In many ways the athletes at the Residency Program at Auburn are like unpaid interns. Hungry, goal oriented, hard working and willing to make big sacrifices to get ahead. Like some interns they maybe willing to work for free, even willing to pay to work, but that still doesn’t make it OK to not compensate them..

Part 2 of this series focused on the mixed messages being sent to USA Residency Program athletes. This part focuses on the moral obligations to athletes inherent with Residency Programs and the dilemma it creates in terms of other spending possibilities.

The Moral Obligation

So, let’s first review a couple positions I feel pretty strongly about:

1) At this point in time Residency Programs for U.S. National Teams make little sense. This is because:

– The U.S. is unlikely to qualify for an Olympics anytime soon
– We don’t have the necessary funding to properly fund its operation
– We should first carefully select a location based on multiple criteria
– And, underlying all of this is the reality that given the sport’s current status in the U.S. there are several other spending options that make more sense at this point in time

2) USA Team Handball should always fully fund athlete participation in qualification events for Olympic and World Championship qualification.

And, let me further qualify position 2) by stating that my position in regard to this funding is even stronger when those athletes are participating in a Residency Program. USA Team Handball should fund trips like that before just about any spending line. And, it doesn’t stop there. Athletes at Residency Programs should get room, board and a stipend. Find the money somewhere. Heck, cancel the Club National Championships if you have to. Just do it.

Huh? Wait and second, you might ask. How can you, John Ryan, bad mouth Residency Programs, leftwards, backwards and forwards and then turn around and argue that they should be the #1 funding priority, everything else be damned?

Well, the answer to this seeming contradiction comes from my own personal experience as a “sort of” national team residency member whose only compensation were cafeteria meal tickets that he had to fight to get. I say “sort of” because I never was invited to be on the national team and I didn’t live in the dorms. I just showed up and started practicing. Don’t get me wrong I was happy to be there and as a Captain in the Air Force I was better off financially than the rest of my teammates were with their meager compensation.

But, this personal experience and the experience of friends and teammates shapes my opinion. I thought our setup at the Olympic Training Center in 1990s was austere, but I see the deal that the athletes are getting at Auburn and think to myself,

“Holy Crap, at least I got 1 meal/day in the USOC cafeteria. These guys are getting Jack S&*#!”

In my opinion, it pretty much comes down to this: If an athlete is part of a Federation sponsored residency program the amount of time and sacrifice involved for all practical purposes makes that athlete an employee of USA Team Handball. And once you cross that threshold it creates a compelling moral obligation to compensate those athletes appropriately. Now a debate can be had as to what is appropriate compensation, but I would argue that it should at least be minimum wage. That would equate roughly to room, board and a small monthly stipend.

As I’ve already elaborated none of that’s being provided and worse, we’re asking athletes to pay for trips. It’s a huge disconnect. If USA Team Handball were a business the Residency Program athletes are either the equivalents of unpaid interns or slave labor. Perhaps, an exaggeration of the situation, but it paints a picture. And, this picture creates a moral dilemma. USA Team Handball might prefer to spend money on grass roots or youth programs, but when they do so they’ve also got to factor in that athlete making incredible sacrifices at Auburn. Should that dollar go to development or towards that athlete eating Mac & Cheese and soliciting friends for funds to go to Cuba?

Work Arounds and Rationalizations to the Moral Dilemma

Nobody faced with a moral dilemma likes to make choices because such choices are hard. Inevitably, such dilemmas lead to some rationalizations and work arounds to make the tough decisions a little easier to make. Here are some examples that appear to be at play:

Directed Donations through Social Media: USA Team Handball is raising funds for the upcoming Pan American Championships through a campaign at gofundme.com. On the surface this might seem like a great way for everyone that wants to help the USA Women’s team to do so directly. The reality, however, is that money is extremely fungible and it’s pretty easy to move funding from one budget line to another. For all practical purposes contributing to the Cuba trip simply raises USA Team Handball overall budget.   Money that USA Team Handball would have been spent for this trip (or should have been set aside for this trip) gets freed up to be spent elsewhere. It might make folks feel better, but the reality is that their contributions are also funding budget items that they don’t care about or worse, would never ever consider contributing to.

The Athletes Keep Telling us they’re Willing to Make Huge Sacrifices: USA Team Handball management can alleviate some of the moral dilemma by being brutally honest to all its athletes in residence about the budget situation. In fact, I would be surprised is this hasn’t already been the case.   No promises made and athletes can decide whether they want to live and train under those circumstances. A real tough recruiting pitch, but the morally correct thing to do. Still, it involves some level of rationalization as nobody likes to give recruits a “take it or leave it” choice. And, many of those that take the choice are so devoted that they will bear huge sacrifices to do so.   Yes, it’s free will, but it’s also taking advantage of people to a certain extent.

Short Changing the Athletes: In a fiscally constrained environment every line item suffers, but what happens if a little more funding comes available? Does USA Team Handball fund some development project or does it provide a stipend or meals for its residency athletes? Well, the temptation may very well be to keep the funding level the same for the athletes. After all, they’ve been happy with what they have, so there’s no compelling need to make them happier. Besides they signed up knowing what the financial circumstances are and it would help our sport to do that development effort. I, for one, can speak from personal experience that unless athletes speak out they may very well get shortchanged.

Self Funding: If funding is short, it’s also possible to ask the athletes to fund a portion, if not all of the trip. After all, they are the ones that will derive the most benefit from attending a prestigious tournament. Again, we have another example of how money is fungible. Yes, that funding coming out of the athlete’s pocket frees up funding that the Federation can spend elsewhere.

The Perils of Self Funding

The problems of self funding, however, go much deeper than merely squeezing the athletes out of what little money they have. It also can cause real problems with recruiting and create some awkward situations.

Really Limits Recruiting: Not every athlete will want or will be able to afford paying for room, board and trips to competition. As highlighted previously it will pretty much limit participation to the very dedicated. While dedication is always desired in an athlete it doesn’t necessarily correlate to the type of athletic skills needed to compete on the world stage.

Have’s and Have Not’s: Virtually every team (pro or amateur) has a bit of financial diversity amongst its teammates. Lebron James makes more than the 12^th man on the bench. AAU teams have kids from poor neighborhoods and kids with a 3 car garage. Where it’s got to be pretty awkward though is the situation when making the team for the big tournament is a function of being willing and able to pay your way. At least it would have been pretty strange 22 years ago if I was willing to pay my way to the World Championships, but Darrick Heath was short of funds. This is a really bad situation that should be considered only as an absolute last resort.

How can this Problem be Solved?

So, how do you solve the Austere Residency Program problem. Well, there’s really only 2 ways:

• Turn the austere Residency Program into a full-fledged Residency Program. Of course, this can only be done with more funding; a lot more funding. Room, board and stipends would be just a start. Funding would also be needed for regular trips for competition, scholarships, and recruiting. And, if you add up all the costs to do a Residency Program properly for 30 athletes it’s a pretty sizable chunk of change.
• Close the Residency Program down until such time that sufficient funding becomes available.

Alternatives

I guess there are some alternatives.

Here’s a bad one: Ignore the problem and continue to run a Residency Program on the cheap. But, don’t be fooled into thinking that it’s better than nothing. It’s not. Not only is it extremely unlikely that it will achieve the desired effect of Olympic Qualification it will continue to siphon funding and man hours that would be better spent on development. Development that would lead to a larger player base that might make a future Residency Program viable in terms of available recruits.

And, here’s a better one worthy of further consideration. Dramatically restructure the Residency Program to focus only on developing players, 23 and younger.   But, honestly I’m not sure we even have the funding to do this right. Perhaps, may be the Federation should even consider abandoning one gender as a cost savings. I’ve yet to write a commentary on this option, but due to Title 9 and generally weaker competition worldwide this means keeping the Women’s program at the expense of the Men.

Final Thoughts

As I written this latest commentary I can’t help but reflect on my own Residency Program experience and wonder if I’m being like the strict parent telling his kids in college to study and never party hearty. You know, the strict parent that was total wild child when they were younger. After all, despite its limitations my Residency Program was a good one. Who am I to want to deny up and coming athletes the same experience?

But, as I’ve written ad nauseam, on numerous occasions so much has changed in the past 22 years. PATHF competition is stronger, European leagues are way more professionalized and post college athletes have much better opportunities today.  Honestly, I’ve got my doubts as to whether a full-fledged, well funded Residency Program unlike any we’ve ever seen could get the job done today.

To think that an austere program could somehow do the job? It just has me scratching my head in bewilderment that smart people can reflect on what’s occurred in the past, assess the current state of affairs and come up with such a different conclusion.

Sending U.S. athletes a mixed message: We want you to join our National Team Residency Program and help us in our quest to go to the Olympics. We won’t pay you, lodge you, feed you or even pay your way to tournaments, though. Also, could you bring your checkbook and your social media skills to solicit donations from family and friends? 

In Part 1 of this commentary I questioned why a crowd sourcing effort for $25K was necessary to send the USA Women to the Pan American Championships. In this part I’ll look at the message it sends to athletes and whether an austere residency program makes sense in the big scheme of things.

Continuing on here’s the next question that needs to be asked regarding the lack of funding for the USA Women’s upcoming trip to the Pan American Championships.

What kind of message does it send to current residency program athletes?

The diplomatic answer is that it sends a “mixed message” to those athletes currently residing at Auburn. Obviously, the bad part is essentially telling those athletes “we don’t believe you’re worthy” in the big scheme of things. Words are nice, but money talks. The good part of the message, is telling athletes we’re doing all we can and we’re not abandoning you.   To further elaborate the message is along the lines of, “We’re doing everything we possibly can to give you the best chance to be competitive. This residency program might not be as much as we’d like it to be, but it’s all we got. Hang with us. It will get better.”

The non-diplomatic answer is, of course, is that the message is just simply bad and cannot be sugar coated in any shape or form. With the sacrifices these players are making financially, professionally and physically the least that should be expected is that their trips to official competition are fully paid for. To ask them to open their own wallets and/or solicit friends and family to send them to represent their country will never feel right.

What kind of message does it send to prospective recruits to the residency program?

While it’s possible to rationale a mixed message with the previous question it’s not possible to do so with the message being sent to prospective recruits. The reaction from most, if not all, prospective recruits will be somewhere along the lines of:

“Let me get this straight. You want me to move to Alabama, away from my friends, my family, my job prospects to chase an Olympic dream? And, you want me to pay and raise money for the right to do so? Umm, I’ll think pass on that. I’ve got better things to do.”

For sure, that’s going to be the answer USA Team Handball will get from the blue chip athletes who recently had their entire college education paid for. Not even Division 3 athletes pay for their travel to competition. Honestly, it’s a testament to this great sport and the power of the Olympic dream that any athletes are willing to make such sacrifices.

Rumblings of Discontent: A Board and Staff Split?

Along with these bad or mixed messages being sent there appears to be some signs of discontent emerging on the Board of Directors. This wouldn’t be the first time. Back in 2010 I interviewed Board Member Dave Thompson on the topic of National Team support. He vociferously voiced his dissatisfaction with the Board’s decision to not fund national team trips back then. I suspect his opinion on the matter hasn’t changed much. The same is also likely true with Board Member Tomuke Ebuwei. Heck, she was even named to the roster for the upcoming championships. At 38 years of age she’s showing she can still play beating out several younger athletes practicing full time at Auburn for a roster spot. Of course, as Athlete Advisory Council members it’s pretty much a given that they are going to come down on the side of the athletes in most cases. Another Board Member also voiced some mild frustration on social media regarding the situation and not having control.”

Discontent is not just limited to the Board either as veiled rumblings of the need to continue to support the Women’s National Team were contained in match reports from the North American & Caribbean Tournament written by High Performance Director, Dave Gascon.   Here’s a sample:

“I am really happy for these players,” Coach Latulippe commented (after) he orchestrated the victory which (gave the team) a chance to compete for third. “They have committed themselves to our Auburn University-based Residency Program and they have earned the right to represent the United States in the Pan Am Championships. We have a great blend of veterans and new players who are learning the game at an accelerated pace due to the Residency Program. This team is getting better week to week, and over the past year the transformation into a competitive team is remarkable.”

Not an explicit plea, but a firm reminder of what these athletes have sacrificed and “earned.”

Behind the scenes they’ve apparently had to deliver bad news that no coach or manager ever should ever have to give.  This Tumblr blog post by former Residency Program athlete Caroline Voelker highlights a team meeting where Gascon informed the team he was able to convince the “Federation” to let the team go to Puerto Rico if they could come up with the funds to self finance by chipping in $500/each.

Based on this information, I suspect Coach Latulippe and High Performance Director, Dave Gascon, were making a case to the USA Board of Directors to “find the money” to send the team to Cuba later this month. This should come as no surprise as they have put a lot of time and energy to making the program work. (I suspect that Dave Gascon has probably generously opened up his checkbook on multiple occasions.) Finally, no coach or High Performance Director would ever advocate not sending a team to an event which could lead to participating in the World Championships.

Austere vs. Nothing

In fact, if I were the Coach or High Performance Director I would have had some pointed words several months ago with USA Team Handball Management along the lines of:

“How can you expect us to be competitive with such a shoe string operation? Dam it! We are tired of asking athletes to make financial sacrifices. This isn’t tenable. Seriously, why did you bother to hire us if you weren’t ever going to give us the resources necessary to have a fighting chance to be successful?”

Of course, I’m being disingenuous here. Sure on the surface what I wrote makes perfect sense, but if you know the back story you also know that Coach Latulippe and High Performance Director Gascon have mostly themselves to blame for their financial predicament. They came up with the plan and made the decision that an austere residency program was better than nothing. Or, if you’ve got my perspective they decided an austere Residency Program was better than resources spent on grass roots development, Aarhus Academy, College Development, etc., etc., etc.

Personally, I doubt that they fully weighed the potential repercussions of an austere program. And, they’re probably not alone. When you really want to help someone like motivated, hard working dedicated athletes the natural reaction is to do whatever you can, future repercussions be damned. After all, the alternative is pretty unpleasant. No one wants to look such athletes in the eye and tell them that it’s just not practical at this point in time to invest limited resources to give them a better chance. That the odds of success are too long and that there are just too many other needs going wanting.

But, some might argue that while there are problems with an austere residency program it still has value and could be the building block upon which a full fledged residency program can be built. This indeed could be true, but in Part 3 I’ll further elaborate on the moral complications inherent with a residency program that should give USA Team Handball additional pause before continuing such an operation in its current shape and form.

Funds are being raised for the U.S. Women to attend the Pan American Championships in Cuba. Why the bake sale at this late date?

USA Team Handball’s marketing arm in Auburn, Alabama, Blue Turtle, recently started a crowd sourcing campaign to help pay for the USA Women’s National Team’s upcoming trip to the Pan American Championships in Cuba. The campaign seeks $25,000 for the tournament which takes place from 21-28 May.   Not surprisingly this has sparked some controversy in regards to USA Team Handball’s funding priorities. For sure, it raises a number of valid questions like:

1. Why isn’t funding available to pay for this trip?
2. What budget items are being assessed as a higher priority?
3. What kind of message does it send to current residency program athletes?
4. What kind of message does it send to prospective recruits to the residency program?

I’ll try to tackle these questions one at a time

Why isn’t funding available to pay for this trip?

Well, one can only infer so much from Board of Director’s Meeting Minutes and IRS Form 990’s, but the short answer is probably that there simply is not enough revenue. I’ll speculate that the long answer is related to the challenges of budgeting in a pre-Olympic year.   In fact, this isn’t the first time that USA Team Handball has come up short in terms of funding for major National Team events like this qualifier for the World Championships. Back in 2011 USA Team Handball came up short for funding for Men’s 2nd Chance Tournament to qualify for the PANAM Games. Outraged, I wrote this commentary that was critical of the hand wringing going on.

So what makes a pre-Olympic year challenging budget wise? The simplistic answer is that the number of important qualification events for our national teams roughly triples. In 3 years out of a 4 year cycle there are usually just 2 events related to either Men or Women’s World Championship Qualification. But in Pre-Olympic there are 4 events for U.S. Men and Women’s Olympic qualification on top of 2 events for Women’s World Championship Qualification. So instead of 2 events, there are 6 events. (Qualification requirements vary and the USOC does help with some events, but without a doubt costs for national team participation rise significantly.)

And, that’s only counting the trips for official PATHF competition. In the past year the USA Women have also has taken trips to Brazil, Puerto Rico and Guadaloupe for friendly competition. If all or a portion of the funding for those trips were paid for by USA Team Handball one really has to ask the question why those funds weren’t saved for future more important competitions.

For sure, if USA Team Handball is counting every penny it can be really tough for a budget plan that’s scraping by in a lower cost year to suddenly handle the increased expenditure requirements of a pre-Olympic year. Such a problem can be addressed in a number of ways to include:

1. Save funds for the pre-Olympic year extra expenses
2. Cut back on non National Team related items in the Pre-Olympic Year
3. Go into debt
4. Hope that the extra money comes from somewhere
5. Reluctantly don’t participate in some of the National Team Qualification events

In 2011, the Federation opted for #5, but then got bailed out by the U.S. Team Handball Foundation. In 2015, it appears that the Federation is going for option #4, but then will go with option #5 if funds can’t be found. Except, just as was the case in 2011, $25,000 most likely could be taken from some other funding line. For whatever reason, USA Team Handball is reluctant to do so which leads to the next question.

What budget items are being assessed as a higher priority?

Again, Board Minute minutes and IRS Form 990s can only provide a top level insight as to the decisions that are being made.   Here’s a breakout of the expenses for the most current Fiscal Year. (July 1, 2013 to June 30, 2014)

$340,798 Salaries and other Compensation
$82,807 National Team Expenses
$77,172 Travel
$26,850 Accounting
$23,279 Insurance
$6,561 All Other Expenses
$5,275 Office Expenses
$3,310 Bank Charges
$2,942 Membership Fees
$2,809 Miscellaneous
$571,803 TOTAL

Well, for starters, let’s be clear: $572K is not a lot to work with. Still, one would like to think that $25K could be found somewhere.   Here’s where to look:

Salaries and other Compensation ($341K): With salaries taking up almost 60% of the pie it’s logically the first place to look, but I suspect this has already been chopped a bit since June 2014. Notably, with the quiet departure of Mariusz Wartalowicz sometime in 2014, Federation Administrative functions are pretty much a one man operation headed by CEO, Mike Cavanaugh. Perhaps, Maurice Godwin, the Communication Specialist also receives a small salary, but logically it couldn’t be very substantial. Then, there are the 2 National Team coaches, Javier Garcia Cuesta and Christian Latulippe and I’ve been told they are being paid $60K/year. Depending on your frame of reference this is either a great deal or a bit over priced. But, if you’re a believer in the Residency Program model, it’s pretty hard to run such a program without salaried coaches. All told I suspect that the $341K in salaries is now closer to $250K with the reduction in this spending line having been redirected towards National Team expenses.

National Team Expenses and Travel ($160K): As I alluded to earlier I would guess that the National Team budget has increased some. How much, though, is hard to say. Also, there’s no detailed breakout of just what is included in these two lines. I’m guessing that some of the travel is national team related, but other travel surely is to attend conferences, national championship tournaments, etc. The costs of different trips that the National Teams have taken are unknown. One can guesstimate airfare and lodging costs, but I suspect that some trips were really done on the cheap with players even self funding portions of the cost (more on that self funding aspect later). Regardless, this internal National Team funding line is probably the best candidate for “finding the money.” And, that search would undoubtedly lead to some earlier trip not being taking to ensure that funds were readily available for the Pan American Championship later. Again, I would suspect (I’m getting tired of using that word), however, that the money has already been spent. Hence, the bake sale for the National Team.

Everything Else ($71K): I won’t go into much detail here. This isn’t much money and running even a small organization is going to have administrative costs.

So answering the basic question, “What budget items are being assessed as a higher priority?” results in a dilemma.  Money could be taken from some other funding lines, but those funding lines are needed if you’re going to have a viable residency training program. There’s just not enough funding to go around. We could pay for the trip easily if we didn’t have a residency program. But, then we wouldn’t have the trappings of a Residency Program to build a team with a better chance to compete for an Olympic or World Championships slot.

Truth be told, though, our current austere residency program can only upgrade our National Teams so much.   It might be sufficient to secure a WC slot, but such a program would be hard pressed to ever qualify for an Olympics. And, I’ve got my doubts as to whether even a full fledged residency could do the trick and running such a program properly might actually cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $2M to $3M a year. A funding level USA Team Handball is far short of having currently. Sure, Residency Programs can be done more austerely, but there are some fundamental problems in doing so on the cheap.

What are some of those fundamental problems with an austere residency program? In Part 2, I’ll look at the message it sends to hard working dedicated athletes already in place and more importantly, the athletes USA Team Handball would like to recruit.

UNC Team Handball: USA Team Handball’s #1 Collegiate Club Success Story as it relates to sustainment. How can more Carolina Handball clubs be created and sustained?

Part 1 for this option provided some background on the state of collegiate handball in the U.S. Part 2 takes a closer look at U.S. Collegiate Rugby, the UNC Handball program and how some of their successes might be more broadly applied to U.S. Collegiate Team Handball.

In the Facebook replies regarding the first part of this discussion on collegiate handball it was pointed out that collegiate programs were very susceptible to faltering because by their very nature college teams are transient with players always departing upon graduation. While this is true, it fails to recognize that this is a problem that is overcome by hundreds of rugby clubs and yes, a handful of team handball clubs, like AF, West Point and the University of North Carolina.

Why Rugby is thriving

No analogy is perfect, but one has to only look at collegiate rugby for a glimpse of what could be. From coast to coast there are 900 collegiate rugby clubs. Not every U.S. college has a rugby team, but almost every NCAA Division 1 school does and sizable portion of the Division 2 and Division 3 schools. Somehow, instead of moving to a collegiate rugby graveyard the vast majority of rugby clubs are surviving and indeed, thriving. How is this being accomplished for collegiate rugby and how might it be duplicated for team handball.

To better understand why rugby is thriving I interviewed Bruce McLane who coaches the Iona Rugby Club and discussed some of the aspects that have over several decades facilitated rugby’s sustainable success.

Here are some of those reasons:

• The number of collegiate rugby clubs has reached critical mass in just about every region of the country. And by critical mass, I mean that just about every collegiate club has relatively close by opponents that they can compete against. This fosters league play, rivalries and competition.
• Rugby clubs have taken the camaraderie aspect of their sport to the highest levels.  The days of the beer soaked after party are long gone, but collegiate rugby clubs are still tight knit with alumni often playing a big role in helping to ensure club sustainment.
• Most rugby clubs have been around for decades and in the case of some clubs over a century! Not surprisingly such heritage results in entrenchment that’s pretty hard to dislodge.

Collegiate Handball’s #1 Sustainment Success Story: Carolina Handball

As I wrote in part 1, there are only a handful of clubs that are entrenched in the manner of a club rugby program. Air Force and West Point have been around for decades and have some distinct advantages related to their service academy status, so it would probably take an earthquake of circumstances to envision either program shutting down. Since I started playing handball some 28 years ago there’s only been 3 college programs that I’ve assessed as becoming “firmly established”: Texas A&M’s men program and the Men’s and Women’s programs at the University of North Carolina. And while Texas A&M meets my artificial 5 year requirement few would argue against UNC being the real success story.   With so many other programs having fallen by the wayside, it really begs the question, “What has UNC done differently?” And, more importantly, “How could it be duplicated with other colleges?”

To a great extent UNC’s success can largely be attributed to the long term dedication of John Silva. He started the program and provided a guiding hand for well over a decade. This continuity allowed the program to get firmly established and perhaps weather any lean years that inevitably happen after the initial energy of getting started wears off. Most likely his official capacity as a member of the UNC Faculty also facilitated his efforts in recruitment and in the securing of school facilities for practice.

But, probably Silva’s greatest achievement and the reason why UNC is still a thriving club was his foresight and success in mentoring and guiding several individuals like Miles Bacon and Wade Sutton to step into club leadership roles.  As such there is now a solid cadre of individuals that makes it pretty unlikely that UNC will be joining the graveyard of clubs any time soon.  A legitimate women’s club has even been started and looks to be sticking around!  Such mentoring and handing off is always easier said then done. Too many times in the past clubs have disappeared when the “key individual” departs the scene for whatever reason.

A Big Shortcoming (The Failure to Expand the Base of Established Clubs)

While, it’s fair to toot the horns of North Carolina, West Point and Air Force for setting the example it’s also fair to provide some criticism to those clubs and USA Team Handball for failing to expand the base. Let’s face it: it’s pretty boring to see the same 3 clubs year in and year out finishing in the top 3 while other clubs come and go without even coming close to threatening that hegemony.

While these clubs surely take pride in their dominance, they also inherently know that their success is largely due to the lack of strong competition. It’s one thing to say you’re the best out of 10 schools and another thing entirely to say you’re the best out of a 100 or 200.

To a great extent those 3 schools can rightly say, “Hey, it’s not our job to expand the base, that’s USA Team Handball’s responsibility.” A very true statement, but the Big 3 could clearly do more. In particular, I’ll chastise both Air Force and Army for failing to start a sustainable program at Annapolis. There cannot possibly be a more ideal institution/situation to start a program: Link  (What an epic failure of those schools and their alumni. (Yeah: I did just call in an airstrike on myself.)  Meanwhile, North Carolina appears content for the most part to schedule their annual tournaments and have teams fly in or drive long distances while several relatively nearby colleges remain devoid of the sport.

Options for USA Team Handball Consideration

But, again to be fair the institution most responsible and quite frankly the one that would most benefit from a broader base of U.S. collegiate clubs is USA Team Handball. What could USA Team Handball do bolster USA Collegiate Handball? Here are some options for consideration:

1. Hire a full time college coordinator: The college coordinator would have many responsibilities, but at this particular point in time, job #1 would be efforts to facilitate the establishment of new collegiate clubs. Job #2 would be to work with fledgling clubs to help sustain them from years to come. At the end of the day success or failure at this job would hinge on club establishment and sustainment. If the College National Championships has no new teams and 5 former teams missing this would no longer be met with a shrug and resignation. There would be accountability.
2. Direct more resources toward college development: If there’s going to be accountability, there should also be some dedicated resources to give the college coordinator a fighting chance. Quite a bit of coordination can be done with email and phone calls, but that individual will also need a travel budget to meet with prospective colleges and host clinics. Funding will also be needed for equipment assistance for new programs.
3. Hire part time coach/recruiter/organizers at specific colleges: Beyond equipment assistance and a guiding hand from a college coordinator certain colleges may merit additional assistance in the form of paying for a part time coach/recruiter/organizer. While this may be anathema to anyone who’s taken on such a time consuming role for free because they love the game, the cold reality is that with the exception of John Silva the volunteers have all eventually been sustainment failures at the collegiate level. While a paid coach could also fail, this support and recognition of their value could be the little extra nurturing that sustains a fledgling program until it’s fully established.
4. Incentivize existing club programs to establish new clubs: In combination with options 2 and 3 above USA Team Handball should provide financial incentives for existing clubs to shepherd new clubs along. Perhaps “sister club” arrangements could be made and bonuses could be paid out once a new club attend nationals 3 years in a row. This could be the extra push needed to help the established clubs do go that extra mile to help other colleges recruit, conduct clinics and practices at those skills and facilitate competition for them. And, it wouldn’t have to be just collegiate clubs. Some of our top Sr Men’s and Women’s programs could link with colleges, thus giving them more local competition and ideally a farm club for their team. After all, what’s a player to do when he graduates, but join the local club.
5. Establish and fund a model college conference: Currently, one of the major problems with collegiate handball is that the handful of teams are scattered all over the U.S. This results in infrequent competition and the form of competition usually consisting of weekend tournaments, whereby matches are shortened and crammed into a jam packed 2 days. Additionally, many of the matches end up being between collegiate and regular clubs. While, not entirely a bad thing as players benefit from playing against more experienced players it’s not a collegiate experience. Finally, many teams are often scraping by to find players and some collegiate teams end up adding a few extra players not even affiliated with the college. All of these shortcomings add up and detracts from the collegiate aspect that is desired.

   A collection of schools could receive direct support from the Federation to form a conference that would serve as a model for other schools to follow. Additionally, this conference could provide a marketing vehicle for the greater promotion of the sport.

6. Upgrade the Collegiate National Championship and Promote it as USA Team Handball’s Premier Event: For many years the Collegiate Championship has been a secondary tournament less in prestige than the U.S. National Championship for clubs. While the level of play at Club Nationals is superior, arguably it is of lesser marketing value. This is because the clubs are unknown quantities and aesthetically less appealing. What I’m trying to diplomatically say is that a U.S. Championships which consists primarily of Non-Americans and athletes in their 30s and 40s is going to be a tough sell for TV. Whereas an event with college name teams and athletes is in their early 20s is a far easier sell. And, based on the Collegiate Rugby Championship’s success (link) it’s not as far fetched as one might think that such a handball related couldn’t find its way on TV. It goes without saying that successfully putting such an event on TV would be an incredible coup and a huge boost to college development and recruiting.
7. Establish an “All American Collegiate Team” and fund an annual European Summer tour: Youth and Junior National Team tournaments either for World Championship qualification or IHF Challenge events are a traditional vehicle for many countries in the world. Unfortunately, these events aren’t ideal for the USA for a couple of reasons. First, these events often take place during the school year requiring athletes to miss a week or even two weeks of school. Secondly, these age based competitions are essentially limited to high schoolers, College Freshman and depending on whether the event is Under 19 or Under 20 or not, some College sophomores. As many Americans first start playing handball regularly at age 18 or a little bit later this means only a handful of collegiate athletes can realistically try out and those that do usually are still a little bit green technically. As a result, U.S. teams often either get blown out or rely heavily on European based Americans who don’t really need these competitions to further develop as handball athletes.

Pros

Broadening of the National Team player pool:  As has been previously highlighted collegiate players are a prime source of recruitment for our National Teams. More collegiate teams would mean a greater number of prospects.

Broadening of the national fan base and general player pool: As USA Rugby has demonstrated hundreds of colleges playing a sport will eventually result in a huge alumni base of fans, coaches and referees. The bulk of these athletes will never play for a U.S. national team but they will be the engine for greater growth

Cons

Diverts resources from other efforts:  If USA Team Handball wants to really focus on college club development it will take man-hours and funding to do so properly. This means finding more revenue or diverting revenue from other cost centers.

Risks

These initiatives may fail just as volunteer efforts have failed in the past.   There’s simply no guarantee that these efforts would succeed. In fact, a solid case can be made that you can’t create demand where it doesn’t already exist. Better to just let college develop happen intrinsically than to artificially force it through initiatives.

Costs

College Coordinator. Depending on the experience level desire this salary would be in the neighborhood of $30-60K.

College support costs. Giving a college coordinator the tools to do their job could be quite expensive. Trips for clinics, coordination, hiring part time help at select schools and established club incentives could start to add up to 100-300K fairly quickly.

All American team costs. Funding this trip would be roughly the equivalent of a National Team Trip.   And depending on athlete interest it could be partially self- funded by athletes.

Timing for Implementation

Currently, USA Team Handball is directing a significant portion of its resources towards the operation of its residency program at Auburn University. With 2016 Olympic qualification over for the U.S., USA Team Handball could immediately re-evaluate its priorities and redirect resources to college programs. And, speaking of 2016 maybe it would make sense to have a roll out of such programs to coincide with the 2016 Olympic TV broadcasts. A prime recruiting opportunity.

Final Thoughts and Some What If’s? to Ponder

As with many of the other options identified implementing this option would mean a significant shift in priorities from our national teams. It’s a never ending debate as to where priorities should lie and one that I’ve found myself on either side at different points in time. Still, I can’t help but ponder what if? As in, what if at some point in the 90s or 2000s resources had been dramatically shifted to college club development? U.S. teams would have lost the same games with worse score lines and perhaps some overseas trips would never have occurred. Would that have been a great loss? And, what if instead sustainable clubs had been established at Annapolis, North Carolina St and St John’s University? Maybe, today each of those teams would be competing at college nationals with each sporting a no kidding prospect for our National Teams at age 21 or 22. Heck, maybe younger. Maybe, there would be even more teams. Maybe we would even have a burgeoning talent pool of prospective players. One that could really justify the existence of full time residency program. For sure, a lot of “what if’s”, “perhaps” and “maybe’s”, but still worth contemplating.

Gut Check Time: Does USA Team Handball have a plan to hike its way out of the forest or is it just walking in circles?

This past Saturday, the USA Women and Men lost to Uruguay in the 2nd Leg matches for the Last Chance Qualifier for the PANAM Games.  The Women lost 24-22 and the Men lost 28-20. The USA Women ended up with a 7 goal aggregate loss and the USA Men ended up with a 4 goal aggregate loss. Match Recap: Link

These results simply cannot be sugar coated. Failing to qualify for the Olympics is one thing. Anyone familiar with our National Team’s results the past few years knew it was going to be tough to beat Argentina. But, losing to Uruguay and not even qualifying for the Olympic Qualifying Event (i.e.; the PANAM Games)? Without a doubt this is an unavoidably stark reminder as to where our National Programs stand.

Let’s be honest: The U.S. is not even close to the level it needs to be to qualify for an Olympics. We don’t just need a couple more players, or a few more months of training or a few more games. Maybe if we had qualified for the PANAM Games and gone toe to toe with Argentina and/or Brazil in the semifinals this summer before falling short we could rationalize that we’re almost there, but that didn’t happen. Not even close.

With Failure Comes Opportunity

Failure, however, can also be an opportunity. Olympic qualification for the Men is no longer possible and the Women now only have a very, very remote chance. (The U.S. Women’s would need to qualify for the World Championships and then finish in an unprecedented 7^th place.) While there are other goals for our National Teams for a variety of reasons Olympic Qualification is without question the main target. With 2016 gone as a possibility the U.S. will now not play another match related to Olympic Qualification until December, 2018, at the earliest. With no immediate pressing need it’s therefore an opportune time to step back, take stock and plan for the way ahead.

2020 Olympic Prospects

Part of that taking stock is an assessment of what the U.S. prospects are for 2020 qualification. And, taking a look at our current teams and our Pan American competition reveals a very tough road ahead. For the Women, it’s particularly bleak. The average age of the 2^nd chance roster is 28 and the bulk of the scoring is coming from athletes 30 and older. The U.S. needs a roster overhaul and it’s debatable as to whether there are enough quality prospects joining the program with the right age/athletic ability combination to take the U.S. to the next level. Seriously, there would have to be several already on the team making key contributions before we could even realistically contemplate the monumental task of taking down the current World Champions, Brazil. Brazil will likely not be as strong in 2019, but it’s unlikely they will drop down near as much a we need to go up. With the men’s team it’s much the same story. The Argentine and Brazilian Men aren’t as good as the Brazilian Women, but there’s still a huge gap. And, the U.S. Men aren’t very young either with the roster for the 2nd chance tourney having a guestimated average age of 27. A couple of players are on the younger side, but several players are pushing 30 or have passed it.

I’m not suggesting that the U.S. shouldn’t even try to qualify for the 2020 Olympics, but a real hard look should be taken at how resources are to be expended towards 2020 qualification. For example, if expenditures for a residency program and/or full time coaching are only going to improve our chances of qualification from 2% to 5% are they still worthwhile expenditures? Might it be better to expend resources towards a development initiative that would improve qualification chances in 2024 from 10% to 40%?   Those are questions that should be asked.

Planning for Today vs. Planning for Tomorrow

With many efforts there is an inherent conflict between either planning for today or tomorrow. Or, perhaps more accurately, the “near term” or “long term.” Or, even more accurately planning for a “defined” near term” or a “defined” long term. I say defined, because sometimes people would just as soon not define what their time frame is because in doing so they will be forced to make decisions they’d prefer to avoid having to make.

And, sometimes folks will like to argue (or worse, just assume) that near term efforts are by default also supporting long term plans. This, however, is often a bad assumption and one that has all too often been true for USA Team Handball. Case in point: Have the efforts of the past 3 years (hiring full time coaches, rushing to build a residency program and in the case of the women populating that program almost entirely with athletes over the age of 25 really paved the way for long term success? Or, has it been overly focused on questionable, short term goals? For sure, I’ve got my opinion, but what’s done is done.

Instead, it’s best to start fresh and ask some tough questions regarding what makes sense going forward. Here are just a few questions that should be asked:

Full time head coaches: Despite limited resources, 3 years ago the decision was made to hire full time coaches. Have these hires produced satisfactory results? How is their performance being measured? Can the U.S. continue to afford this expenditure or should the funds and man-hours be spent on other critical needs? Will having full time head coaches significantly improve U.S. performance or would the U.S. have similar results with just part time coaches?

Recruiting: Is USA Team Handball successfully recruiting the types of athletes it needs to build long term success? Or, is it recruiting too many athletes that are in their mid 20s with limited raw athletic skills? Is it even realistic for USA Team Handball to recruit the types of athletes that were more readily available in the 70s, 80s and 90s? Even if these athletes can be recruited can they be trained quickly enough to beat quality teams like Argentina and Brazil that have developed through their youth programs?

Residency Programs: In the fall of 2013 the U.S. established a residency program at Auburn University. Is this program producing satisfactory results? What are the established metrics being used to assess performance? Is the program too austere to attract the types of athletes desired? Can the program be effectively focused on both near term National Team performance and individual player development? Is Auburn the best location for this program or should other locations like Boston be pursued? Or, would USA Team Handball be better off sending its handful of top notch prospects to an overseas location like the Aarhus Handball Academy where they could get weekly match competition?

Some More Prognostication

It’s my own personal opinion that asking and answering these questions and others will logically lead USA Team Handball into a different direction than the path it’s been on the past couple of years. At the very least it would lead to some major tinkering with the structure and goals of the Residency Program at Auburn. And, it could depending on more detailed analysis lead to radical changes such as closing or mothballing the program at Auburn, pumping resources into targeted youth programs, an arrangement with an overseas entity like the Aarhus Academy or even going all-in on the likelihood of a Boston Olympics.

My fear, however, is that little such introspection will take place and the U.S. will muddle about for the next few years with a program at Auburn that looks much like it does now. Our national teams will continue to struggle, but hopefully show some signs of marginal improvement. Perhaps improving to the point where we can beat other 2nd tier nations in PATHF and qualify for the World Championships, but not progressing to the point where we can beat Argentina and Brazil. And, then when we fail to qualify in 2019 there will be a changing of the guard. Dozens of players will have already come and gone and several more will retire. And then a new batch of crossover athletes will be brought in. If there’s an Olympics in Boston we may even finally decide to move the Residency Program there. Recruiting and funding will naturally tick up and the U.S. will field some respectable sides that won’t embarrass. We’ll also have an uptick in grass roots interest like that which was seen in LA and Atlanta, but we’ll again slide back into to the same 3rd tier status the sport has always had in America.

Stay the Course? Are We Really, Really Sure that Makes Sense?

Maybe those are satisfactory results for some. With several years of “nothing” going on for our national teams under the Esch regime, the common refrain has been “at least we’re doing “something” now.” And, to many old timers I think the idea of setting up a Residency Program similar, if but a little more austere, brings back nostalgia for the good old days. That the program will soon be back to the level of the 80s and 90s.  And, maybe just maybe, we’ll somehow even exceed expectations this time around.

Believe it or not, I fully understand why some folks have this outlook. Heck, occasionally I even find myself guilty of such nostalgia. I guess I’m just a bit too analytical, though, to keep the rose colored glasses on very long. The bitter reality is that those good old days weren’t nearly as good as we like to remember them. The historical results are an epic pile of losses. The Men’s Olympic record is 4-24-1; The Women’s Olympic record is 4-19-0. In World Championship competition the men are 0-16-0 and the women 4-24-0.

And, keep in mind those are the “great” results are from a different era. We haven’t even been good enough to qualify for those events for several years otherwise we’d be adding quite a few more “L’s to those dismal records. Further compounding the problem is that handball is way more professionalized today and our competition is much stiffer in Pan America. Time was that we could take some great athletes in the 22-25 age range, spend 2 or 3 years training them up and qualify for an Olympics. The new reality is that even if, and it’s a big if, we can recruit the same quality of athletes post college we recruited in the past it’s doubtful that we could now even qualify a team for the Olympics, let alone come close to beating a European team.

Maybe what’s been started at Auburn is going to be truly different. That this past weekend’s stumble in Uruguay was just a momentary hiccup on the road to slow and steady improvement. That it’s only a matter of time till our Residency Program at Auburn starts building teams that will make short work of sides like Uruguay, Chile and Greenland. And, just a bit more time till we’re beating Argentina and Brazil, qualifying for the Olympics and even knocking off some European sides.

I guess anything is truly possible. The thing is, though, I’ve seen this movie before and I’ve yet to read or hear anything that articulates just how this movie’s going to have a different ending. We may be doing “something” but so is a lost hiker in the woods walking around in circles.

Time to Start Focusing on 2024

As I see it, the alternative is to develop a long term strategic plan with 2024 as a target and focus point for both National Team and Grass Roots development. Why 2024? Two reasons:

• There’s no quick fix to our National Teams that will dramatically improve our chances for 2020 Olympic Qualification. Focusing on 2024 will buy more time to identify, recruit and develop talent. Still a challenge, but a more realistic one.
• There’s a significant chance that Boston will host the 2024 Olympics meaning that the U.S. will not have to qualify. And, a hosted Olympics could be the vehicle to build some sustainable grass roots that can keep the U.S. competitive for years to come.

How exactly would this be done? Just how would it be different than what is being set up at Auburn? Very good questions. I know that perhaps, I come off as a “Mr. Know It All” sometimes, but, I’ll be up front and state, I don’t know the answers to those questions. Sure, I’ve got some ideas and I’ve started to flesh out some possibilities, but it’s not a simple problem with an obvious solution.

What I do know, though, is this. A comprehensive plan is needed. The sooner, the better.  But, that’s just what I think. The real question is what USA Team Handball leadership thinks. If there ever was a time to take stock and potentially change course, that time is now.

The Greater Boston metropolitan area has the population equivalent of 14.5 Iceland’s. Boston also has a pretty decent chance of hosting the 2024 Olympics which would result in substantial opportunities for local sponsorship. The Auburn-Opelika metro area is the equivalent of less than half an Iceland. Which location would be a better candidate for focusing limited resources in the hopes of creating a “home for handball” in the U.S.?

Part 1 of this option highlighted the potential benefits of focusing resources in one geographical area and the historical limited success the U.S. has had in doing so. This part explores how the U.S. might learn from the past should it decide to try and create a “Home for Handball” in the U.S.

Building a Better Mousetrap

One could infer from the lack of success highlighted in part 1 that you simply can’t artificially create a Little Iceland. But, maybe the lesson is just that it wasn’t done the right way.   That to execute such a strategy successfully, better planning, more resources and more patience are needed. It’s certainly debatable. One thing is for sure, though: The potential benefits of creating a Little Iceland or Home for Handball in the U.S. merits a further investigation. An investigation that would first take a long hard look at what’s worked and what hasn’t. A full assessment of the failures of the past and some real thought into how it might conceivably work in the future. I haven’t fully assessed those failures, but have a fairly solid understanding of what happened and what could be done differently. Here are some thoughts on building a better mousetrap:

1. Very Carefully Select your Location. Ask any real estate professional what the 3 key issues are for selling a house and they’ll tell you: Location, location, location. It’s no different in assessing where best to focus limited resources. Here are some key factors that should go into making the all important location decision.
   • Population: In general, the more people living in the location that’s selected, the better chance you are going to have in reaching critical mass. It’s simply a numbers game with the acknowledgment that your conversion rate (i.e. converting someone who doesn’t care about handball to a truly devoted participant/fan) could be really, really small.  After all, a good portion of the population at-large doesn’t care about any sports, let alone one they’ve never heard of. Converting 1 out of every 100 people would be a pretty darn good conversion rate. 1 out of 500 or 1,000 might be more realistic. This reality means that choosing a large metropolitan area will greatly improve your chances of creating converts.

     For example take a metro area like Boston with a population of 4,684,300 people. To create 5,000 handball fans/participants you would need a conversion rate of .11% or roughly 1 out of every 1,000 people. Now contrast that to the Auburn-Opelika metro area and its population of 135,800 people. To create 5,000 handball fans/participants you would need a conversion rate of 3.68% or roughly 37 out of every 1,000 people. Ouch. Those are some tough numbers. I’m not saying that it’s impossible to reach critical mass at a college town in rural Alabama. But, I will say that without a doubt the smaller population base means it will be way more challenging there than in a major metropolitan area.

   • Job opportunities: Athletes are far more likely to move to a location where there are varied job opportunities including professional positions for recent college graduates
   • Education Opportunities: Athletes for both the residency program and collegiate league would be interested in quality education opportunities.
   • College League Possibilities: The potential to develop a collegiate league in the regional area should be an important factor. And a league with reasonable driving distances for competition.
   • School District Pilot Program Possibilities: The potential to engage local high schools and middle schools to adopt team handball as a sanctioned sport
   • Cost: The costs of setting up a handball academy and supporting leagues and other development initiatives will be substantial. Some locales will be more suitable and cheaper for a number of reasons.
   • Sponsorship Opportunities: The likelihood of obtaining local community support for a handball academy and other development initiatives.
   • Existing local handball support: Ideally, there would already be at least some dedicated supporters of the sport in the local area. Having a ready group of dedicated volunteers will facilitate implementation of several development initiatives.
2. Fully integrate all aspects of regional development: It’s important to highlight that focusing resources in one location would be a lot more than simply establishing a residency program/development academy. Such a high performance training environment would be a key part, but just one part in a true regional development effort. And, all those parts (youth development, a high school league, college league, club league, development academy) would need to work closely in tandem to maximize the success of this initiative. This would mean maximizing staffing to support all these elements. In particular, athletes could be justifiably compensated for their support to youth and high school league support.
3. Fully commit and prioritize this regional development effort: Make no mistake, this would be a major effort and for it to work it might well be required to substantially decrease support to many other Federation activities. Doing a regional effort, “on the cheap” with only partial commitment/funding support also lessens the potential synergy possible with a multi-pronged effort.
4. Give the effort time to blossom and mature. This effort could very well take several years to fully bear fruit. Pulling the plug or lessening support prematurely due to the lack of immediate results will defeat the purpose of such a concentrated effort.

Pros

Establishment of a recognized “Home for Handball”: Having a recognized home for the sport will help in a number of tangible and somewhat intangible ways. Name recognition and identity in one concentrated geographical area has value. With it comes media exposure, sponsorship opportunities, greater public awareness and “buzz”. All of those could even mean real crowds and eventual TV broadcasts.

Improved Recruiting Prospects:  Co-locating youth, high school, college and a Residency Program/Development Academy efforts together will create a pathway/pipeline that athletes can see and join. Critically, this will make it far more feasible to recruit athletes from ages 10-18. An age group that has been very difficult to recruit for a variety of reasons.

Cons

Lessens the possibility of broad based nationwide growth:  A very strong focus on one regional area will by default result in less support to other regions. Correspondingly, there will likely be less chance for growth on a broad coast to coast basis. Rather than taking advantage of it’s huge population, the U.S. will be restricting itself due to a de facto self-imposed restriction.

Shows favoritism to one “blessed” region:  Handball supporters in other parts of the country getting less support will likely voice their disfavor with an intentional and pronounced unequal sharing of resources. For sure, historically there has been grumbling at even minor appearances of favoritism towards a club or region. And this time the grumbling would be somewhat justified because their efforts will indeed be getting fewer resources.

Risks

If the basket breaks, so will all the eggs.   It’s important to remember the cautionary basis for the “all the eggs in one basket” saying. Namely, that is a warning not to do it, because you won’t have any eggs if you drop that basket. And, just like that basket of eggs if the region you choose to focus on fails to pan out then you will have nothing to show for. This could be a spectacular failure. But, then again there have been far too many failures with many of the other piecemeal strategies that have been tried in the past.

Costs

In theory, a regionally focused strategy will save significant money and resources. This is because staff, athletes and volunteers would be concentrated in one location and could readily focus on multiple, integrated development efforts without significant travel costs. Keep in mind, however, that this only works if the effort is truly focused on a particular region. If you spread efforts such as a residency program, High School Pilot Program and collegiate league to different regions of the country it will be less feasible to share staff and funding to support multiple efforts.

Creating a Little Iceland or Home for Handball in the U.S. is certainly an enticing prospect, but also a risky one. In part 3, I’ll tackle the timing for implementing such a strategy should USA Team Handball decides that it’s a risk worth taking.

All the eggs in one basket: What if all of the major handball clubs scattered to the 4 corners of the U.S. were instead focused in one metropolitan area?

Would the U.S. be wise to develop a very focused development strategy around one metropolitan area? In part 1, I lay out the arguments for doing so and review historical efforts to spark development regionally. Part 2 will focus on the pros/cons, costs, risks and timing for doing so.

Iceland: 1,000 Times Smaller

Ever since I had the opportunity to play against Iceland at the 1993 World Championships I’ve been a little bit fascinated with Iceland and it’s national handball program. I even remember getting out my world almanac (yeah, this is a little bit before widespread internet and Wikipedia) because I was asking myself, “How many people live there, anyway?” Not sure what it was 22 years ago, but the current population is roughly 323,000 people. Coincidently, the population of the U.S. is approximately 323,000,000. This disparity inevitably leads to the question: How does a country roughly 1/1,000th the size of the U.S. kick our butts in handball?

Obviously, in terms of handball national team performance, there’s a lot more at play than total population. And, the key difference is that a significant portion of Iceland’s very small population is very focused on handball, whereas in the U.S. a very miniscule percentage has the same dedication. Seriously, depending on how you want to define it, it’s really small. I would argue that there are only around 300 really dedicated handball followers or around 1/1 millionth of the U.S. population. Bump it up to a 1,000 if you want, but you’re still talking about 1/300,000th of the U.S. population.

Creating a Little Reykjavik

Compounding the U.S. struggle is the reality that the handful of folks that really care about the sport are scattered throughout a huge nation, making it a struggle to work together to grow the sport.

Over the years I’ve found myself thinking about this problem, relating it to Iceland and playing a little numbers games of population comparison. I grew up on a farm in the state of Iowa (around 10 Iceland’s) and not too long ago lived in Las Vegas (6 Iceland’s). I remember driving across town and looking over towards the sprawling suburbs next to the mountains and thinking, “Hey, I just drove past a couple of Iceland’s.” And, now I live in Colorado Springs with a metropolitan area a bit bigger than 2 Iceland’s.

As, I’ve played this little game I’ve thought about what could be done if everyone who cared about the sport of team handball lived in the same place. Be it Iowa, Las Vegas, Colorado Springs, Boston or even Auburn, Alabama.  In short, I’ve asked myself:

What if we could throw all the eggs in one basket?

What if…..

• Instead of top clubs scattered throughout the country they all resided in one compact area?
• In one metro area, there were 10 top senior club teams regularly playing each other in a league competition?
• There were 20 collegiate teams feeding those programs.
• There was a Handball Development Academy training the top players in those colleges on a regular if not daily basis?
• There was a sanctioned High School sports program in that city feeding those college programs with new recruits?
• There were 50 youth clubs training and playing games, feeding the high school program?

Why, if all this were true and somehow came to pass it would be, as if, the U.S. had a little Reykjavik all its own. Or, as I like to call it the “All the Eggs in One Basket, Iceland Strategy.”

Organic Success

To some extent such a strategy has indeed been implemented to varying degrees in other sports. In most cases, though, it wasn’t actually a strategy. It just happened organically or naturally without artificial help. Case in point, are a couple of sports that for many years were essentially Californian, water polo and volleyball. Yes, there was a time not that long ago when competitive volleyball was very California centric. And, it still pretty much is when you’re talking men’s volleyball. And, although water polo has spread it’s wings some, all one has to do is look at where the bulk of the collegiate programs are to see that it is still very California centric.

The advantage to this regionalism is that the sport had critical mass in terms of local competition and development. Critical mass in that there were plenty of teams to play each other and create development at younger age levels. However, if that interest had been spread out evenly across the vast United States there would have been no critical mass. Clubs would have had to travel vast distances for competition. Isolated clubs might have sprung up, but these pockets of growth would be susceptible to periodic collapse of clubs and lack of interest.  Youth teams with no one to play would struggle to even get started. Why volleyball might never have become what it is today. Water polo might even be the equivalent of what Team Handball is in this country. A non-relevant sport from coast to coast.

Non-Organic Experiments with Limited Success

But, can such a regional massing of clubs and interest be created nonorganically? Can a federation take steps to proactively create a little handball Reykjavik? The answer is yes: steps can be taken. In USA Team Handball’s case the primary tools for doing so has been national team residency programs and investment to capitalize on the Olympic host city exposure.

Since the mid 1980s residency programs have been located in Colorado Springs, CO; Philadelphia, PA; Atlanta, GA; Cortland, NY and most recently Auburn, AL. In each case the massing of athletes in one spot has had some development effect on the local area. First off, just simply practicing an unfamiliar, but cool looking sport inevitably attracts a few onlookers to try it. Some of those athletes even became national team players. The athletes based at those locations also often did community outreach to facilitate development. Finally, for a variety of personal reasons some athletes settled in the residency program location and still live there today.

Unfortunately, none of these locations have had much success in terms of sustainable impact. Today, Colorado Springs has a local club mostly comprised of aging veterans that gathers occasionally to provide competition for the AF Academy. Over the past decade or so there have also been some decent youth programs in the Colorado Springs area, but no program is currently active. To the best of my knowledge pretty much nothing exists handball wise in either Philadelphia or Cortland, NY, but neither or those locales were residency sites sufficiently long enough for any side benefits to take effect.

In terms of an Olympic boom, both Los Angeles and Atlanta clearly benefitted from the exposure that an Olympics can bring. In the case of L.A. the 1980s were clearly the high tide for the sport there. At one time there was as many as 5 clubs in the LA area and the Boys & Girls clubs had dozens of programs throughout the area. But the buzz was not sustained and by the mid 1990s there was just one club, LA THC which still exists today.

And then we have the test case of Atlanta, which benefitted from an Olympics, a Residency Program and even having the Federation HQ co-located there in the late 1990s. For a time, Atlanta was indeed the closest the U.S. has ever come to having a little Reykjavik.   Atlanta had two solid clubs (ATH and the Condors), a development program with the Boys & Girls Club and the South East Team Handball Conference, the largest collegiate league the U.S. has ever had. Years later, however, there is little to show for. Gary Hines who rose up through the ranks is a mainstay on the national team, but the youth programs and ATH and the Condors are no more. All Atlanta has now is a newish club, Georgia Team Handball which has little link with the past.

What’s to be learned from these experiments? On the one hand, you could look at all of these experiments simply as failures and proof that you can’t artificially create a little Iceland.  I would argue, however, that position doesn’t take into account the limited planning that went into these experiments. In LA’s case the growth that occurred was pretty organic. There was funding from the 84 Olympic Foundation, but there were also dozens of firm believers willing to put in the work. The same can be said, as well, in Atlanta. There was funding support, but there were also plenty of dedicated volunteers. Colorado Springs may be somewhat of a disappointment, but that fails to account for its smaller size. Finally, the programs in Philadelphia and Cortland never were around long enough to take root. And Cortland was also probably hampered by its smaller size and location.

So, maybe the problem wasn’t so much with the concept, but with the choice of locations and with the lack of overall planning to make it a truly focused integrated effort. Maybe the U.S. could learn from it’s past mistakes and modest successes to build a better mousetrap? In part 2, I’ll lay out what could be done with a very focused regional effort.