows, maybe it will even happen.
Side Notes:
Did the proposed ESPN+ channel graphic look familiar to you? It might because it’s very similar to one I made after the Olympics four years ago when I wrote a commentary proposing a similar OTT handball channel. My commentary was somewhat prescient, but, for sure, I didn’t consider ESPN getting into the act.
The podcast host, Bill Simmons, is also a big handball fan. He wrote this article during the 2012 Olympics and talked about handball on his TV show during the 2016 Olympics. Makes me wonder what’s in store for 2020?
North Carolina hosted 11 teams this past weekend at their annual Carolina Blue Cup Tournament and they ended up taking the title. Here’s a summary of the results with a focus on the 4 collegiate clubs (North Carolina, Army, Virginia and James Madison) that participated.
Pool Play
The 11 clubs were split up into 3 pools of 3 teams and 1 pool of 2 teams. Each pool played a full round robin and here are the results.
North Carolina 29 – James Madison 18 James Madison was no match for the #2 Tar Heels. North Carolina was led in scoring by Leandro Pappalettera with 7 goals while James Madison’s Nick Federovitch and Kevin Plunket had 5 goals a piece.
Quarterfinals and (9th-11th) Pool Play
Both Army and North Carolina won their quarterfinal matches. North Carolina beat the UVA Alumni team 31-23. Jordan Mason led Carolina scoring with 7 goals and Nick Vorobiov added 6. Army beat Swim & Sports Club 30-21. Nathan Chilian led Army with 7 goals while Ryan Thistlewood added 5.
Virginia 31 – James Madison 24 In 9th-11th place consolation play Virginia got revenge for a loss to JMU two weeks ago in Northeast Team Handball League (NTHL). JMU actually led 12-11 at the half, meaning that Virginia totally dominated the 2nd half for the eventual 31-24 victory. Virginia was led in scoring by Lincoln Ambrose and Ben Kilpatrick with 10 goals each. James Madison’s Nick Federovitch, Tom Fonti and Kevin Plunkett scored 4 each. Both teams also knocked off Philly in consolation play.
Semifinals and Placement Games
In one of the biggest upsets in U.S. club history, Army shocked perennial U.S Open Championships contender NYAC for a 35-34 victory. For some context on the upset: NYAC’s roster featured at least 9 former national team players and 2 Olympians while Army’s roster had no players with more than 3 years club experience. Army was led in scoring by Ryan Thistlewood with 10 goals. Nathan Chilian and William Considine added 9 and 7 goals respectively. In the other semifinal North Carolina easily beat Saskatchewan 34-24. Leandro Pappalettera led Carolina with 8 goals and Aaron Hamm added 7.
North Carolina 31 – Army (2nd Team) 29 (Gold Medal Match)
It was all collegiate affair for the tourney title and North Carolina came out on top 31-29. North Carolina was led in scoring by Leandro Pappalettera with 11 goals. Alex Laws scored 6 and Aaron Hamm added 5. Army was led in scoring by William Considine with 9 goals with Nathan Chilian adding 6.
Notes – I’ve been told by several tourney attendees that the Army team participating, West Point Gold (Army’s 2nd Team) was supplemented with some players that have played for West Point Black (Army’s 1st Team). And, that it was an all underclassmen team (no seniors). So perhaps this “combined team” might be considered as better than Army’s 2nd Team, but not quite as good as Army’s 1st Team. – North Carolina’s Leandro Pappalettera is an exchange Grad student from Argentina, and as you might have guessed from his goals scored he’s an experienced player. However, unfortunately, for North Carolina they will be losing that extra scoring punch soon, since he is headed back to Argentina and will not be attending College Nationals.
Ohio St hosted a tournament yesterday in Columbus with Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and the Columbus Armada playing a round robin.
Tournament Standings
College Match Results
Pittsburgh 24 – Cincinnati 16 Video Cincinnati played Pittsburgh close in the first half, trailing only 10-9 at the break. The 2nd half, however, was all Pittsburgh as they went on a 6-1 scoring run to start the half and never looked back. – Leading Scorers: Pitt (Cedric Humphrey 7, Nick Kocher, 5; Cincinnati (Patric Nordbeck 5; David Rea 4)
Ohio St 31 – Pittsburgh 19 Video The match started out evenly and was tied 3-3 in the early going, but Ohio St applied more pressure on defense and a fast break spree saw them jump out to an 11-4 lead. A lead they never relinquished and gradually extended to the 31-19 final score.
For Ohio St the game was a bit of a statement as they have had a bit of a chip on their shoulder since previously unbeaten and #3 Pittsburgh had knocked them out of the top 5 Poll in November. It was certainly a solid win for Ohio St, but Pittsburgh was missing 3 starters including Center Back, Pau Sanchez. – Leading Scorers: Ohio St (Sean Starret 6, Matt Bolger 5, Robby Fehrenbach 5 Gabe Redmond 5) Pitt (Ben O’Connell 4, Dylan Leonard 4)
Ohio St 35 – Cincinnati 15 Video As the score suggests Ohio St dominated this match from start to finish. – Leader Scorers: Ohio St (Daniel Mills 8, Matt Bolger 6) Cincinnati (David Rea 4)
Matches vs Columbus Armada
Ohio St 32 – Columbus Armada 29 Video not available Cincinnati 23 – Columbus Armada 20 Video 1Video 2 Pittsburgh 22 – Columbus Armada 19 Video 1Video 2
Group Play for the EHF Cup starts this weekend with 4 teams broken up into 4 groups. Normally, I don’t pay much attention to the EHF Cup as there are only so many hours in a day and it is the second fiddle to the more prestigious EHF Champions League. Unless you have a “dog in the fight” watching the EHF Cup is a bit like watching the NIT instead of the NCAA Tournament.
However, this season, I, and other USA Team Handball fans, indeed, have a dog in the fight with Drew Donlin, playing for Ademar Leon, 1 of the 16 clubs fighting for the title. Leon is in Group C and will be battling German club, Madgeburg, French club, Nantes, and Slovenia club, Velenje for a spot in the quarterfinals. 1st place guarantees advancement and placing 2nd also may advance depending on the ranking of the 2nd place teams in the the 4 groups.
This should be a very interesting competition and on paper I would assess that Nantes (2nd in the French League and Magdeburg (5th in the German Bundesliga) are the two favorites with Leon and Velenje the outsiders. But, the competition is a double round robin and won’t be played on paper.
Even better news is that every match will be available on ehfTV and unlike the EHF Champions League there is no pesky geoblock in the way of enjoying the matches. (There are ways around geoblocks, but it’s nice not to have deal with that. How to watch the EHF CL: Link)
Here’s Leon’s schedule in Group C (All times CET / US ET (+6)
Sunday, 9 Feb 1700 @ Nantes Livestream Wednesday 12 Feb 2000 vs Magdeburg Livestream Saturday, 22 Feb, 1930 vs Velenje Livestream Saturday, 29 Feb, 1700 @ Velenje Livestream Saturday, 21 Mar, 2000 vs Nantes Livestream Sunday, 29 Mar, 1700 @ Magdeburg Livestream
(Bookmark this page for future reference: I will update this page with On Demand streams when they become available)
It’s not clear how much game time, Donlin will be seeing in these matches. Of late he’s been seeing a few minutes of action as a defender in each half. However, as we discussed in this podcast, coach Cadenas has told him that his size might be needed against bigger teams like Nantes and Madgeburg.
A little more handball nonsense from America’s #1 Sports Podcast
Early this morning, the Pardon My Take podcast addressed the ongoing Jay Cutler/Handball controversy.
Listen here: Link (Click “Play” below the logo and go to 48:50 for the “handball discussion.”)
Some Hot Takes From the Podcast
They are a bit surprised with the uproar among “handballists”
“The “Olympics” for handball is not actually the Olympics. It’s responding to everybody that says that U.S. could dominate in the Olympics if we put our other athletes in handball.”
“I mean it’s 100% true. No offense to Handballists. I’m sure you’re very nice people but you play a sport that if we decided to stop playing all the other sports that there would be a lot of guys better than what you’re doing. I’m sorry. I apologize for absolutely nothing. We’re right.”
The U.S. would also dominate rugby if our American football players grew up playing the sport
Soccer is different. We couldn’t do that in soccer since it’s a world class sport.
Handball is not “world class” like soccer. It’s recess
Handball is not easy… It would take 3 months for U.S. pros to train and get acclimated
Handball is a game you invent to kill time at your office
But it looks like a really, really fun sport to play
Context and Analysis
I’m not a regular listener to the Pardon My Take podcast, but it’s a big time podcast. In fact, it’s the number one sports podcast in the U.S. and each episode gets between 750,000 and 1,500,000 downloads. That is a lot of listeners.
And, if it’s not obvious, the show is satirical. It is intended to be fun and the style and delivery of the two hosts, Big Cat and PFT Commenter, pokes fun at more serious sports shows. PFT Commenter, in particular, is playing a persona (not himself) and from time to time has had a few controversies. And, the defense has essentially been, well, that’s not me, that’s my persona.
So, the digs at handball, are mostly a mixture of shtick and ignorance. Mostly… There is also a bit of good ol’ fashioned American arrogance. Honestly, as the conversation bounced back and forth from somewhat rational analysis to absurdity it’s hard to think what they truly believe.
As an example they make the rationale point that the U.S. would be much better at rugby if we had our top American football players playing and… they grew up playing the sport. The last part of that analysis is key. I’m not a rugby expert, but I watch a bit, and if Lamar Jackson did grow up playing rugby he would be phenomenal. Much the same way LeBron James would be phenomenal at handball if he grew up playing it. But, to think that it would only take 3 months to put together an Olympic handball squad is… absurd. Yes, there’s quite a bit of difference between growing up playing the sport and a 3 month training camp.
The Proposed Pardon My Take Roster
The hosts also put together a hypothetical team simply using recurring guests on their show. Here’s every single name mentioned along with their their Age, Height, Weight and background:
Stu Feiner: ~60 year old sports handicapper (c’mon)
This is not a strong roster. The younger QBs (Bortles, Goff and Mahomes) would be fine players as would the two basketball players (Griffin and Dellavedova), but beyond that it’s pretty slim pickings. I suppose 36 year old Cutler could play a little. Dekker as a GK would be a disaster. I don’t think anyone is left handed too, so forget about the right side of the court.
A Challenge from USA Men’s Coach, Robert Hedin
USA Men’s National Team Coach, Robert Hedin has had enough and has issued the following challenge:
This sounds like a lot of fun. For sure it would be entertaining. And, if it’s the Pardon My Take roster above my money is on the U.S. With just 2 practices to prepare and no real goalie they would be hurting. The U.S. would be able to score pretty easily and I think the Pardon My Take team would only score on fast breaks. Keep the turnovers down and they have little chance at cracking 10 goals. Overall, I’m thinking a 40-7 scoreline.
James Madison’s Nick Federovitch looks to score as Pittsburgh’s Pau Sanchez and Joshua Donaton clamp down defensively.
This past Saturday (1 Feb 2020), James Madison welcomed fellow Northeast Team Handball League foes Pittsburgh and Virginia for D2 South Division match play.
Match 1: Pittsburgh 18, James Madison 17
In the first match of the day Pittsburgh edged James Madison 18 to 17. This was a closer score than their previous meeting in November, a 22-17 victory for Pittsburgh, so perhaps JMU is narrowing the gap. Freshman, Pau Sanchez, led Pitt in scoring with 6 goals, while Nick Kocher added 5 and Dylan Baird 4. James Madison was led in scoring by Nick Federovitch and Keith Plunkett who both netted 6 goals.
Video: Bryan Cothorn interviews JMU’s Nick Federovitch after the match (Note: Audio is lost about halfway through): Link
Match 2: Pittsburgh 23, Virginia 17
Match 2 saw Pittsburgh easily take care of Virginia. Pittsburgh led 12-6 at the half and kept that lead for a 23-17 victory. Brian Hoover led a balanced scoring attack with 4 goals with 5 other Pitt players netting 3 goals a piece. Zachary Palas led Virginia’s scoring with 5 goals.
Video: Bryan Cothorn interviews Virginia’s Ashton Emmanuel and Pittsburgh’s Brian Hoover and Pau Sanchez: Link
Match 3: James Madison 26, Virginia 25
The final match of the day was a tight affair throughout. The teams were tied 12-12 at the break and James Madison ended up winning the match 26-25. TC Nance led JMU scoring with 7 goals and Kevin Plunkett added 6. Virginia’s attack was led by Ben Kilpatrick (9 goals) and Lincoln Ambrose (8)
Video: Bryan Cothorn interviews Virginia’s Ben Kilpatrick to talk about the match, Virginia’s program and the Jay Cutler/Handball controversy: Link
Video: Bryan Cothorn interviews JMU’s Tom Fonti to talk about the match and his game winning goal: Link
JMU’s Tom FontiJMU’s TC Nance looks to score one of his 7 goals in the contest.JMU’s David Gregor.
Pittsburgh is undefeated in league play and barring a melt down on the final match day of the season they should win the D2 South title. Both JMU and Virginia will be headed to Chapel Hill, NC for the annual Carolina Blue Cup on 14-16 February, and all 3 teams are planning to attend College Nationals on 3-5 April in Columbus, OH.
2nd Team Matches (North Carolina vs James Madison)
North Carolina’s 2nd Team made the journey north to take on James Madison’s 2nd Team. The Tar Heels were dominant in both matches winning the first match, 24-8, and the second match, 22-12. North Carolina’s Joe Reinhardt scored 11 goals in the first match and Alex Irmscher had 8 goals in the two matches.
Video: Post Game Interviews with North Carolina’s Ross Whipkey and Joe Reinhardt and JMU’s Nick Lapchak: Link
Video: Post Game Interviews with JMU’s David Marzi and North Carolina’s Zak Hudspeth: Link
JMU 1st and 2nd teams combined. 25 players strong.
Former NFL Quarterback, Jay Cutler, thinks he could get a team together to take Gold at the Olympics; He’s not the only one with this “highly questionable” take.
It’s always great to see team handball get a little publicity on TV and yesterday the sport got around 3 and a half minutes of analysis on ESPN’s Highly Questionable, a show with a question and answer format resulting in some irreverent takes on a variety of topics.
The first handball question was, “Are you with Jay Cutler that he could win a gold in handball?” The clip then shows, the former NFL quarterback discussing handball on the Barstool Sports, Pardon My Take, Podcast. The episode is here (1:18:45 – 1:19:53), but ESPN rebroadcasts most of the handball discussion.
Co host, Domonique Foxworth, a former NFL cornerback, has the typical take we hear every fours during the Olympics, “I’m sorry if it’s disrespectful to handballers everywhere, but I’ve watched that game before… You know who plays handball. The people that couldn’t make it in soccer, couldn’t make it in football… Me, Jay Cutler and Lebro will go win a handball championship.”
While Sarah Spain, has a more accurate assessment, “I do feel like there are probably some sports where the very best of our athletes could excel if they spent the time and energy.”
The second question was “Do you guys want to see what the U.S. handball team currently looks like?” At which point they showed footage of a 2016 promotional video done by the residency program at Auburn. At which point Sarah reverses course and agrees that Dom and Jay Cutler would dominate.
Of course, the problem with that video is that is most definitely not our current team. The residency program has been shut down and most of the men’s national team now consists of dual citizens playing in Europe, some at a fairly high level. And, trust me, this U.S. Men’s team would make short work of some inexperienced wannabe handball athletes in their mid 30’s, no matter how good they are in other sports.
Past Commentaries on this Topic
Like clockwork every four years during the Olympics this topic comes up. In 2016, LeBron’s potential as a would be handball player was front in center.
Could LeBron James really become the best handball player in just 6 months?
Part 1: Do I really have to explain how crazy that notion is? Link
Part 2: Why it’s just not going to happen, but what about Lebon lite? Link
More recently the dismal showing of the U.S. Men’s Basketball team shows just how silly the notion is that the U.S. could win a gold medal in a sport with all newcomers: Link
Future USA Team Handball Plans Related to this Topic?
The old saying, “Any publicity is good publicity” certainly applies here. Even if it’s nonsense takes, it’s totally awesome for team handball to be a topic of discussion on Barstool Sports and ESPN.
What has me a bit worried, however, is that USA Team Handball’s CEO, Barry Siff, is brand new to the sport and seems to buy into these takes to a certain degree. In several interviews he’s talked about talent transfer and the possibility of turning water polo players into handball players. He’s already jumped on the possibility of getting Jay Cutler to an open tryout for our National Team.
Now, obviously Cutler at 36 is simply too old for such a transfer, but make no mistake he would have been a great handball player. According to his Wikipedia article, in addition to football, he was a first team Indiana All State basketball player and honorable mention All State shortstop in baseball. That’s a strong pedigree, but there’s virtually no way he would have given up an NFL career to choose handball.
And, this is where the discussion becomes, “Well, maybe we can’t get Jay Cutler or Lebron James, but what about Lebron Lite?” And, then you have a boat load of questions to take into consideration:
How much “lighter” in raw talent?
At what age can you get that athlete to switch?
How long does it take to make that athlete a great handball player?
How much is it going to cost you to transition that athlete?
And, the biggest question of all… If you focus on such athletes what are the opportunity costs in time and resources diverted from growing traditional grass roots?
I take on some of these questions in Moneyball Handball series:
Part 1: Broad Categories for Athlete Identification: Link
Part 2: Pushing the Outside of the Recruiting Envelope: Link
Overall, I’m hopeful that these national team tryouts (now apparently planned for this summer in LA and NYC) are primarily marketing tools for publicity, but I could be wrong. Regardless, the publicity won’t hurt. I just hope it doesn’t become the primary focus and eat up too much of the budget.
Membership: Arguably, the Most Important Metric for a
National Governing Body (NGB)
A National Governing Body (NGB) in the sporting world serves many purposes, but serving its members is probably its most important function. One just has to look at the USA Team Handball By-Laws and the 275 times that members or membership is mentioned to get a clear picture as to how important members are.
Aside from By-Law references and common sense, membership is
also a major revenue source. Or, ideally
it should be. For many NGBs it clearly
is. This table highlights the membership
revenue for several team sport NGBs using data from their 2016 IRS Form 990s
and Annual Reports
NGB Membership Data Comparison (2016 Data)
As can be readily seen USA Team Handball revenue, as well
as, total members is significantly smaller than most other team sport NGBs. Orders of magnitude smaller.
Additionally, while membership has its own dedicated revenue line it also indirectly impacts every other line to a significant extent. If an NGB wants to bring in more revenue for events and clinics then doing so will be greatly enhanced by a larger membership. And, it goes without saying that activating sponsorships for a membership base that doesn’t crack a 1,000 can be a pretty tough sell.
But, if you increase membership revenue and the total
numbers of members everything becomes a bit easier. Convincing would be sponsors becomes
easier. Convincing a TV network to air
handball matches becomes easier… which also makes selling sponsorship easier.
The Fuzzy Math Behind
NGB Membership
The importance of a large membership base is therefore very clear. Or, if it’s not large, it’s good to be showing some real growth from year to year. Make no mistake: This is a reality not lost on NGBs. Yes, amusingly, multiple sports have at different points in the recent past or present have laid claim to the title, “Fastest growing sport in the U.S.” And, since data is sketchy and can be manipulated they all probably can make the claim without being called out. Heck, depending on how growth is defined/calculated from time period to time period they all could be right.
If an NGB wants to increase membership there are steps that can be taken. To a certain extent membership can be boosted by lowering the cost. Or, it can be boosted by making a huge push via reduced cost youth memberships. Or, memberships can be tied to directly to participation in high interest competitions. Because of these potential step it’s important to look at membership revenue in addition to the total membership. But, as I’ve learned recently even membership revenue can be manipulated to an extent by making membership revenue to the NGB a “pass through” revenue that is mostly distributed back to regional bodies. (or, in the case of USA Rugby, was supposed to have been distributed back to regional bodies.)
Tracking Membership
and Officially Taking the Mantle of Fastest Growing Sport
So, what is USA Team Handball’s membership total? I hate to say this, but I really don’t know. I’m not even sure if USA Team Handball knows. I have asked this question multiple times in
the past and have never gotten a definitive straight answer. Instead I’ve usually been given a deflected
answer with maybe a low and high range value. Over the years I’ve heard numbers as low as
300 and as high as 1,200. I think there
are a couple of reasons for this.
Firstly, I don’t think USA Team Handball has ever had a decent system for tracking this number. Either back in the old days when membership was handled by check or more recently with the Top Score management system that is now being replaced. On top of that, the number of members changes depending on the time of the year. So, if you ask for the number early in the yearly cycle it’s going to be lower since a lot of people don’t sign up until… well, until they have to. Old timers might well remember the long membership sign up line at the National Championships. As in, you couldn’t play if you weren’t a member. And, if USA Team Handball picked a bad location for nationals and fewer people showed up I bet the membership suffered that year.
Still despite these handicaps, it’s not rocket science. There should be a yearly official membership
number, but, believe it or not, I don’t recall ever seeing it written down in
official documentation. As someone who
likes crunching and assessing data you can probably guess what I think about
that.
Of course, that’s all in the past. It’s a new day and we’ve got a new membership platform (Sport:80) Whatever the membership number is we can bet that it’s being closely tracked now. It’s surely a low number and while we could whine about it being such a low number, we can also look at it as a crazy good opportunity to show improvement. Because with better revenue flows and the IHF grant to support college development, it’s hard to imagine not improving upon it significantly. And, when you’re starting with a small number percentage growth can be really impressive. For instance, if our current membership is let’s say 800 and we were to simply add 400 members next year we would have a 50% growth rate. A growth rate that would be nearly impossible for sports like Ultimate, Cricket, Rugby and Lacrosse to match.
And, USA Team Handball shouldn’t just track the top level number, but track membership data by age, region and club. And, then track that data from year to year. To see where members are being gained, lost and retained. This data is “gold” and it can really show what’s working and not working in terms of development efforts.
I suppose I’m getting a bit ahead of myself. That I’m eyeing some end goals in terms of membership and, in turn, the number of clubs in the U.S. But, then again it’s hard to set such goals if one doesn’t first fully understand what one has to begin with.
And, I’m getting a bit tired of the drudgery associated with capturing “What We Have”. Why, believe it or not, some folks have even accused me of not being forward thinking and stuck in the past. As if? Everybody knows it’s more fun to dream up solutions. And, far less fun to do the homework.
I’ve done a lot of homework. Not that I probably won’t backtrack some, but it’s time to start delving into the “What We Want” portion of this effort.
