Iowa Central Junior College: D1AA Collegiate Rugby Champions: Could that possibly happen with Team Handball?
As rugby in the U.S. is the closest parallel to what handball might someday be in the U.S., I regularly listen to several rugby related podcasts. It’s kind of fun to listen to discussion related to their NGB, their fledgling pro league or their college game and simply switch the word “rugby” with “handball” to see if it still rings true. Quite often it does and quite often it gets me wondering whether some development or effort being tried there could be applied in a handball context.
How does a small college beat far larger colleges?
How does a Junior College (2 year program) compete with traditional colleges (4 year programs)?
How does a coach recruit “anyone” to come to Fort Dodge, Iowa? Let alone international students and inner city kids from Florida? (FYI: I’m from a small town in Iowa; This is truly amazing)
This program started from scratch just 6 years ago. In that time they’ve jumped 2 levels of play. Sometimes by design… sometimes because the other schools kicked them out because they were too good.
Some bigger picture thoughts:
It’s not the first time that the JUCO (Junior College) route has been considered for team handball: Link
Not every young adult is inclined to get a 4 year degree. This could be a great path, a better path for some athletes.
But, some of these athletes do indeed continue their education at a four year school. Could North Carolina, Texas A&M and other schools be in a recruiting war for talent some day?
Not sure where such a program would be started, but based on what Iowa Central has overcome and accomplished, it clearly could be done for team handball.
Handball Athletes, Future 2nd Lts and Air Force Pilots L to R (Brian Brown, Nate Luther, Mark Simpson, Richard Vaughn, Austin Faulkner and Will Walker. Other Club Seniors headed to pilot training are Anthony Sanders and Pen Pagel)
ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt has been using his Sports Center platform to honor High School and College Seniors who didn’t get to finish their final season. I respectfully submit Air Force Team Handball’s Eight Graduating Seniors for #SeniorNight.
A lot can happen in just a month. A lot.
Air Force Team Handball: Just One Month Ago
On February 28-29, 2020, I had the opportunity to watch Air Force go 4-0 to take the title in their own Air Force Invitational. I had seen them play several times in the past few years and without a doubt I had never seen them play so well. A comprehensive 26-18 victory over North Carolina on Saturday and then an exciting last second, 28-27 victory over Dallas THC (Video) to take the title on Sunday.
Solid defense, smart shots on offense, limited turnovers. Individually some fine play, but clearly a collective team performance. After their victory over Dallas I made a point of telling the team that it was the best I’d seen an Air Force team play in years and made a prediction that was actually more of a declaration:
“Play like you did this weekend and you guys will beat West Point and win a national title.”
A bold statement since West Point has won 14 straight national titles and Air Force hasn’t beat them since 2008. Bold, but one that I stand by and not just because I’m a biased AF Academy graduate. In a different world maybe I would be sitting right now in the Columbus, OH airport writing about such a victory in the recently completed Gold Medal match at the 2020 College National Championships.
But, that’s not the world were living in now. And, it sucks… It sucks big time. Sucks for any handball player from any school that would have played in the Collegiate Tourney this past weekend. Sucks especially for the seniors.
For the eight graduating seniors at Air Force and the journey they’ve had it’s surely been really tough. Most of these eight seniors have been playing handball together all four years. They went from basic cadets with little or no knowledge that handball even existed as a sport to passionate athletes that have bonded over four years of practice and competition. The Collegiate National Championships would have been the culmination of that journey. One last opportunity to play for a title.
Like everyone the Cadet’s lives were upended by the Coronavirus Pandemic. But, this past month they’ve also been impacted in additional ways.
Just two weeks after the AF Invitational the Air Force Academy cancelled Spring Break. Most of the Air Force team had been looking forward to a trip to the Netherlands for a training camp and competition. Unlike most colleges, however, not everyone was sent home. Instead, just the Freshman, Sophomores and Juniors were sent home while the Seniors remained on campus to help ensure their on time graduation and entry into the Air Force. Additionally, to facilitate social distancing, all the Senior Cadets were moved into their own dorm rooms spread out as much as possible in the Academy’s two dorms. Classes then resumed online and for the seniors it became a surreal existence as the roughly 1,000 cadets left on campus were essentially “alone” together with strict limits on any interaction.
Needless to say this was not an ideal situation and when last week 2 cadets committed suicide within 3 days of each other the Air Force went into crisis mode. After much discussion social distancing rules were relaxed and it was decided to speed up graduation to April 18th. To give you some idea of the extraordinary times we live in this is the first service Academy to graduate early since West Point had cadets do so during World War II.
So now the 8 seniors will graduate early and all 8 will be headed to pilot training. (Contrary to what you might think not everybody who goes to the Academy becomes a pilot and for 100% of a sports club team to do so is kind of special.) Being a pilot is surely a dream and goal they’ve been working towards many years before heading to the Academy.
The minor downside for these 8: Being an Air Force pilot and continuing your handball career isn’t an easy or practical thing to do. Perhaps some of these guys will find their way to an open club nationals on down the line, but more likely than not several have played not just their last collegiate handball match, but their last handball match ever.
In a different world that last match would have taken place this past weekend. That’s a bummer… for them… for you… for me… for everybody.
On the plus side. These eight are going to be serving our country for years to come. And, we couldn’t ask for a better group of young men to do so.
Ross Miner was recently hired by USA Team Handball to be their Chicago area ambassador. As an ambassador he will be responsible for developing youth and college handball in the Chicago are.
In this podcast from 2016, Ross and I discussed Illinois St winning the Buckeye Classic and his handball journey from discovering the sport on TV during the 2008 Olympics to starting the club program at Illinois St and attending the Aarhus Academy in Denmark.
We also discussed the state of the college game and whether the weekend tournament format should be scrapped in favor of league play.
Original Post: Link Podcast on the Aarhus Academy: Link The college handball club graveyard: Link
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
World University Championships: This biennial event might be a great way to further develop our collegiate programs and track how well those programs are doing in terms of developing handball athletes.
Collegiate handball has been identified as a key focus area for developing handball in the U.S. As such, several goals and objectives to move the college game forward have been identified both in the broader USA Team Handball Strategic Plan (drafted in 2018) and in a College Specific Strategic Plan (Feb 2018).
USA Team Handball
Strategic Plan
A college and university
initiative is identified on page 6.
D. Launch collegiate and
university initiative.
i. Cultivate a competitive university club system across the United States.
ii. Target four geographies utilize the well-established collegiate club sports model.
iii. Create regional league competition.
iv. Host season ending Final Four event.
Target Outcome
Increase university club programs to 40 (4th Qtr
2020)
Appendix A
Appendix A references “Univ Teams” several times with targets for the number of teams
There are several references to the selection and identification of new regions (Accomplished: 5 “hubs” (New York City, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles) have been selected.
There are several references to the establishment of regional leagues in the 2018-2020 time frame. (Not Accomplished: There are currently no regional collegiate leagues.)
A Final Four tournament for top collegiate programs was identified for the 4th Qtr of 2019 (Not Accomplished)
Collegiate Strategic
Plan (Feb 1st, 2020)
The Collegiate Strategic Plan was developed by a Collegiate
Working Group and provides more detail on collegiate goals and objectives. However, in my opinion, (similar to the more
broad USATH Strategic Plan) it strays in some instances into what might more
accurately be described as near term action plans. Here is an over of the plan’s contents:
2050 Vision
Team Handball is a sanctioned NCAA Sport
Scholarship sport that competes for the best
athletes
Widespread media presence
Handball is a recognizable, established major
sport in America
2019-2022 College Strategic Plan Goals
1) Create a comprehensive and streamlined starter pack to allow a college student to create a college handball program in a semester and supply a resource person.
2) Have sustainable clubs playing 15 games per season in 72 colleges, including 36 women’s teams.
3) Have the structures and systems in place to grow participation of college club players by 400%.
4) Assemble the necessary capacity to achieve the goals of this plan.
5) Raise sufficient funds to achieve the goals of this plan.
In my opinion goals 1 and 4 are near term actions that will be implemented to support goals 2 and 3. Goal 5 is probably more suited for a broader discussion on fundraising. As I think they are more “strategic”, here’s a closer look at goals 2 and 3:
Goal 2: Have
sustainable clubs playing 15 games per season in 72 colleges, including 36
women’s teams.
2.1 Recruit colleges proximal to existing clubs
2.2 Establish new clubs in locations with a
concentration of colleges based on receptivity and leadership
2.2.1 Achieve
40 colleges by end of 2020
2.3 Provide competition structure leading toward
a National Championship in order to enable the best teams in the country play
each other
2.3.1 Consider two-season structure to enable
cross-regional competition
2.3.2 Publish competition structure well in
advance to enable maximum participation
2.4 Develop and implement a path to ensure club
succession and continuation of administration
2.5 Provide support from USATH ambassador
Goal 3: Grow participation of college club players
by 400 percent
3.1 Raise the profile of team handball
3.1.1 In concert with USATH, develop and
implement a comprehensive promotion plan to have handball recognized across the
country
3.1.2 Offer resources for parents, coaches,
athletes
3.1.3 Focus on benefits of participation
3.2 In concert with USATH, ensure a pipeline of
athletes to join college clubs using the Athlete Development Model
3.3 Support established clubs
3.4 Provide pathway for athletes post college,
e.g. national team, city clubs, coach, referee, volunteering
Discussion
In broad terms, I would assess that the overall goal of collegiate development is to:
Increase the number collegiate athletes, clubs and leagues (Increase participation)
Improve the level of collegiate play
Increase Participation
In terms of increasing the numbers of athletes, clubs and leagues several targets have been presented, but they could use further definition. Here are some clear targets that I emphasized in bold face in the text above:
Have sustainable clubs playing 15 games per
season in 72 colleges, including 36 women’s teams.
Grow participation of college club players by
400 percent
Of particular note, the text highlighting “playing 15 games per season”, seems to provide a benchmark for a club program. Essentially, making the point that there’s a significance difference between a club that plays 15 matches and a club that holds a couple of practices and plays in one weekend tournament. If that is the definition of a collegiate club it also decreases the # of clubs. Using the 15 match requirement for the last two seasons, there would have been this many clubs
2018-19 (9 Men/2 Women)
2019-20 (7/3) (I used 10 matches as the season has
been shortened)
Participation growth is not defined, but it would logically
have a strong correlation with the growth of the # of the clubs. Depending on the “start date” and the number
of existing clubs at that point in time one can then project the number of
clubs needed to obtain 400% growth. As
an example, the U.S. had 15 men’s collegiate clubs and 3 women’s collegiate
clubs during the 2018-19 season for a total of 18 clubs. 400% growth would then be 90 clubs. If one uses an average of 15 athletes per
club, the total number of collegiate athletes for the 2018-19 season would be
18 clubs x 15 athletes for a total of 270 collegiate athletes. 400% growth would equate to 1,350 athletes by
the end of 2022. And, of course,
participation could also be simply assessed by totaling up the annual number of
collegiate USA Team Handball memberships from year to year.
Improving the Level
of Play
In terms of improving the level of play I would assess that
both documents could use more specific targets related to accomplishing this
goal. The USA Team Handball Strategic
Plan mentions “Athletes identified out of University Programs” in a few places
and references “pipeline development”, but there is not much “meat on the
bones.” The Collegiate Strategic Plan included
several bullet points that point to improving collegiate competition, but lacks
measureable targets.
Here, though are some potential candidates:
USA Performance in World University Handball Competitions: Link (Actually participating would also be good. It’s doubtful that the 2020 Championship will take place, but 2022 could be a possibility.)
Numbers of collegiate athletes (Current/Former) on Youth (U19), Junior (U21) and Senior national teams
Numbers of collegiate athletes being identified for further development by International Clubs
Numbers of collegiate athletes transitioning to U.S. Clubs
I haven’t identified the actual numbers (and dates) that should go with these targets, but would suggest that the Board of Directors consider adding these targets (with dates/numbers) for future updates to the Strategic Plans.
That wraps up “What we want” for College development. Part 3 will take a closer look at Fundraising and Marketing
College Season Heating Up…but the Championship has been Postponed
Some recent matches have upended the Collegiate Top 5, but on the top of everyone’s minds is the recent decision by USA Team Handball to postpone the Collegiate National Championships. Originally scheduled for 3-5 April at Ohio State University the tournament has now been postponed due to concerns with the Coronavirus situation and Ohio State’s recent decision to suspend all “In-Person” classes until March 30th.
This is a shame because the championship was shaping up to be one of the most interesting and potentially wide open contests in years. Yes, Army- West Point, is still the odds on favorite, but several sides have stepped up their game and seemed poised to provide them a real challenge. Here are the result of the latest poll.
Army: Per usual, Army has had an outstanding season and is unbeaten in college play. They are also on track for a 2nd place finish in the Northeast Team Handball League behind NYC.
Air Force: Air Force was beaten soundly by Army in November 40-28, but in January at the Cal Cup, the margin was just 31-29. More recently, they went 5-0-0 at their own tournament and had an impressive 26-18 victory over previously unbeaten North Carolina. This victory (no surprise) vaulted them to #2 in the standings.
North Carolina: North Carolina has a 14-0-2 overall record and their top accomplishment this year was winning the Carolina Blue Cup. They’ve been a consistent performer, but the loss to Air Force dropped them to #3
Ohio State: Ohio State has a 10-1-1 overall record and in February they knocked off previously unbeaten Pittsburgh 31-19. This record and the key victory over Pitt has vaulted them to 4th place, but all their wins have come at home. It remains to be seen how well they can do against sides that play against tougher competition.
Army (2nd Team): Army’s 2nd team took 2nd place at the Carolina Blue Cup and this performance earned them a 5th place ranking. In the semifinals they shocked perennial power NYAC and in the finals they only lost, 31-29 to North Carolina. The only question mark? The roster for the side that played in Chapel Hill had some players who’ve also seen 1st team action this season. So, it was perhaps a better 2nd team side then the team that has played in other competitions.
Looking Ahead
Lots of questions marks remain regarding the evolving Coronavirus situation and it’s impact on sporting events. The USA Team Handball announcement even suggested that attendees hold off on making travel plans for the that the Club National Championships scheduled for 8-10 May in Detroit. Even if the Coronavirus concerns get resolve with students finishing up the semester in May and seniors graduating it could be very challenging to reschedule the college championship. Yes, it would certainly be a huge disappointment, but there’s a very real possibility that there won’t be any more college handball this season.
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
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
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.
Air Force’s Nate Luther looks to score on West Point GK, Spencer Knudsen.
This past weekend both Air Force and Army participated in the Cal Cup tournament and the two sides met in a college vs college match to open the tournament Friday night.
The two long time rivals had previously met this season at the Air Force Academy with Army dominating that contest for a 40-28 win. Starting out it appeared that this match was heading to a similar scoreline as Army led 10-4 midway through the first half. Air Force then changed tactics on defense with a man to man defense at half court that transitioned to a more traditional defense as Army moved the ball forward. This tactic disrupted Army’s offensive flow, created some turn overs and hurried shots and allowed Air Force to cut the lead to 12-11 before Army closed out the half with 3 goals for a 15-11 lead.
The two team traded goals for much of the second half and Air Force cut the lead to 1 goal several times, but never could quite tie the match. Towards the end of the match Army went on a bit of a run and extended the lead to 30-24 with 3 minutes left. Air Force again applied the pressure and was able to cut into the lead for the final 31-29 victory.
Army’s Luke Windish led all scorers with 9 goals. Kendrick Thomas added 8, while Air Force scoring was led by Quinton Riddle and Anthony Sanders-Oseguera with 7 goals each.
Both teams later lost to Alberta and Cal Heat 2 in pool play and failed to make the semifnals. Both teams did, however, pick up wins vs Chicago Inter in consolation play on Sunday. As far as the overall tournament results go, San Francisco Cal Heat won the Men’s Title and Alberta won the Women’s Title.
Army Team Captain Kendrick Thomas: Whenever Army and Air Force get together, it’s always a hard fought match. Thankfully Army pulled through with the win. We as a team were thankful to be a part of this tournament. We had some great competition out here. It was definitely a learning experience. We are excited for the competition coming up in the future.
Air Force Team Captain Austin Faulkner: The Cal Cup was a huge step in the right direction as we had all our starters for the first time and were missing only two 1st team players.
Despite having a 1-3 tourney record when we look at the quality of the matches and the scores we feel great moving forward. In the game against West Point turnovers hurt us early and often, but we settled in and lost 31-29 which is great compared to how the game at home went. We held Alberta tight and they are a very talented club with some Canadian national team players. The Cal Heat II game was a tough 19-20 loss, but their goalies put forth an amazing effort. The final day we came out and put together a win against a Chicago Inter team that has been competitive in recent tournament and we feel good about our next competition, the Valley of the Sun Tournament in Arizona.
Finally, it was great to see our coach, Mike Cavanaugh, honored for his efforts to develop team handball in California.
Scoring
Army Luke Windish 9 Kendrick Thomas 8 Michael Turner 5 Will Considine 4 Blake Havern 2 Cedric Davis 1 Robert Purdy 1
Air Force Anthony Sanders-Oseguera 7 Quinton Riddle 7 Richard Vaughn 6 Emari Hill 4 Nathan Luther 2 Tevin Miller 1 Mark Simpson 1 Benjamin Pagel 1
LINKS
Match Video: Link Match Photos: Link Full Tournament Results: Link
