The Canadian Women’s national team will not be participating at the upcoming Pan American Team Handball Federation (PATHF) Championships next week in Chile. In email correspondence, Canadian Handball Federation President, Ward Hrabi, indicated that several factors played a role in this decision which was made by the Federation’s Board of Directors. Chief among these factors was the unanticipated retirement of several veteran players and an insufficient number of skilled junior players ready or willing to make the commitment for national team training and competition. In particular, the lack of an experienced goalie was seen as a major handicap to fielding a competitive team.

Hrabi, added that the decision with its impact on future qualification tournaments was not taken lightly. As a result of this decision Canada is automatically relegated from the PATHF’s Elite Division to Division I status. Assuming that the current PATHF World Championship qualification system is used again for 2011, Canada will now be required to participate in a Division 1 Championship in Fall 2010. Additionally, at about the same time, qualification for the 2011 Pan American (PANAM) Games should also take place. In 2006 Canada beat the U.S. in a best of 3 match series to qualify for the 2007 PANAM Game.

2009 Women’s PATHF Championship: http://www.panamhandball.org/images/doc/schedule_panam_women_2009.pdf

Led by Canadian Alexis Bertrand’s 6 goals, OC Cesson Handball defeated St Cyr Touraine 32-30 on Saturday. This victory by league leading Cesson at 3rd place St Cyr guarantees that Cesson will finish either first or second in Division 2. With that placement Cesson, which has flirted with promotion for the past few years will now play in France’s first division, the Ligue National de Handball (LNH) where they will take on the likes of Montpellier and Chambery.

Interview with Alexis Bertrand (April 2006): https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.67
OC Cesson website: http://www.cesson-handball.com/
Photo: Alexis Bertrand: http://www.cesson-handball.com/album/?img=1748

The Québec elite programs recently took part in the Prague handball cup in the Czech Republic , 389 teams from 21 countries took part in this year's edition the 18th. Quebec entered the tournament with a men and women's team in the 1990-91 categories .

On the men's side , there were a total of 45 teams in the MA category. Quebec managed to finish second in group play with 2 wins, 2 ties and 1 loss. The lost, however, in the 2nd round to Ajax Copenhagen, the eventual tournament winner, 16-12. The players of coach Sébastien Allard had a great tournament and they made Quebec handball proud .

On the women's side it was an amazing tournament as the girls won their first 6 games, including a victory over Ajax Copenhagen, one of the top twelve teams in Denmark. In the second round they remained undefeated winning both games and moved on to the semi-finals. In the semi-final match they overcame a deficit of 6-1 to tie HBC Slavia Praha. Unfortunately, they lost the shootout. In the Bronze medal game they lost by a score of 14-12 to MHK Bytca from Slovakia. Coaches Jean-Simon Bourgault and Marc St-Laurent were amazed by the quality of play that the girls showed throughout the tournament.

Quebec handball is really proud of these young athletes and their coaches and they are looking forward to their participation in the Granollers cup in Spain and Partille cup in Sweden this summer.

Link to Prague Handball Cup Tournament: http://www.phc.cz/index.php?lang=en

(Submitted by Marc St-Laurent of Québec Handball)

Canadian Handball Men’s Coach, Stefan Rusimov, has received a two year suspension from the PATHF for a spitting incident at the recently completed Men’s Pan American Handball Championships in Brazil. Shortly after Canada’s 23-21 loss against Uruguay, Coach Rusimov spit demonstratively on the court near the official’s feet.

In correspondence, with Team Handball News, Canadian Federation President, Ward Hrabi, confirmed that the incident took place and that the Canadian Federation “regrets that the coach’s emotions resulted in a momentary lapse of judgment.” The Canadian Federation, however, feels that the 2 year suspension is an excessive sanction relative to other transgressions by players and coaches in connection with PATHF events. They have requested that the PATHF provide more information concerning the incident and the resulting disciplinary action, but as of this date they have yet to receive any official communication from the PATHF.

Team Canada has been touring in France in preparation for the Men's Pan American Championships in Brazil (24-28 June). They based out of Saintes (France Div II) where National Team Member Alexis Bertand plays. Additionally, they played a tournament in Bordeaux. For more information check out the Canadian National Team Site http://www.canadianhandball.com/ and a player blog site: http://www.teamhandball.ab.ca/league.php?scriptName=LEAGUEINFO&leagueID=12092&leagueInfoID=55784

Congratulations to Canadian Junior International Goalie Aaron Trachtenberg for being selected to the prestigious Rhodes Scholar program. Probably a safe bet that he is the most accomplished Handball player to ever be so honored.

Winnipeg Sun Article: http://winnipegsun.com/News/Winnipeg/2007/11/19/4668594.html

Editor’s Note: I had intended to have an audio podcast interview with Men’s Assistant Coach Mike Nahmiash, but due to technical difficulties we’ll make due with some notes from our conversation.

[b]Canada’s Matches[/b]

Canada – Puerto Rico: Mike noted that Puerto Rico had an athletic team and that Team Canada led at one point by 5 or 6 goals before Puerto Rico mounted a comeback. With time running out Puerto Rico scored a final goal which at first was not allowed due to time having expired. Upon further review, however, the officials reversed their decision and awarded the tying goal.

Canada – Dominican Republic: Probably the key victory for the Canadians at the tournament as they had lost to the Dominicans at the Pan American Games this past summer. The Canadians were somewhat aided by the fact that a couple of naturalized Dominicans of Cuban descent did not make the journey to Havana.

Canada – Mexico: Mike noted that the Mexicans appeared to have sent a younger team than the one that had gone to the Pan American Games. Canada controlled the game from start to finish.

Canada – Cuba : No doubt as to the final outcome as the Cubans totally dominated this match. Mike did note that the game likely would have been closer, but Canada chose to play without its two backcourt players (Maxime Godin and Alexis Bertrand) who are playing competitively in France. With 2nd place already locked up it and with both players expecting to play matches in France soon it was not viewed as necessary for either player to play.

[b]Technical Meeting:[/b] Representatives from each of the 5 teams attended an organizational meeting with PATHF VP Mario Moccio. The following was noted:

– It was not expected that Greenland will be reinstated and it was noted by Mr Moccio that it was his understanding that the IHF does not intend to overturn the PATHF’s decision to strip Greenland of full membership in the PATHF.

– The Cuban delegation expressed concern with the PATHF Championship taking place in the United States. Mr Moccio indicated that it is still scheduled to take place in the United States next June, but that this decision would be reviewed at the PATHF Congress in December.

This article http://www.canada.com/topics/sports/story.html?id=45b813da-b5a2-4710-a10c-fab6a3cd92fb from Canada.com focuses on two Canadian players from Alberta, Dan Devlin and Kate Fenton and highlights the challenges of playing Handball in a country where the sport is not well known. Also of note, is the $4,250 (Canadian) that Kate Fenton has had to get through fundraising to participate in both the Pan-American Championships and the Pan-American Games.

Each year in March, literally, millions of fans in the United States scramble to fill in their brackets for the NCAA Basketball tournament. Perhaps the most appealing aspect of the NCAA tournament is the opportunity it gives for the small colleges to play the major basketball powers and pull off a miracle upset. In Europe, most nations stage a similar tournament for all their clubs with a few major differences. The tournament is usually conducted throughout the year and interspersed with regular league matches. Additionally, the lower division club usually gets to host the match making the possibility of an upset a little more likely. Recently, Canadian International Backcourt, Alexis Bertrand, and his Div 2 Cesson Handball teammates had their own chance to pull off a miracle as they hosted perennial French champion (7 in a row at last count), Montpellier this past Tuesday in a Round of 16 matchup in the Coupe de France.

I had some email correspondence with Alexis and he assured me that Cesson was more than a little bit excited about the opportunity, but were also realistic about their chances. In fact, they had recently played Montpellier and lost 33-23 in a friendly tournament. And that match had taken place during the World Championships and Montpellier had played without their International stars. This time around Wissem Hmam, Michel Guigou, David Juricek and others would be playing in a match that counted. That being said the goal was to keep it close and provide a packed gym of 1,200 fans a good show. And if they could keep it close then who knows what could happen in the last few minutes.

Cesson did, in fact, keep the match close in the first half, trailing only 11-9, but the wheels fell of the wagon in the 2nd half with Montpellier winning 28-18. With their Coup de France dreams over, Cesson will now try and focus on finishing 2nd in Division 2 and gaining promotion to Division 1. Currently, they are in 4th place, just 4 points behind 2nd Angers, who’s also played 1 more game than Cesson. Alexis has indicated that injuries have had an impact on the team and that he still isn’t 100% yet. Still the schedule is favourable for Cesson as most of their home games are against the teams in the top half of the standings. If they can win those home matches and also take care of business on the road against some of the weaker teams they may very well have 2 matches against Montpellier next year—in the First Division

Montpellier article: http://www.montpellierhandball.com/actus.php?m=1&a=510
Cesson article: http://www.cesson-handball.com/article.php3?id_article=610

Canadian National Team player, Alexis Bertrand is off to a great start this year. Through 7 matches he is averaging 5.1 goals for his club Cesson-Sevigne in France’s 2nd Division. In his last match against Livry-Villepinte he had 10 goals on 12 shots to go along with 3 assists. In an earlier match this year he had 8 goals against 1st place Angers. Cesson just missed promotion to the first division last year and is currently tied for 1st with a 7-1 record. (Technically, they are in 2nd, but only because they’ve played one fewer game then Angers).

When I spoke with Alexis in April and reviewed his statistics, I got the distinct impression that he was simply a key role player on an over-achieving club team (Cesson was never expected to compete for the title). I recently had an email exchange with Alexis to try and figure out what was behind the statistical improvement. Alexis pointed to a number of factors to include a healthy right shoulder, increased playing time, and the fact that this is this first year he hasn’t had to adapt to a new club and new teammates. He also highlighted that the Canadian National Team camp this past August had been a good opportunity for him to get more playing time on offense and regain his confidence as a scorer. Shortly after the camp Cesson participated in a season prep tourney against several Div 1 teams in which his improved play caught the eye of his coach and hence the additional playing time. Lastly, simply training every day for 3 years with higher level players is starting to pay dividends.

It will be interesting to see if Alexis can keep improving his overall game. If so, he just might want to prolong his European adventure a couple of more years with a move to a higher level.

Quebec site (in French): http://www.handball-elite.com/nouvelle.aspx?262
Interview on Cesson Website (in French) http://www.cesson-handball.com/article.php3?id_article=534
Last April’s podcast: https://teamhandballnews.com/download.php?view.10

[link=https://teamhandballnews.com/request.php?10]John Ryan chats with Alexis Bertrand[/link] on his experiences playing Team Handball in France for the past 3 years and gets his reaction to Canada’s exclusion from the upcoming Men’s Pan Am Championships.

Stats:
Alexis Bertrand, Age 23, 191 cm, 96 Kg (6ft, 3 inches, 211 lbs)
– 52 goals through 21 Matches, 2.5 goals/match

OC Cesson Website http://www.cesson-handball.com/
Short feature on incoming players at OC Cesson: http://www.cesson-handball.com/article.php3?id_article=168

[file=request.php?10]John Ryan interviews Alexis Bertrand[/file]

From the Canadian Federation Website: http://www.handball.ca/newsletters/76.doc

“We are amazingly, still no closer to a definite answer regarding participation on Canada in the Senior Men Pan American Championship. Dates are yet to be confirmed as several countries moved to have the competition in June and participation of Canada as a ninth team in competition was denied last weekend by the PATHF Executive Committee; only hope to participate is as a replacement team.”

According to the Canadian Handball Federation Website: http://www.handball.ca/newsletters/70.doc

“Senior men Pan American Championship is likely to be celebrated in Brazil, April 10th to April 16th, 2006. As the PATHF executive adopted a competitive structure and ranked Canada 9th in the PATHF (first eight countries are competing), we are yet to know if Canada will compete or not. In this matter, they are having an extraordinary meeting in Feb. 15 – 19 in Argentina to deal with this unfair matter.“

Canada placed 3rd at the last Pan Am Handball Championships in 2004, but apparently either did not participate or placed poorly at the 2002 Championships and at the 2003 Pan Am Games, resulting in a 9th place aggregate placement. Brazil and Argentina are overwhelming favourites to place 1st and 2nd, but Canada would certainly also be considered the odds on favourite for the 3rd place and qualification for the 2007 World Championships. Using a formula which puts equal weight on the results from 2002 to decide who participates is quite simply absurd. The tournament should either have preliminary qualification games or be structured to allow all interested Pan Am nations to participate.

The US is currently ranked 3rd, and so has qualified for the tournament. It will be interesting to see, however, if the US does in fact field a team for this tournament which is now only 2.5 months away.