Category Archives: John Ryan Commentary

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How Can I Become an Olympian on the USA Men’s National Handball Team?

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This commentary is regarding the U.S. Men’s National team. I’ll write a separate commentary on the U.S. Women’s National Team (which will be dramatically different) and will put a link to it here when it’s available.

Olympic Dreams Fueled by Possibilities

I’m sure there are hundreds, if not thousands of athletes watching the Paris Olympics, seeing handball for the first time and thinking, “What an awesome game! I would be great at this sport. Where can I play?”

And, as America’s #1 handball fan, I can tell you that such revelations are music to my ears. There’s nothing I like better than new athletes and fans following in my footsteps. And, no doubt, some of those athletes are probably thinking even grander thoughts, “Hey, the U.S. didn’t even qualify. Hardly anybody probably plays it in the U.S. Maybe I could be an Olympian. How would I go about becoming an Olympic handball player?

For over 25 years the prospects for any American handball player to become an Olympian haven’t been very good. The U.S. last qualified for an Olympics in 1996 as the host nation. And, since then we’ve never really even come close to securing a berth in qualfication events. But, now with Los Angeles hosting the 2028 Olympics that’s about to change. As Charles Barkley would say, it’s Guaranteed that we’re fielding a team. Out there, many are probably thinking… Somebody’s got to make that team. Why not me?

The Wrong Question. Because… You’re not Going to Like my Answer

First things first. Let me be clear. The following is my opinion and certainly not an official USA Team Handball position. That said, I’ve got a pretty good track record of assessing handball in this country. For what it’s worth, here’s my very blunt answer to your question…

As a total newcomer to the sport I would assess your chances of making the 2028 U.S. Olympic Men’s Handball Team are somewhere between 0.0% and .1%. Not 1 percent… but .1%. As in 1 in a 1,000 chance and probably worse than that.

Let me explain further. There are multiple variables to consider and multiple unknowns, but the weight of them all combined leads to the very long odds involved.

The Variables

When one is assessing the prospects of an athlete to take on a totally new sport like handball here are the variables that need to be considered to assess the likelihood of national team success

  • The raw talent of the athlete
  • The starting age of the athlete and amount of time the athlete has to train
  • The training environment the athlete will have
  • The quality of the athletes also seeking to make the team
  • The commitment level of the athlete

Here’s a closer look at each variable

The Raw Talent of the Athlete

Is it possible to pass judgment on athletes I don’t know and have never seen? Answer: Yes and No. Certainly a talent combine whereby athletes would perform drills that could be measured would be very useful. And, basic scrimmaging even of brand new athletes will likely be a good guage of potential. But, sight unseen the vast sporting infrastructure of the U.S. has already likely binned off your raw talent level fairly accurately.

If you’re a pro athlete chances are you’re not contemplating a new handball career. The same is also true for most NCAA college athletes who are still in college. Mistakes, of course, are made. And, there are athletes who are average in one sport, but can excel in another sport like handball. But, those are the exceptions. Chances are… that you are a good athlete that can develop into a pretty good handball player. It’s less likely, that your a great athlete that can develop into a great player.

The Starting Age of the Athlete and the Amount of Time that Athlete has to Train

Well, this is fairly simple to contemplate. If one were to start their handball dream immediately they would have four years to go from zero to hero. Barring another pandemic induced delay that four years is set in stone. With the right training and competition environment great progress can be made in four years. A lot more than some Europeans might think. But, it’s still not very much time to work with.

In terms of the starting age of the athlete if the goal is to get as good as you can in a four year window I think anywhere from the age of 27 on down would be feasible. But, only if that four year goal is set. Obviously, younger ages would be desired because combined with a longer timeline it becomes more and more feasible to develop into a world class athlete.

The Training Environment the Athlete Would Have

For many years the U.S. had Residency Programs that were dedicated full time to developing new handball athletes. However, the U.S. hasn’t had a Residency Program since 2018 and as far as I know there are no plans to start one anytime soon. This means the only currently feasible training program would be to train with a handball club overseas, most likely in Europe.

A handful of stateside based athletes have indeed done this, but it’s not easy and it can be challenging to find a quality club with a good system willing to train a relative newcomer. There are some programs that can help faciliate such moves, but the athletes making the jump typically have been developed some stateside first. It would take a really special athlete for a newcomer to get such an opportunity.

The Quality of the Athletes also Seeking to Make the Team

This factor more than any other drives the percentage chance below 1%. The current Men’s talent pool, which consists mostly of dual citizens that grew up in Europe is the best that the U.S. has hade in years. By U.S. standards it is a golden generation both in handball skills and raw athletic ability. Comparable to a low NCAA D1 or high D2 basketball team. And, for the most part, this team is fairly young. Four years out from the LA Olympics, we essentially already know around 95% of the athletes who will make up our roster. We may even soon add a former Swedish national team athlete playing in Denmark’s top league.

Two months ago we played a friendly vs France and lost 38-29. They are either the best or 2nd best team in the world. And, sure it was a friendly, but several players on that French side were fighting for Olympic Roster slots. Watch the highlights– We can ball.

I can not understate what crazy good fortune this is for our Men’s National Team. We’re not going to medal. We might not even win a match. But, this team will compete and will not embarrass. And, this team didn’t cost USA Team Handball a penny to develop.

We’re a big country with a sizable population and we could find better raw talent athletes, but not a whole lot better and those athletes would have a long way to go to get to a similar level. And, no matter what every single state side newcomer would be several years behind in terms of competition experience.

The Commitment Level of the Athlete

If one takes into account what I’ve listed above… it’s reasonable to be skeptical of any athlete that thinks they have the will to continuously strive to overcome all the obstacles.

The realities are stark. There’s really not enough time, there’s nothing in place to train you and you’ll need to beat out athletes with similar raw talent that have have been playing the sport for years. When someone becomes fully aware of all of these realities and that the dream is very likely out of reach. Well, the commitment level will logically nosedive precipitously.

The Right Question: How Can I Play Handball?

So, I don’t take glee in raining on your Olympic aspirations. In fact, it’s been a few years, but I had similar aspirations once. Such aspirations led me into the sport long ago. But, the times were different… For me they were actually reasonable aspirations. I had time. There was a training program. And, there wasn’t a crazy golden generation of dual citizens standing in the way.

Even given all that I was still asking the wrong question all those years ago. And, you are, too. This is true, even if you have time for a run at Brisbane 2032 and beyond.

The question you should be asking is simply how can I play this cool sport? How can I get better as a player? Play the game for fun and see where it takes you.

And, sure, if you improve as a player and it eventually makes sense, why not move to Europe and further develop your game if you can also smartly continue your education or career? Just don’t start out with the goal of being an Olympian. Let that come in due time. Kind of like you would with any other sport.

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Nikola Karabatic: The Handball Goat Retires (Part 3): Match ~#400: The Old Man and the D

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I continue my look back at Nikiola Karabatic’s career and try to illustrate why he’s one of the greatest, if not the greatest 2 way defender of all time. (Read Part 1 Part 2)

Why Handball Defense Gets No Respect

As a former defensive specialist perhaps nothing annoys me more about typical Handball GOAT debates than the often total lack of any discussion whatsoever regarding defensive capabilities.  It’s annoying, but understandable.  Understandable, because unless it’s a GK save you’ll rarely, if ever see any any defensive highlights. This is in sharp contrast to another indoor sport, basketball.  No finger wagging Mutombo blocks or career defining Lebron chase downs to win a title. 

No. A great defensive play in handball… often is a defensive foul that stops play and results in a 9 meter free throw or restart. Yawn…  Of course, if you know a little bit about the sport you know that a good yawner can be pretty important.  On a tactical level it stops play and requires the offense to start over.  Seemingly a no big deal, do over, but the offense is now that much closer to a passive play call and may well end up having to settle for a less than ideal shot. 

On a strategic level a good hard foul resulting in a restart plays an important role in the attrition nature of a pretty physical sport.  Athletes like to think that they just brush off such contact and move on to the next play… and they do, but sub-consciously it plays a role in subsequent attacks.  If an offensive player tries a tactic that the defense stops they will then try another tactic the next time.  And, that other tactic… well, it often tends to be a tactic that next time results in less contact.  Maybe, it’s just the smart move.  After all, avoiding contact when trying to throw a ball into a goal is generally a good thing.  But, maybe they just don’t want to get hit again.

That psychology plays a role especially in a 60 minute game.  And, if you are the focal point of the offense, make no mistake, you’ve got a bit of a target on your chest.  That contact adds up and takes a toll. It’s why you often see offensive stars subbing out on defense or playing the wing defender position.  It’s a chance to lick your wounds and rest up so you can be more ready for the next offensive attack.

But, not the Handball GOAT, Nikola Karabatic. No, he has either played as a middle defender (often referred to as a “3” defender), and more often lately as a “2” defender in between the 3 and the “1” or wing defender.  No subbing out or hiding out on the wing. No, he’s typically been making stops and looking for contact.  In fact, I wonder what would have ever happened if one of his coaches suggested that he should play wing defender. Not that any coach would be so foolish as to put one of his best defenders there.

Match ~#400: 2020 Olympics Final, France 25, Denmark 23: Karabatic Slows Down the Young Gun and Stops him in Crunch Time

To take a closer look at Karabatic’s defense, I’ll use what I estimate is about the 400th match that I saw him play. The gold medal final between France and Denmark in August 2021 at the COVID delayed 2020 Olympics.

The 2020-21 season was a challenging one for Karabatic as he tore an ACL in October of 2020. ACLs aren’t as devastating as they used to be, but they are still a major injury. And, at age 37 one might think that even one of the greatest players of all time might not recover in time to make another Olympics… But, Karabatic was back on the court in May after seven months of rehab. And, recovered enough to make the Olympic Team. Check out this video which is queued up to the injury and subsequent rehab.

EHF Handball Legends Video

So more than a few people felt that Karabatic, coming off an injury and in the twilight of his career was making the French Olympic team as sort of a lifetime achievement award. But, while Tokyo Olympics Karabatic was certainly not Peak Karabatic he still found ways to contribute, particularly on the defensive end in a gold medal showdown vs Denmark.

As has often been the case for the past several years, Denmark and France finished on top in their respective groups and then marched through the knockout phase to meet in the final. The only thing somewhat different, was the continued emergence of Denmark’s, Mattias Gidsel, who at just 23 years old was starting to change the game with his slashing, 1v1 breakthrough first offensive focus.

Matched up against him much of the game was Karabatic. I recently rewatched the match and it was a real battle between the Old Man and the Kid. And, while this is a commentary on the GOAT’s defensive prowess, Gidsel more than held his own, scoring 6 goals, the most goals from the field and only trailing Mikkel Hansen who scored 9, but with some of those being penalties.

That said, here’s a sequence that resulted in one of those “yawner” 9 meter restarts that Karabatic has been a part of God knows how many times.

Anyone who’s watch Gidsel play the last three years knows that more often than not this sequence ends in a goal, sometimes with the defense hardly touching him. Plays like this don’t show up in the stat sheet, but plays like that make a difference and is an example of the defense France played collectively that day when they held the high powered Danish offense to just 23 goals.

Here’s the video of that sequence queued up:

Karabatic vs Gidsel (First Half)

And, in the crunch time of all crunch times: 15 seconds left in the Gold Meda Olympic Final they were matched up against each other for one final time.

And, here’s the video of that final 15 seconds queued up:

Last 20 seconds of 2020 Olympics Gold Medal Final

A yawner of a turnover and I’m not even sure exactly what happened. But, the stage for that turnover was setup by the previous 59 minutes of play. And, on that day during crunch time the end result went the GOAT’s way. Did we think that it would somehow end differently?

Too much love for the Handball GOAT? Perhaps, but I’m next going to provide a little balance. Yes, I’ll address a match I’ve never seen and most of the Handball World pretends was never played: 12 May 2012, Cesson-Rennes – Montpellier.

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Nikola Karabatic: The Handball Goat Retires (Part 2): Match ~#200: Peak Karabatic Makes all the Players around him Better… A Lot Better

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(Karabatic and Narcisse*, Jordan and Pippen, Ruth and Gehrig. *I could probably have used a picture with Jerome Fernandez and some other players)

I continue my look back at Nikiola Karabatic’s career and try to answer the age old GOAT question: Does the GOAT owe his greatness to his sidekicks? Or does the GOAT make the sidekicks look better? The ~200th match I saw him play provides some clues. (Read Part 1)

The GOAT Sidekick Debate

Whenever GOAT debates come up in the world of sports one of the big questions that has to be asked is whether the “would be GOAT” is only the GOAT because of the athletes playing alongside him.  As in Jordan had Pippen and Ruth had Gehrig.  Generally no one is arguing that that the #2 was on the same level, but folks will argue that without that #2 taking some of the load, the GOAT would have been less “great.” 

Some ornery folks will even make the case that the great player was just pretty good thanks to that #2 carrying the weight.  That aspect of GOAT debates creates a more complicated argument especially when a player is often surrounded by many great players.  And, with Karabatic playing for a top national team like France and some of the premier clubs like Kiel, Barca and Paris St-Germain that was particularly the case.

Karabatic played alongside some pretty good backcourts and two, Daniel Narcisse and Jerome Fernandez, come to mind. Narcisse is the 5th all time leading scorer for France and had one of the best (if not the best) 9-10 meter jump shots of all time. Fernandez is France’s all time leading scorer and is arguably the best right handed, right back of all time. (fyi: Karabatic is the 2nd all time scorer for France) Having those guys on either side to pass to is a pretty good deal… and, conversely, having Nikola Karabatic drawing a lot of attention probably makes your shooting easier, too.

The 2008 – 2011 Four Tourney Sweep

It’s too simple to say that Fernandez/Narcisse made Karabatic great…or that Karabatic made Fernandez/Narcisse. But, make no mistake those 3 great players along with Omeyer in goal and Dinart, the GOAT defender made France really tough to beat. And, those players were all part of a very dominant French side for many years.

The peak of France’s domination was arguably their sweep of four straight major international tournaments from 2008-2011 when the 2008 Olympic Games, 2009 World Championship, 2010 European Championships and the 2011 World Championships. And, I think the last of those four championships provides a pretty good answer for how this sidekick debate should be answered.

Match ~#200: 2011 World Championship Final, France 37, Denmark 35: Peak Karabatic

For those that weren’t following the sport 13 years ago, France was starting to become the team everyone else was getting real tired of losing to. And, even though they had won 3 major tournaments in a row they seemed a little vulnerable heading into 2011 World Championships. Daniel Narcisse was injured and out for the tournament, Fernandez was starting to slow down a little and France would need to rely more on backcourt players like William Accambray and Xavier Barachet. Not bad players by any stretch, but clearly a rung or two… or maybe three below Narcisse and a younger Fernandez in his prime.

But, if Nikola Karabatic is orchestrating the attack would it matter? And, I should mention here that Karabatic’s move from big shooter left back to center back was at the time a bit unorthodox as generally teams kept their big right handed scorer in the left back position. But, Karabatic’s game had evolved to the point that he could play both center and left back interchangeably. He was a center back that could both pass and score.

It turns out that it didn’t matter. I didn’t find a lot of footage from the tournament, but I did find some highlights from the Final vs Denmark which France won 37-35 in Extra Time. In the highlights you’ll see some goals from Xavier Barachet and maybe you’re like me, kind of wondering whatever happened to him. Barachet and Accambray were at the time the younger backcourts that were presumably the future.

But, as it turns out what we were really seeing was peak Barrachet and peak Accambray. Solid players, but limited players… that were playing next to the 26 year old GOAT… who was playing at his peak. At least if one looks at the arc of their careers this would seem to be accurate. Both players would move to the fringes of the French National team eventually seeing less playing time and then no longer being called up. Hard to say entirely as Barrachet also had some injuries which one could argue also contributed to his decline.

All, I know is that my recollection is that Karabatic’s performance was masterful as he had 51 goals in the tournament to go along with 34 assists. 10 of those goals coming in the gold medal final. He carried and willed that team to a title. And, yes, I remember wondering out loud… If he can make Xavier Barrachet and William Accambray look that good… could I even have looked like a halfway competent backcourt next to him? Most definitely not, but the fact that I could even contemplate such a question says quite a bit about what Peak Karabatic was like.

(Nikola Karabatic celebrates a 2012 Olympics title with William Accambray, Xavier Bararchet and Didier Dinart)
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Is it “Still the Battle for L.A.” if only Four Athletes Live anywhere near Los Angeles?

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This isn’t the first time I’ve pointed out some “problems” with our U.S. club rosters. (See Link Link) Honestly it’s getting a little old googling and checking social media sites, but today’s battle between two “Southern California” club teams at the North American & Caribbean Club Championships got me wondering… Just how many athletes on these two teams actually live in the Los Angeles area?

Well, subject to my standard disclaimer (social media websites and LinkedIn profiles aren’t always accurate), that answer is four athletes. As in 4 out of 31 athletes.

There are multiple issues with these rosters that we should be concerned with. I’ll go through some of them again:

  • Nationality: The fact that they are just eight Americans playing on these American club teams is problematic. I, for one, would like to see more Americans playing. I like to think that just about anyone would like to see that. In particular, younger American athletes who can really benefit from particpating is a competition like this. And, it’s nice to see a few that even fit that demographic. But, I understand why it’s the exception. Teams want to win and right now better non-American athletes are available and allowed to play with no restriction for U.S. club teams.
  • Residency: The fact that there are only four athletes on these two teams that live anywhere near where these team say they are located is… crazy, ludicrous and silly. Let me repeat… it is crazy, ludicrous and silly. We are not talking about a couple or a few athletes to round out the roster… Not even just saying it’s around half the team. No. We are talking about the overwhelming majority of the athletes. 27 out of 31. These athletes don’t practice together. Some probably just met each other. 14 out of 31 don’t even live in the United States! Again… This is crazy, ludicrous and silly.
  • Competitive Fairness. The addition of this many athletes to rosters defeats the spirit of competition. I guess every club is free to recruit players to improve their chances. But, it kind of goes against the concept of a club championship. Instead it’s become more of an all star team recruitment competition.

Who’s to Blame?

Well, here’s my assessment:

  • The athletes? No, absolutely not. As, I’ve stated before… Offer me the chance to compete in a nice little tournament with the winning team getting a free trip to Cairo to play the best teams in the world. My response is, “Where do I sign?” Or, as I think is probably the case in most instances… “Sure, I’ll pay my way to New Jersey for this opportunity.”
  • The Clubs? Maybe, a little bit. Nobody is forcing them to create all star rosters. Nobody is forcing them to tell their locally based athletes… “Sorry, we’re going with player X instead of you. Maybe next time.” It’s something these clubs want to do. Maybe a club should internally decide like San Francisco CalHeat did that this isn’t really how they want to go about things. Maybe… But, if you aren’t breaking any rules and the rules are such that you can drive a freight train through them. Then why not? Blow the whistle and go. Full steam ahead.
  • The NACHC? Yes, there’s some blame here. It’s a NACHC competition, so the NACHC is responsible for whatever rules and regulations are in place. That said, they are a newish, all volunteer organization with a lot of challenges. Roster regulations probably aren’t high on their list of things to get done. But, hopefully as they get grounded as an organization they will take a closer look at this competition and assess whether it’s currently stuctured to meet organiational goals.
  • The IHF? Yes, and I would argue that they are the most responsible. As I wrote in this commentary about the 2023 CalHeat Super Globe roster the IHF’s good intentions to support club development around the world has had major unintended consequences. Unless they step in with more restrictions on club rosters I suspect recruitment might just get even crazier. Who knows, maybe next time it will make more sense to just play the NACHC club championship in Europe. It would save on air fare and the jerseys could just be shipped to whereever it’s being held.

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Nikola Karabatic: The Handball Goat Retires (Part 1): Intro and Match #1: OMG, He’s only 18 Years Old!

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(An 18 year old Nikola Karabatic with Montpellier head coach, Patrice Canayer, back in 2003)

Later this August, probably after the Gold Medal match at the 2024 Olympics, Nikola Karabatic will hang up his shoes and retire from handball. It’s been a long journey for him… and a long journey for me and the rest of the handball world. Like most careers one fillled with ups and down, but way more ups than most. I’m going to take a long look at those ups… but, I’ll also touch upon some of the down moments. In doing so I hope to capture his legacy and give the GOAT a proper sendoff.

Handball’s Greatest of all Time (GOAT): Don’t Even Try to Argue for anyone Else. Just Don’t…

When a professional career spans over two decades of excellence it can be a bit hard to wrap ones arms around its entire arc. Memories fade some as the great player becomes only really good and then just good with periodic reminders of that all time greatness. Younger fans of the sport who have never even seen Karabatic play when he was at his peak are may even be a little puzzled when he’s referred to as the GOAT.

Understandable… but, they need to be educated. For sure, the numbers are just ridiculous. No one has won more titles as a national team athlete or a club athlete. Just take a look at these major international tournament stats from his Wikipedia page.

I had to shrink the page several times just to get a screenshot and its pretty clear there are a lot more highs and lows. And, yes handball is a team sport and France has had a lot of good players over the years. But, make no mistake: He’s been the key cog in the French machine for the past 2 decades. 2 decades… 25 major tournaments with 11 Gold and France made the semifinals in all but 6 of them. He’s going to be a 6 time Olympian. Take a look at this list of most Olympic appearances in all sports. A lot of equestrians and shooters… He’s doing it in a rough and tumble, professonal team sport. It’s truly remarkable.

On a club level he won the national league title for the club he was playing for (in France, Germany and Spain) every year except the 2012-13 season. I guess just 3 Champions League titles is a bit of a disappointment, but it’s still pretty good. And, it’s certainly true that he’s almost always played for a really good club, but it’s not a coincidence that he has usually been the centerpiece of those really good teams.

Nobody has numbers like this. I guess Mikkel Hansen is sort of in the ballpark, but Hansen never played defense anywhere near the level of Karabatic has. And, if there are any Croats lurking that want to argue about Ivano Balic. Please… Just don’t…

Seriously, I think the only thing Balic did better than Karabatic was the “flashy” pass. And, mind you Balic wasn’t a better overall passer. No. He was just a better flashy passer. The kind of passes that make for great highlights. Whereas Karabatic generally just made effective passes that got the job done.

And, really that pretty much defines Karabatic’s entire game. Effective… doing what’s needed to get the job done… over and over and over. One could even call him the “quiet” GOAT. Quiet in that a video of career highlights the highlights aren’t that remarkable. If you know handball you certainly can appreciate them, but they aren’t the jaw dropping “spectacular move” of a Michael Jordan. Just mind numbing excellence year after year after year.

My Parallel Journey

This series is mostly about the GOAT, but it’s also about me and really any other fans out there. For me personally, Karabatic’s career parallels my journey from a casual handball fan to an uber handball fan. And, over the past 22 years I’ll estimate that I’ve seen him play around 10-30 matches/season which I’ll round off to about 450 matches in total. That’s a pretty good sample size for anyone. For an American? That’s a crazy number. I was there when he burst on the scene and I’m still here two decades later as he hangs up his shoes.

So herewith is my look back at his legacy by my estimated chronological viewing match #.

Match #1 (9 March, 2003, Montpellier, 34 vs Zagreb, 25 EHF Champions League QF): OMG, He’s Only 18

(Context: My daughter in front of the TV back in Paris and at her recent college graduation. Karabatic has been playing at a really high level for a really long time.)

It’s important to set the scene for the 1st time I remember ever seeing Nikola Karabatic play. I had been living in France for about 6 months, but I hadn’t quite figured out French television or club handball competitions for that matter. Many of the matches were on a different tier of cable service which I hadn’t paid for initially and I didn’t really understand the concept of the Champions League and that I could watch such matches.

But, I eventually figured it out and I’ll never forget sitting down on the couch to watch handball that fateful day a little over 21 years ago. 21 years… In my mind’s eye I can see my not quite 1 year old daughter crawling around as I watch. The same daughter who just recently graduated from College.

And, I can remember watching the match on a non HD set and seeing this guy named Nikola Karabatic playing and clearly being the best athlete on the court. And, I remember asking myself, “Who is this guy with the Yugoslavian name and why have I never heard of him before? I distinctly remember grabbing my laptop and googling his name, pulling up his French Wikipedia article, cutting and pasting it into some translation website and reading the entry…

And, saying to myself:

“Oh My God, He’s only 18 years old! Is that really true? Is somebody messing with Wikipedia. Is the translation not working?”

My Greatest Sports Prediction

We always remember the predictions we got right… and forget the ones we got wrong. I’ve hit a few home runs in my day. In 1988, while he was still a cadet I predicted that Troy Calhoun would some day be the Air Force Academy Head Football Coach… He’s now in his 17th season in that position. In 2013, I correctly predicted the four handball clubs that would make the 2014 Champions League Final Four and that Flensburg would win it. This preseason prediction is even documented on video.

And, on that day back in 2003, I said to myself that someone that crazy good at age 18 could very well become the greatest handball player of all time. It’s a shame I’ve got no video evidence. Just my self serving recolllection, but it’s true.

And, it would be fun to go back and watch the match again to see what exactly impressed me so much. I suspect it was a combination of his outside jumpshot and 1v1 skills. A combination that made him so very hard to guard. Don’t come out on him aggressively enough… and he’ll shoot over you into the top corner of the net. Come out on him…and he’s going to go by you for a breakthrough shot. Standard stuff, of course, he just did it really well then and eventually better than anyone else who’s ever played the game.

That 2003 Champions League season was epic as the kid led Montpellier to their first ever title. There’s a lot to be said for the Final Four in Cologne, but the two game aggregate playoff final between Montpellier and Pamplona (Portland San Antonio) was a real gem with Montpellier losing the first match in Spain by 8 only to turn the tables with a 12 goal win in the return leg.

Here’s a video highight and a post regarding that epic playoff: Link

(Karabatic with a breakthrough left handed goal vs Pamplona)

That run through the Champions League was my (and the world’s) introduction to Karabatic. But, there was more to come… a lot more.

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Commentary: Three U.S. Championships… but, only One of them is Truly “National”

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(Klaebu IL and the Norseman pose together after their “national” championship match)

Norway’s Domination of American Club Handball Continues

This past weekend in what may be the most eclectic USA Handball “National” Championship ever staged two Norwegian teams (Klaebu IL and the Norseman) faced off against each other for the elite title at the U.S. Handball Union National Championships. And, to think that I complained recently about two Norwegian professionals helping the California Eagles take the USA Team Handball National Championships title. This is taking the Norwegian connection to new heights.

A Nice Tournament

Setting aside that somewhat bizarre final, it looks like the tournament held last weekend was a success. I wasn’t there, but based on social media posts and the YouTube broadcasts it looks like people were having fun and enjoed the competition. Here are some links regarding the tournament:

The TV feature provided a little nostaglia for me as it referenced the Las Vegas Scorpions club team I helped start prior to the 2010 National Championships that were also in Las Vegas. Here’s an article on the 2010 Tournament and some promotion we did during the 2012 Olympics. Currently, the team is inactive, but maybe they’ll get going again if the tournament returns to Vegas next year.

US Handball Union and USA Team Handball “National” Championships: A Comparison

In the space of a month the U.S. held two separate national championships. USA Team Handball held a National Championship in Spokane, Washington from 3-5 May and the upstart US Handball Union held their tournament in Vegas from 6-9 June. I didn’t attend either event, but based on the match video from the Vegas tournament and the logical conclusion that USA Team Handball hasn’t changed what it’s been doing for years… they appear to have been very similar. Here’s a comparison:

  • Size: Union: 17 teams; USATH: 20 teams (Both had 2 men’s divisions and 1 women’s division
  • Foreign Teams: Union: 4 teams; USATH: 6 teams
  • Demographics (American/Expat): Most of the U.S. clubs participating in both tournaments had quite a few expats. Perhaps there were a few more Americans percentage wise at the Union tournament, but I can’t fully assess
  • Demographics (playing for a club where you live): And, both tournaments featured clubs with quite a few athletes that lived nowhere near the city identified with the club
  • Level of play: I suspect that the California Eagles and NYC would have been able to beat the Norwegian teams that won the Union Championship. I also think NYC and Quebec were better than the women’s teams. I didn’t see as many of the D2 matches, but I think the Miami Storms team could have won the USATH D2 title. But, overall, if one were to look at all the the teams… probably pretty similar.
  • Video Coverage: I didn’t pay the $5 fee for the USATH tournament, so the free Union tourney was clearly better from my perspective. They also had some dedicated people working it. That said, the camera angles were too low and there were frequent streaming glitches.
  • Location: I didn’t attend either event, but Las Vegas vs Spokane for the 2nd year in a row? That’s a no brainer in my opinion. Even if June is pretty hot in Vegas. It’s a wonder any club that wasn’t looking to qualify for the Super Globe even went to Spokane.

Pointless Duplication?

In the cult classic movie, Highlander the famous quote is: There can be only one. Apparently, that only applies to immortals. Not sports organizations. Most comically, boxing has 5 (count em, 5) organizations that honor boxers with the moniker “World Champion.” And, much like boxing, there is nothing to prevent any U.S. handball organization from running a tournament and calling it their national championship. Heck, they could even call it a world championship like some of our American pro leagues like to.

Duplicate championships, however, from a big picture perspective are problematic. One of the reasons boxing is taken less seriously and has loss ground on the world stage are the competing organizations fighting for attention. Imagine if there were 5 FIFAs running soccer and staging dueling championships. Or, if one nation with very limited resources was staging two handball championships. Wait… that’s what we have.

I won’t go into all of the politics surrounding our current situation. But, make no mistake it’s mostly about politics. We don’t need two national championships. Heck, we don’t even really have enough bandwidth to do one national championship properly. But, logically, if you were to combine the manpower and resources used to conduct two separate events you would have more bandwidth to stage a better event. At least one would hope so.

The problem with that, however, is the politics and who gets to do it. Because if you are going to combine resources ultimately there can be only one entity in charge. Somebody loses out.

Not Really “National” Championships

But, setting aside the politics, there’s a larger issue that should be addressed. And, that’s the reality that neither championship was very “national.” It’s semantical, but it still matters. When you have athletes, whether it be pros living in another nation or an entire team from another nation… does it make sense to call them national champions for the nation where they don’t even live?

Champions of “a Tournament.” Sure, that makes sense. I’m down with that. Just don’t call them National Champs. Semantically, what we actually have been staging are “Open” Championships. Much like the French Open or the U.S. Open these tournament are open to all comers from anywhere in the world.

From a team concept the most comparable competition I can think of is “The Basketball Tournament (TBT)” which is staged in the summer and features teams with rosters that are put together to play in just that one tournment. And, as anyone who’s been around handball in the U.S. for awhile knows this is exactly what often happens as athletes and teams boths search for each other in the weeks prior to tournaments.

From the standpoint of giving athletes the opportunity to compete and have fun there is nothing wrong with having an annual 1 off tournament that does this. But, when you combine such a tournament with the concept of determining a “national champion”… well, that’s where the disconnect is. Because you can’t do both at the same time.

A Possible Solution

And, maybe recognizing this disconnect is the path to resolution. I think we need to start thinking about having two tournaments.

One tournament would be a smaller National Championship that is focused on determining a National Champion. Only open to U.S. clubs that meet stricter residency and qualification requirements with tighter roster contols. Maybe even requirements to sponsor a youth program and practice 20 times/year. We could even talk about a citizenship % requirement. One that might require only 25% U.S. citizenship initially, and is adjusted annually. Yes… these requirements would result in weaker teams for Super Globe qualification, but it could pave the way for the kind of growth I think we want. Perhaps this tournament could even be a final four with proper staging and promotion.

The other tournament would be what we’re already doing. An all comers open tournament. A celebration of handball in the the U.S. where the intent is some good competition, having fun and meeting old friends.

Our Already Existing National Championship

As I alluded to with the title of this commentary, we already have an existing national championship… And, that would be our Collegiate National Championships. And, you know what this championship has already. Teams mostly composed of Americans, all living in the same city and practicing regularly.

No one’s even going to begin to argue that the West Point men and women’s team aren’t the National Collegiate Champions. It wouldn’t even cross anyone’s mind.

And, we should be striving for a structure where the same could be said about our adult clubs. Where no one even doubts the validity of our club national champion.

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Deja Vu, All Over Again: Norway, Portugal, Brazil and USA to Replay the 2023 Gjensidige Cup

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The USA Men found out who and where they will play their group play matches at the 2025 Handball World Championships and due to a strange twist of fate it will be deja vu, all over again. This is because they will play Norway, Portugal and Brazil in Norway… just like they did in a warmup tourney prior to the 2023 Handball World Championships. This time, however, the matches will be played in Baerum (a suburb of Oslo), instead of Trondheim and these matches will count.

What are the chances of that? Well, it would be 1 out of 6 (Austria and Croatia (Pot 2) were already assigned to Porec and Zagreb) x (1 out of 8) x (1 out of 8) or 1 out of 384 or a 0.26% chance of occuring.

Tough Draw for the U.S.

As one of the lower ranked teams at the World Championships just about any draw is a tough draw. Realistically, beating any of the teams from pot 1 or pot 2 was always going to be a longshot, but there were some teams in pot 3 that the U.S. would match up well with.

Unfortunately, I don’t think Brazil is one of those teams and since they have good familiarity with the U.S. program they aren’t a team we can sneak up on. At the 2023 PANAM Games we lost to Brazil 40-27 (23-13) in the semifinals and at the 2023 Gjensidige Cup we lost 27-22 (12-10). A closer match, but also a friendly.

Further, having played both Norway and Portugal also at the 2023 Gjensidige cup we won’t be sneaking up on them either. Both of those sides won’t be surprised to find out that the U.S. actually has some guys that can play. They already know that and will even have some head to head match video to review as a reminder.

2023 Gjensidige Cup Final Standings

2023 Gjensidige Cup: Wikipedia (includes all results and links to match reports)

Beyond Group Play

Should the U.S. pull off an upset in Preliminary Group play they will stay in Oslo where their likely Main Round opponents from Group F would be Sweden, Spain and the winner of the Japan-Chile match.

If they finish 4th in Group E, however, they will head to Porec, Croatia for the President’s Cup play where they will play the 4th place finishers from Groups F, G and H. These opponents, barring a rash of upsets will likely be the losers of these preliminary round matchups

  • Japan vs Chile
  • Cuba vs Cape Verde
  • Argentina vs Bahrain

The potential for a mini Pan American group (USA, Chile, Cuba, Argentina) exists, but that remains to be seen. No team wants to go to the President’s Cup, but on the upside it could give the U.S. another crack at Chile, who they narrowly lost to in the bronze medal match at the PANAM Games and an opportunity to play NACHC rivals Cuba.

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2025 Men’s World Championships Draw: Best and Worst Cases for the U.S.; Plus a Little What if?

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The draw for the 2025 Men’s World Championships will take place tomorrow, 29 May at 1:30 PM (US ET) / 7:30 PM (CET). It will probably be streamed live and I will place the link here when it’s available.

The USA Men are in pot 4 and here’s some best and worst case analysis for who might be drawn into their group

  • Pot 1: It doesn’t matter for pot 1. The USA will be a huge underdog no matter which of these 8 teams they end up playing in Group Play.
  • Pot 2: The best outcome here would clearly be Italy. The Italians won their qualification play-off match vs Montenegro in convincing fashion, but it’s still their first WC in 18 years. The U.S. would be underdogs against Italy, but an upset victory would certainly be possible. The Czech Republic is probably the next weakest side, but a victory over them or any of the other teams in pot 2 is still unlikely.
  • Pot 3: This will be the key draw for the U.S. as the group match vs this opponent will likely determine who moves on to the main round and who goes to the President’s Cup. Here’s my take (in order) as to who the U.S. preferred options are
    • Cuba: The best option is clearly Cuba. The U.S. Men lost to Cuba at the 2024 NORCA Championships, but that was mostly a B side. The U.S. Men’s top side has beaten Cuba the last two times they played each other (2023 PANAM Games and and 2022 NORCA).
    • Algeria: Algeria were the runners-up in African qualification, but usually they are the 3rd or 4th best team from Africa and are similar in quality to the Moroccan side the U.S. beat 28-27 at the 2023 WC
    • Japan: Japan had built up a pretty solid team for the 2020 Olympics, but they’ve slipped a bit since then.
    • Qatar: Qatar still has some naturalized citizens playing for them, but they aren’t as strong as they used to be
    • North Macedonia: North Macedonia or Italy are arguably the weakest European teams at this World Championship.
    • Poland: On paper Poland should be a better team, but results wise they have been a disappointment recently. If there ever was a European team that could slip up and lose against a team like the USA, its this Poland team.
    • Argentina: The U.S. led most of the 1st half vs Argentina last year at the PANAM Games only to end up losing 28-14. While it’s possible the U.S. could put two good halves together it would be tough to come out on top. Further, the Argentinians know what the U.S. is capable of, so a surprise victory is not possible.
    • Brazil: The U.S. has played Brazil close at times, but hasn’t come close to a win. And, again, just like Argentina, the U.S. can’t sneak up on Brazil.

Best and Worst Possible Draws

Here’s my take on the best and worse possible draws for the U.S.

  • Best Possible: Slovenia, Italy, Cuba
  • Worst Possible: France, Croatia, Brazil

What If… the USA had won the 2024 NORCA and had Potential Opponents from Pot 4?

The U.S. chose to send essentially a B side to the North American & Caribbean Championship while an A side played Norway and France in two friendly matches. The U.S. could afford to do this as they had already been awarded a wild card for the World Championships. This resulted in Cuba (the NORCA Champions) being placed in Pot 3 and the U.S. being placed in Pot 4 as a wild card. If, the U.S. had sent their A team to NORCA and had won the Championship the U.S. would have been placed in Pot 3 and the Pot 4 wild card would have likely been assigned to a European side like Serbia.

Here’s some top level “What if?” analysis of who the USA would have potentially played under that scenario. The USA would have been big underdogs to Switzerland and Serbia, moderate underdogs to Bahrain and Tunisia, close to a pick em vs Chile and Cape Verde, and probably favorites over Kuwait and Guinea.

So overall, there would have been better opportunities to get to the Main Round from Pot 3 than Pot 4. Not guaranteed, of course. The U.S. could still draw Cuba or Algeria from Pot 3 and if they hadn’t gone the Wild Card route they could have ended up playing Switzerland or Serbia.

From a big picture viewpoint, however, I think the U.S. still made the right call to send a B team to the NORCA Championships. The experience gained playing France and Norway was worth more than having better odds to reach the Main Round. And, at the same time the U.S. was able to evaluate several athletes on the B team and assess their potential for future competitions.

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U.S. Women’s National Team: What’s Next (Part 3): An Out of the Box Solution to Broaden a Very Thin Talent Pool

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This is part of a series of commentaries that address the future of handball in the U.S. In Part 1, I summarized the U.S. Women’s National Team poor results of the past 4 years. In Part 2, I addressed the need for USA Team Handball leadership to consider proactive steps to broaden the talent pool. This commentary highlights an Out of the Box possibility that just might work.

Introduction: Where’s the Funding Going to Come from?

When I talk to handball old timers (around my age and even older) perhaps the biggest disconnect they have with their experience and the struggles we have today is the lack of funding for our national teams. These old timers travelled the world and made a lot of sacrifices, but they never spent a dime on travel or training. In fact, they often received room, board and a small stipend. Contrast that to today’s environment with teams and athletes using gofundme pages to help defray some of their costs. (This commentary highlights USA Team Handball funding since 1993)

These costs not only impacts these athletes, but it also impacts the size and quality of our talent pool. If athletes have to pay to play… there are going to be fewer athletes to select from. And, without a structured training program for stateside crossover athletes this means relying for the most part on dual citizens and athletes moving to Europe to improve their game.

Given current budget limitations, it would seemingly be impossible to fund a credible training program to broaden the talent pool with crossover athletes. Seemingly, that is. Because I think the stars have aligned for an out of the box solution that could pay for itself.

Alignment 1: Women’s Sports are “Having a Moment”

As a native Iowan I’ve been following the Caitlin Clark phenomenon with a mixture of bemusement, incredulosity and annoyance. The latter is due to being a lifelong Iowa State University fan. Growing up I had two favorite teams: Iowa State and whoever the University of Iowa was playing against. Setting aside fierce in-state rivalries, though, I can’t deny the transformation that has taken place in regards to the newfound interest it has brought to women’s basketball.

This was perhaps most ably demonstrated to me when handball commentator, Chris O’Reilly contacted me to find out if I knew of any way that he could get access to CBS and ESPN to watch the NCAA Basketball Tournament. My response included this point. “ESPN is just for the women’s tournament… OMG, has Caitlin Clark mania reached Europe now?” Indeed, Chris informed me that it had and that she was all over his social media channels. When an Irish handball commentator living in Sweden is taking extra effort to figure out he can watch USA Women’s college basketball… that is the very definition of “Having a Moment.”

More than a Moment?

There’s been a lot of speculation as to whether this is, indeed, but a moment. Simply the impact of one transformational athlete injecting a bit more interest for a short period of time before things go back to normal. The jury is still out on that, but I think it’s definitely more than a moment and it’s more than just women’s basketball.

In particular, women’s professional soccer has been showing real signs of life with the valuation of team franchises seeing exponential growth in terms of valuation. Nebraska women’s volleyball played a match in their football stadium with a world record 92,000 fans. There’s even a pro volleyball league now that judging by this match replay gets decent crowds. Women’s collegiate softball also is drawing more fans.

Now, I don’t think we’re going to ever hit parity with men’s sports in terms of overall interest. But, I do think we’re starting to see real interest that means something. And, this is a sharp contrast to the next to nothing interest women’s sports have received in the past. From my own personal anecdotal experience I’ve certainly even watching women’s sports more even if it is to watch Caitlan Clark get technical fouls for the struggling Indiana Fever. Welcome to the pros, rook!

Alignment 2: The Rise of the Sports Documentary/Reality Show

Sport’s reality shows are also having a moment. Fostered in part by the COVID pandemic, shows like Netflix’s Drive to Survive are finding new fans. Even getting some Americans to actually care about Formula 1. This documentary format has also been adopted for golf (Full Swing) and tennis (Match Point). ESPN even got into the act with a new show callled “Tryouts” on ESPN+. Two episodes even feature the lesser known sports of Ultimate and Curling.

The Handball Reality Show: Retooled for a U.S. Women’s National Team

So, why not team handball? The concept of a handball reality show has been around in different forms for over 20 years. I first saw it proposed in an online forum not long after the NFL reality show, Hard Knocks debuted. Essentially, the basic concept is to follow the ups and downs of the U.S. National Team as it trains to take on the world.

In 2017 there was a serious proposal that was pitched to NBC. The proposed show’s producer even attended the 2017 Men’s World Championship as a guest of the IHF. This proposal would have seen former pros from American football, basketball and other sports learn the game and even travel to Europe for competion. Alas, the show was not selected for production, but the fact that it got that far suggests that the concept has real potential.

Generally left unsaid is that these proposals have been exclusively focused on the men’s team and conceptualized how famous male athletes would excel at handball if given the chance. This is not too surprising. After all, until very recently way more attention across the board has gone to men’s sports. Why would it have been any different for reality sports TV shows?

And, while I could argue there might well be still greater interest in a show focused on finding great athletes for our Men’s National Team it would be a fool’s errand. That’s because we already have a pretty good team. Athletes who already know how to play the game and who are also fairly high up in there terms of raw athletic ability. As we discussed on the USA Handball Talk podcast the current Men’s National Team has athletes one would find on a low NCAA D1 or high D2 Basketball team. We could find better athletes… but, not a whole lot better and it would take them at least two years (if not more) of regular handball training to realistically compete for positions on the national team.

Whereas with our Women’s National Team the raw talent is more similar to an NCAA D3 basketball team The evidence to support this includes an 0-0-12 record since the 2019 PANAM Games and the novelty of a D2 NCAA hoopster (Katie Timmerman) with very little handball experience playing significant minutes at the 2023 North American & Caribbean Championships. Her success suggests that even better athletes would fare well with an organized training program. (Side note: Current #1 GK Sophie Fasold is D1 quality and might well be the best GK in USA history)

Documentary/Reality Show Framework

So what would this would be TV show look like? For discussion purposes, here’s a possible framework for Season 1:

  • Athlete identification and recruitment: Introductory episodes could cover what types of athletes they are looking for and how they are recruited
  • Athlete tryouts: Structured tryouts would be held and athletes would be evaluated and then selected for further training
  • Initial training: Athletes would be taught the basics of handball in a structured setting over several weeks
  • Initial competition matches: The athletes could play a match vs current national team athletes and/or European clubs

Follow on seasons would continue to follow the athletes as they integrate with the national team and continue training, potentially in Europe

Multiple Variables to Consider

How the show would actually look would also depend on several variables to include:

  • Funding Level: It goes without saying the more funding this would be show has… the more that can be done across the board to pay for facilities, coaching, athlete expenses, travel, etc. In fact, from a selfish handball standpoint that’s the appeal of this concept. This show would pay for a real training program that USA Team Handball can’t afford right now, even at an austere level.
  • TV Partner Role: Would the TV partner be content to just document what happens or would they want to control the narrative as much as possible? In standard reality fare, drama is what draws interest and this could be a major distraction. Roles for everyone involved in the effort would need to be defined. And, if we’re really thinking out of the box… there is nothing that would prohibit no partnership whatsoever. Yes, some entity could seek to manufacture a team and develop athletes with no connection to USA Team Handball at all.
  • Timing: The Olympics are just four years away. On the one hand, it would seem that we’re already behind the curve in terms of the time it will take great athletes to learn handball. But, on the other hand, great athletes might be reluctant to commit to four years of training. Commitment concerns, however, could be assuaged with a salary and other opportunities.

Two “Moments” and a Big Opportunity

So we essentially have a alignment of two moments and a big opportunity

  • People genuinely care more about women’s sports now
  • Sports docudramas have garnered unprecedented interest
  • The U.S. Women’s national team is currently low performing, but will play in the Olympics just four years from now.

So some smart entity could jump on both the women’s sports bandwagon and the sports documentary bandwagon to help a down trodden team that hasn’t won a game in over four years acheive greatness at the 2028 Olympics. It also doesn’t hurt that we’re talking about a pretty cool, ridiculously under exposed sport…

Yes, the stars have aligned to make this pipe dream, out of the box solution seem more than plausible. Honestly, if a reality show almost made it in 2017, it seems that one one focused on the U.S. Women in 2024 is a no brainer. Just a pitch that has to be made to the right people.

And, there are several candidates for just such a pitch. Entities that have even expressed love for handball before. I may not ever get in an elevator with these different entities to make that pitch, but I’ll be making my case nonetheless in the coming weeks.

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USA Handball National Championship Review (Part 2): Mercenary Teams Flying in Pros to Win a National Championship; Are we Really OK with this?

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In part 1 I addressed the low American participation rate at our National Championships. In part 2, I take a closer look at the eclectic California Eagles roster which won the National Title. It’s time for USA Team Handball to put a stop to this nonsense.

Correlation Doesn’t Necessarily Mean Causation…

When you write a lot of commentaries sometimes you wonder if anybody even reads them. For sure, quite a few people see the social media post, think, “just John Ryan complaining about something again” and swipe until they get to something more entertaining. Yes, in a TLDR world, it’s easy for my commentaries to get skipped.

But, sometimes they do get read and sometimes they can even be a catalyst for change… maybe? After the IHF Super Globe this past fall I wrote a commentary which criticized the composition of the San Francisco CalHeat roster which was composed mostly of athletes that weren’t American and/or didn’t live anywhere near San Francisco.

I’m not sure the exact timeline of events, but not too long afterwards, SF CalHeat and their long time coach, Danilo Rojevic, parted ways. (Keep in mind, SF Cal Heat had won the last 3 national championships.) Rojevic then became the head coach for the California Eagles which are (sort of) based in Southern California, even though, Rojevic, as far as I know still lives in the Bay Area. Probably, not coincidentally, several athletes, many with mercenary like attributes also transferred from SF CalHeat to the California Eagles

And, then as a contrast we have the rosters for SF CalHeat at the recent National Championships. Best I can tell, SF CalHeat’s 1st team roster is mostly composed of Bay Area residing athletes and their 2nd team had more Americans than any other team at nationals.

Maybe some folks at CalHeat took my commentary to heart? Maybe? It could be just a coincidence in timing. It could also very well be that they might have been thinking along the same lines and my commentary just distilled the full extent of the “problem.” Again, it’s all a big maybe.

A Closer Look at the California Eagles Roster

But, just in case my commentary from last November helped people make some decisions here’s another roster breakdown to perhaps again serve as a catalyst for a change in direction.

First a quick note on the methodology (or lack there of) used. The roster information comes from the USA Team Handball Sport 80 National Championship Page and the Results file. I then did Google searches and checked social media websites to assess nationality and place of residency. And, no, I didn’t contact anyone directly with these nosy questions. There could well be some errors as social media data could be old or inaccurate, but I think this summary is accurate enough to get a basic picture of the team’s composition.

Here are a few takeaways:

  • The California Eagles had more athletes from the 2023 SF CalHeat Super Globe roster on their team than the SF CalHeat team participating at the National Championships.
  • The bulk of the scoring came from athletes that didn’t play for the California Eagles prior to this season,
  • Best that I can tell nine of these athletes don’t live in Southern California and four of those nine athletes don’t even live in the U.S.
  • Two new additions (Bjorn Christensen Mathiassen and Marcus Rene Næss Soltvedt had just finished their season playing for Bergen in Norway’s top division. Mathiassen, in particular, appears to have played a pretty big role, leading the team with 25 goals, including 12 in the gold medal match
  • At first glance, one addition to the roster, former Montpellier Right Back, Maxime Bouschet, looks like an obvious mercenary. But, his LinkedIn profile makes it pretty clear he’s not. He’s living in Southern California and doing post doctoral work at the Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL). That’s pretty cool and this is exactly the type of expat that helps grow the game.

“Powering Up” and the “Need to Make Compromises”

On a recent Red, White and Glue podcast, California Eagles Coach, Danilo Rojevic, reflected on the SF CalHeat Super Globe experience and its roster composition. The addition of athletes who were neither American nor living anywhere near San Francisco was euphemistically referred to as “powering up” and he indicated that it was pretty much necessary to be more competitive at a Super Globe.

And, of course, he’s correct. A North American club consisting of amateurs who live in the same geographic area is almost always going to be a weaker team than one that “powers up.” Case in point, the Mexican Club, Ministros, was the North American & Caribbean representative at the 2022 Super Globe. They went 0-4 with an average Goal Differential of -19 goals. Whereas, CalHeat went 1-3 with an average Goal Differential of -8.25.

But, there’s no requirement to add ringers, jokers, mercenaries or whatever you want to call powering up your roster. Ministros has proven that. They didn’t get the highly coveted win over the Oceania entrant, but I don’t think they made any compromises. The reality is this: There is no NEED to compromise a club roster so that you can win a championship. But, sure a club might WANT to compromise their roster so they can win a championship. Bottom line: need and want are two very different things.

Two Key Points to Reiterate

I guess I should first reiterate two key points that I’ve made previously:

1) Nobody is breaking any rules: I highly doubt that the California Eagles broke any rules. The U.S. rule book has a requirement for athletes to participate in one other sanctioned tournament to qualify for “Elite,” but, since there was another enitity organizing domestic competition this year the championship was actually a Div 1 championship instead of an an Elite championship. And, then there are no residency requirements. Athletes can live anywhere and play for any club. And, “anywhere” literally means anywhere (Europe, Antartica, etc.)

2) Plenty of room for whataboutism: And, the Eagles aren’t the first team to power up. SF Cal Heat has done it before, but apparently has decided to change course. The New York City Team Handball Club has also added players including 2 athletes from Montpellier’s Academy last year. (Kylian Prat receiving the MVP award) NYAC, which is only loosely connected to New York City, has athletes from all over the U.S., so by default they are pretty much a mercenary squad that never even practices.

Multiple Issues of Concern- Let’s Recognize them and Avoid Conflating them

There are several issues related to club rosters in terms to both the nationality and locality of the athletes. And, while the nationality and locality of athletes are somewhat intertwined, we shouldn’t conflate them as all just one big issue. Below is an attempt to first describe the situation we have with club rosters without identifing the concerns we might have with each situation:

  • Some clubs have athletes on their rosters who don’t even live in the United States
  • Some clubs have athletes on their rosters who live nowhere near the club’s geographic location
  • Some clubs have no real geographic location and simply get together for competition
  • Many clubs have rosters which are almost exclusively expats

To varying degrees I have concerns with each of these issues. Here are some of those concerns:

  • Fairness: To varying degrees adding players skews the competition. Intrinsically I don’t think it’s “fair” for a club relying on local players to compete against clubs that are “powering up” with players from anywhere in the U.S. or even from Europe.
  • Arms Race: I guess one could say that all clubs are free to power up. But, this results in an arms race to secure players. Is this where we want clubs to focus their energy?
  • Lack of American participation: I think the current structure of adding players to rosters contributes to fewer Americans playing, particularly for clubs seeking to compete for a title. This is because with only a handful of exceptions adding an American means a weaker team Because of this USA Team Handball should consider the addition of citizenship quotas and/or age requirements to incentivize player development.
  • Player free agency and it’s detriment to regional growth: With athletes free to play for any club, anywhere they often seek the best deal for themselves. This has resulted in the somewhat strange situation of an athlete choosing to be a mercenary for a better club nowhere near where they live rather than play for the nearby weaker club.

Time for Decision Makers to Review this Situation… and Make Decisions

Depending on where you stand you may or may not be concerned with any or some of these issues. Or, perhaps you might be concerned, but believe that not much could or should be done about it. After all, these sort of roster manipulations have been taking place for quite awhile. If it’s not broke, don’t fix it…

Except I think it is pretty broken. Perhaps like the proverbial frog in the slowly boiling pot we’ve just slowly become adjusted to more and more manipulation to the point where it just seems perfectly normal to fly in pros from Norway or France to play in a U.S. National Championship.

Well, I say it’s time jump out of the boiling pot. It is not normal to fly in pros to win an amateur handball competition. It is silly and it should not be allowed. Full Stop.

Seriously, it just makes a total mockery out of our national championships and our would be club system. It accomplishes nothing and is detrimental to what should be the primary goal for handball in the U.S. Namely, growing the domestic game in the U.S.

At least it all seems pretty damn clear to me… But, then again, I’m just some guy with a website and a bunch of opinions. I don’t make the decisions… I just try to put the information out there for others that are empowerd to make decisions.

Individual clubs can decide to change direction, but doing the right thing will result in a decrease in performance. With a significantly weaker roster the 3 time defending champs, SF CalHeat finished in 4th place at this year’s nationals. Not every club is likely to make similar changes so creating a fair playing field across the board is clearly the purview of the USA Team Handball Board of Directors and it’s administrative staff. Perhaps some board members weren’t aware that several athletes fly in from overseas to play at the U.S. Championships. Or, maybe some were aware, but slowly boiling in the pot. Or, maybe they’ve thought about it and are perfectly Ok with that reality.

Regardless, the board should review that situation and decide if they are OK with it. And, if they aren’t OK… what they are going to do about it. Then, if they are going to take a look at that aspect it would also make sense to look at the other locality and nationality issues. And, whether any tweaks to roster requirements would make sense to help put a bit more of a U.S. stamp on the U.S. National Championships. And, to help grow the game domestically.

At least that’s what I think should happen. Ignorance should be no excuse and very importantly… doing nothing is also a decision. A decision to stick with the status quo.

What will happen, though? Well, a few months ago I would have thought nothing, per usual. But, then again maybe the SF CalHeat change of direction might just spur the USA Team Handball Board of Directors to also make some changes.

(Note: An earlier version of this commentary incorrectly identified the two players that played for NYC last years as professionals. They were actually members of Montpellier’s Academy program.)

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USA Handball National Championship Review (Part 1): Low American Participation- Does it Matter?

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The USA Team Handball National Championships took place this past weekend in Spokane, Washington. I didn’t attend, but still have a few thoughts regarding this competition. In part 1, I take a look at the demographics of the participating teams.

Overview

A total of 20 teams participated this past weekend at the U.S. National Handball Championships .There were 6 men’s team in Divsion 1; 9 men’s teams in Division 2 and 5 women’s teams taking part. Thee California Eagles won the Men’s D1 title. The Prairie Selects from Canada won the Men’s D2 title and the NYC Team Handball Club took home the Women’s title. All the results can be accessed here: Link

Methodology

To create a demographics snapshot I reviewed the rosters that were available for viewing online in USA Team Handball’s Sport 80 platform: Link (Note: this link will probably disappear shortly after the tournament is completed).

I then reviewed the names on the rosters, using a mixture of personal knowledge and an “assessment” as to whether the name was likely that of an American citizen. Of course, anyone familiar with what a melting pot the U.S. is, knows that such an assessment is going to have errors. To counteract such errors if a club had 10 “foreign looking” names I figured that at least 2 or 3 of them might be deceptive and factured that into the totals. So, while this data has precise numbers they most certainly aren’t. Still for the purposes of this snapshot look these numbers are probably not too far off.

For the 2024 College National Championships held in April I used an average of 12 athletes/team and feedback from players and coaches as to whether any participating students didn’t have U.S. citizenship. Again, not perfect data, but useful.

Demographics Snapshot

Here’s an overview of the nationality for both the men’s and women’s athletes at this year’s championships:

With two Canadian women’s teams and five Canadian men’s teams participating in Division 2 I also thought it woud be interesting to assess Canadian participation. As suspected, there were likely more Canadians than Americans participating at the U.S. National Championships. This assumes the Canadian teams were mostly Canadians. Not to mention the fact that based on social media posts I think Boston might have had more Canadians than Americans playing for them.

Low American Citizenship Participation

Optically, this data should raise a few eyebrows. The athletes at the U.S. Men’s Handball Championship are only around 20-25% American citizens. The Women’s Championship had only around 5-10%. More Canadians than Americans participating in a U.S. Championship. Really? How can that be?

Well, it’s just the reality of handball in the U.S. And, it’s nothing new. It’s pretty much been this way for the last 20 years or so. I did some similar analysis back in 2019:

  • USA Club Programs
    • Part 1: Understanding the USA Club Structure and At-Large Men’s Clubs: Link
    • Part 2: Collegiate Men’s Clubs: Our Most American Competition with Opportunities for Growth: Link
    • Part 3: USA Women At-Large and Collegiate Clubs: Link
    • Part 4: Why there are so Few Clubs and Why the Rosters Mostly Consist of Expats: Link

If one looks back at the 2019 data you’ll find similar percentages for the Championships that year, albeit a bit higher in terms of American participating. As both the data for the 2019 and 2024 championships are snapshots one shouldn’t see either year as definitive. And, for sure, this year is a bit quirky with the Championships again being held in the harder to get to location of Spokane, Washington and another entity (the US Handball Union) organizing most of the tournaments this year.

It would be super interesting to see this data tracked year to year, but anecdotally with some authority I’ll just say that the U.S. Open Club Handball Championships could be pretty much described as an expat handball festival with some Americans sprinkled in for good measure. That’s not necessarily a bad thing… or a good thing. But, that is what it is.

For old timers this reality is somewhat hard to stomach. This is because our national championships in the 80s and 90s were essentially the reverse: Mostly American citizens with some expats sprinkled in for good measure.

At this year’s championships I think only San Francisco CalHeat’s 2nd team and, possibly the Wolves (based out of Denver) had teams where the majority of the athletes were American citizens. If you took all the male U.S. citizens (~40) that particpated and put them all together you could probably form a total of 3 teams. And, I don’t even think we could have fielded a single U.S. women’s team. Further, if one wants to separate out naturalized American citizens and Americans that grew up in other countries the numbers would be even worse.

Low American Participation: Does it Matter? Should anything be done about it?

But, do these low American participation rates actually matter? The answer to that question depends on your perspective. Intrinsically, I think everyone, even expats, would really like to see more Americans playing. That said I’ve seen a number of different reactions to include:

  • Action is needed to address the problem: A handful of people would like to see regulations to increase American participation. This could include the elimination of foreign clubs participating and limiting the number of foreign athletes on rosters.
  • Simply not a problem: Some people get annoyed with the mere thought of “binning” athletes by their nationality “It’s devisive and it just doesn’t matter… we’re here to play handball and we don’t care where anyone is from.”
  • Resignation: The old, “It is what is is” mantra applies here. We may not like it, but there’s not a whole lot that can be done about it. I think most people probably fall into this camp.

My Perspective: Staus Quo on Adult Clubs, All in on Collegiate

A part of me would like to see some regulations and incentives that would incentivize U.S. clubs to increase their American citizenship numbers. A combination of “carrots and sticks” with hopefully more carrots than sticks. Right now there is little to no incentive for a club to make such an effort. Organizing and running a club is hard enough as it is. Convincing American citizens to play and then teaching them to play, all while being competitive is next to mission impossible. Most clubs are not likely to really tackle this challenge unless they get some help or are essentially forced to.

But, while USA Team Handball could implement an incentive strategy I’m not so sure it would work. Carrots to incentivize developing American players would probably be received favorably, but there would certainly be resistance to any sort of roster control. And, I don’t think carrots alone would be sufficient enough to do the trick.

Because of this reality, I’m inclined (or perhaps resigned) to maintaining the status quo. Provide our expat teams and even Canadian clubs the opportunity to compete in a National Championships. Competition is good and who knows maybe some old school, primarily American citizen teams will also start to emerge.

Instead, I think efforts to expand the number American citizens playing handball should simply follow the data. All one has to do is look at the percentage of Americans playing college handball which is near 100%. And, the resources and structures that colleges provide to their club sports. And, the multitude of students all living in the same location looking for a club to join. It is a no-brainer as to where the focus should be if one wants to gets more Americans playing the sport: It should go towards expanding and improving the collegiate game.

So, while the low American participation rate at the U.S. National Championships is a concern I would be hesitant to enact new rules to increase the numbers of Americans playing. In part 2 of this series I will take a closer look at the super clubs that often take home the title.

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USA Team Handball’s “Lack of Funding” and Why that May Soon be Changing

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This is part of an ongoing series, “Charting a way forward for USA Team Handball” which is a series of commentaries exploring different initiatives to help move the sport forward in this country.

Recently USA Team Handball CEO, Martin Branick was interviewed on the Red, White & Glue podcast. One of the questions he was asked was, “Why does the USATH seem to suffer from a lack of funds?” Branick responded with this explanation:

“I think the number one thing that we always have to remember that’s different in the U.S. compared to well, every other country except the others is that Olympic sports in the U.S. are not government funded. Right. So there’s no government entity. There’s not a department of sports or a ministry of sports that supports all of these Olympic disciplines or non-Olympic disciplines. So we rely on the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee as a private enitity, non-profit entity, we rely on private contributions and partnerships to fund our entire Olympic movement in the U.S. And, I think that’s one of the biggest differences is when you don’t have government funding you’re just subject to a different set of parameters in getting resources”

This explanation includes several true statements, but it’s also misleading. Here’s why:

  • The U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) is, indeed, not a government entity and the implication is that a U.S. Ministry of Sports would make different funding decisions. While it’s true that some countries (with a sport ministry) provide support more equally across all sports, it’s also true that that many countries (just like the USOPC) provide far less to their handball federation. Just ask any Canadian or British handball fan… And, this is not just a handball issue. For instance, I suspect that handball nations like Denmark and Germany shortchange less popular sports like baseball and rugby.
  • The lack of U.S. government funding support doesn’t mean the USOPC coffers are empty. On the contrary, the USOPC is flush with cash. The 2023 financial report shows $345M in annual revenue. There’s plenty of money to go round… the decision has simply been made not to “go round” to all the sports under their umbrella. (more on that topic below)
  • For the USOPC there’s also no real hardship in “relying on private contributions and partnerships.” The private contributions don’t amount to much, but the partnerships the USOPC have are first rate. These partnerships include Olympic sponsors and the biggest ticket item of all… the payments from the IOC as part of NBC’s TV broadcast rights.

So, what’s the answer to the question, “Why does the USATH seem to suffer from a lack of funds?”

The short answer is two fold:

  • The USOPC has decided to provide minimal funding support to USA Team Handball (compared to many other National Governing Bodies (NGB))
  • USA Team Handball has had minimal success in developing its own indpendent revenue streams

I’ll expand on this, but for anyone interested here’s more background on the “lack of funding” question. These commentaries were written several years ago, but not a whole lot has changed.

  • 2012 Series: Why Aren’t the U.S. National Teams at the London Olympics?: Link
    • Part 3: A Lack of Funding: Link
    • Part 4: A Lack of Funding: Where are the Sponsor and Donors?: Link
  • 2019: Charting a Way Forward for USA Team Handball: Link
    • What We Have: Finances (Part 1): USA Team Handball Revenue (Grants, Contributions and Sponsorships): Link
    • What We Have: Finances (Part 2): USA Team Handball Revenue (Membership and the Importance of Tracking that Data): Link

USOPC Decisions to Minimally Fund USA Team Handball

Before we tackle the question of USOPC support let’s first take a closer look at what USA Team Handball’s total annual revenue has been over the years. After all, if we’re going to talk about a lack of funding, it’s probably a good idea to understand what that funding level is.

I created this graphic in 2019 and there are now four more financial reports available on the USA Team Handball website. Here’s the annual revenue for those years:

  • 2018: $513K
  • 2019: $612K
  • 2020: $628K
  • 2021: $705K

There are some peaks and valleys with this chart, but the trendline since the 1996 Olympics has been in the $500-600K range. Contrast those amounts to the years leading up to the 1996 Olympics and you might well be wondering: WTF? (And, keep in mind… inflation is not even factored in on this chart!) What caused this sharp decline? As CEO Branick mentions later in the interview, the USOPC provides significantly more funding to sports that have better chances to win medals. It’s that simple.

What this chart demonstrates is that this was not always the case. USA Team Handball and other sports used to get a more equitable share of funding. But, after the 1996 Olympic Games the USOPC changed direction and decided to link funding to NGBs with the chances that NGB could produce medals. And, ever since USA Team Handball has been in a Catch 22 situation: Funding is tied to its chances of winning medals… It takes more funding to improve its chances of winning medals. A no win situation that saw the rich (swimming, track & field) get richer and the poor (team handball) get poorer. Or, at best move sideways.

This dramatic change in funding support from the USOPC, inevitably led to a significant decline in national team performance. This is because the lion’s share of funding had gone towards our national teams which for the most part consisted of cross over athletes that were trained with full time residency programs. Lacking the resources those programs closed down and the U.S. had to field national teams consisting of athletes coming from either its very small grassroots programs, its austere residency programs or, increasingly over the years, dual citizens growing up in other countries.

As a long time follower of handball in the U.S. I’m often amused with the athletes from the pre 1996 era not fully appreciating or comprehendng how the funding profile has changed so dramatically. While the level of support they received for their endeavors was modest, it comparatively was “Fat City” to the more austere support national team athletes have received for the past two decades. Old timers often jokingly referred to their experience as “Play handball. See the world.” To some extent that applies today… The athletes just have to pay for much of it out of their own pockets.

So, the simple short answer to the question, “Why the lack of funding?” at least in terms of “big brother” support provided is the USOPC decision to focus on supporting NGBs that can win medals.

USA Team Handball Stuggles to Develop Independent Revenue Streams

While funding provided by the USOPC is significant many federations also bring in significant revenue on their own from sponsporships and memberships. While it is, of course, desirable to develop such revenue streams it’s easier said than done. As I wrote in 2012 there is not a magical sponsorship tree where one can just pluck the dollar bills off of it.

If only it were so easy to get funding from these sources.

Finding sponsors and donors is very challenging for any minor sport. More could and should be done, but success is often contingent on other factors. For example, Verizon’s much bally hooed sponsorship was largely the result of their CEO (Hans Vestberg) coincidentally being a huge supporter of the sport. It was hoped that it would lead to more sponsors jumping on board, but that never materialized. Not yet, anyway.

This points to one harsh reality any minor sport needs to come to grips with: Sponsors are looking for a return on their investment. This “return” can’t always be neatly identified with specific metrics, but if your sport is virtually unknown and seldom seen it’s hard for a sponsor to see the cost benefit of sponsoring it. This means that better marketing to get handball better known is needed to help make the case to major sponsors.

A Change to the Funding Profile?

While USA Team Handball’s revenue profile has been mostly going sideways for the past 28 years I think there’s a strong possibility that will change over the next four years. And, of course, that reason is the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

It’s been a long time since the U.S. hosted an Olympics. The sports landscape has changed and is more splintered in terms of what interests people and how they watch or follow it. But… the Olympics are still a big deal. And, a hosted Olympics should still be a really big deal.

Even More Money to Go Around

While the USOPC has been very stingy with its funding for over two decades now it’s soon going to become really flush with cash. The sponsorship deals for LA should really help their top line and make it relatively painless to provide more help to the smaller federations. Further, a hosted Olympics should change their perspective for minor sports like team handball. When a national team doesn’t qualify for the Olympics it’s easy for the USOPC to decide not to provide funding. However, when a national team is guaranteed qualification…it’s not so easy to deny that team support. And, this is probably not said aloud… if a team might be perceived as a potential embarrassment on home soil it might even get more resources to help prevent that from happening.

Sponsors May Come out of the Woodwork

In theory, the next four years leading up the to the 2028 Olympics should be a gold mine of sponsor opportunity. There’s nothing like hosting an Olympics and it will be the closest to a sponsorship tree that our sport will ever have. In 1994, in the lead up to the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, the Weather Channel (yes, the Weather Channel) stepped in to sponsor USA Team Handball with a million dollars. Even without inflation it’s still the biggest cash haul we’ve ever had. The weather channel even had a commercial they’d play periodically touting their support of USA Team Handball. (I still can’t hardly believe it) I like to think that a similar sponsor for 2028 will emerge, but it’s not guaranteed.

So if the funding profile is likely changing… should that also change USA Team Handball’s planning? If so, how? And, what could be done to possibly speed up the process? To get more funding sooner? I think there is an elegant solution on the horizon…

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Another New Podcast for Handball Fans

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A new podcast, Red, White and Glue is now available for handball fans (see links at the bottom). It’s a production of the US Women’s National Team and it’s co-hosted by USA Women’s National Team Assistant Coach, Hendrik Schultze and national team left wing, Viva Kreis. Here’s my perspective on the new podcast.

A Rising Tide Lifts all Boats

Folks might not realize it, but Team Handball News had the first ever handball focused podcast. Yes, off and on, I’ve been doing podcasts since 2006. And, during that time I’ve seen other handball podcasts come and go. I suspect there are a couple of reasons for this. First off, it can be quite a bit of work. It especially was in the early days, but technology improvements have sure made it easier and easier to get an episode out. The second reason is that there’s not a very big market for English related handball content. There’s a market… it’s just a very niche market. My latest iteration with Ohio St coach, JD Orr, USA Handball Talk currently gets around 100 combined YouTube views/mp3 downloads. The Handball Hour currently has around 150 Patreon subscribers, but surely has a lot more listeners for its free podcasts. So, there’s an audience. It’s just not a huge audience.

So more often than not handball podcasters do podcasts because they like to talk about handball and share their views with others. Certainly that’s the main reason I do it. While some see “competition” as a negative I just see a great opportunity to hear views from others. And, I’m also a big believer in the saying that “A rising tide lifts all boats.” The more people talking about handball… the better it is for anyone doing a podcast,

An Opportunity to Refresh Old Content (e.g. Wall Handball)

When you’ve been running a handball website for 17 years you can often get the sense that just about every topic has been addressed multiple times and from multiple different angles. Case in point: The first podcast addresses the long standing semantic problem handball unfortunately has to deal with the U.S. Over the years I’ve addressed the handball semantic problem multiple times. Here’s a sampling:

So, while I might get annoyed with newcomers covering well trod upon ground… it’s just a little annoyed. After all, newcomers are coming into the sport all the time. They may not be aware that I’ve addressed something in the past, so it’s an opportunity to update the Handball FAQ and refresh old content.

A Catalyst for New Commentaries

Probably, of greater interest, though, for me and many readers will be any discussion on USA Team Handball plans. I’ll go out on a short limb and state that no one has thought as long and hard about USA Team Handball planning as much as I have. That could mean that I’m just some old guy who thinks he know everything. Could be… Although, over the years, I think my track record assessing different initiatives and what will likely happen is pretty solid.

Most recently, I’ve started some commentaries on the U.S. Women’s Team and the need to refocus the program as soon as possible on both expanding and improving the quaility of our very, very small talent pool.

USA Women’s National Team: What’s Next?

  • Part 1: Introduction: Link
  • Part 2: The Looming Decision Can’t Wait any Longer: Link

And, now there is an Official USA Women’s National Team podcast that surely will be discussing some of the same issues and concerns I have. This is an awesome development and I Iook forward to hearing what’s planned. I suspect the new podcast will tend to have a “positive, can do” approach to the many challenges USA Team Handball faces so it will provide a nice contrast to my more measured (OK… some would say critical) approach that we simply can’t do everything we might want to and that we really need to prioritize what we should do first.

It’s all good. Different perspectives are welcome. And, hearing some different perspectives will surely serve as a catalyst for me to write some new commentaries. Even better it might help serve as a catalyst for the USA Team Handball Board of Directors to start making some important resource decisions that are long overdue.

So welcome aboard fellow handball podcasters. The more, the merrier.

Red, White, and Glue: The U.S. Women’s National Team Handball Podcast