Category Archives: John Ryan Commentary

Expatica Americana (Part 3): Can a Small, but Determined Handball Nation be Competitive against Much Larger Sides? Can they Win a Title?

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(The final scene from Hoosiers, my all-time favorite movie. A kid shoots baskets in the school gym in front of the huge photo of the school’s only state champions from years ago.)

Now that we’ve captured the demographics of our really, really small talent pool (Part 2), let’s take a deep dive into the likelihood of whether such a small cohort, properly trained and developed can be competitive against the big dogs.

I’ve seen a lot of movies in my life, but without hesitation or a second thought I’ll state that Hoosiers is my all-time favorite.  The movie tells the story of a small town high school basketball team that takes on the big schools and wins the 1952 Indiana State Title.  It’s certainly not the greatest movie ever made, but for sure no movie could better capture a time in my life and something that I was so incredibly passionate about:  Small town high school basketball.  I grew up in a different state (Iowa) and a different era (the 1980s) but it hits home never the less.  The film is fictional, but it drew inspiration from a true story, the 1954 Milan High School Basketball team. Even more impressive and less well known is the 1937 Melrose, IA team (where my grandmother went to school) which won with just 66 students in the school.

So, if a tiny high school with an enrollment of just 161 students can win a state basketball title beating schools 10 times larger, can USA Team Handball accomplish something similar.  Can U.S. National teams that are mostly Expatica America with a few stateside additions be competitive?  Win medals or titles?

Answer:  Yes, it’s possible.  Unfortunately, though, it’s just not very likely.

The Very Challenging Math Behind Small Talent Pools

So, why is the math so hard?  Well, because we are not talking about one small town vs several big cities (one at a time).  We’re actually talking about one small town vs several countries.  The equivalent isn’t Hickory High vs South Bend Central.  The equivalent is actually Hickory High vs an Indiana big school all-star team.  Yes, take the best player off South Bend Central and add 11 players from a selection of all the big schools in Indiana.  Jimmy Chitwood could still ball against that team, but his supporting cast would have been overwhelmed.  Maybe, good ol’ Hickory could still pull off one miraculous upset, but the next match would then be against the Illinois all-star team.  Again, anything is possible… But, it’s just not probable.

All things being equal the chances of a great athlete being born in a particular town or country are directly proportional to the size of that town or country.  The bigger the city, the bigger the country, well, then the better odds you’re going to have.  Of course, not all things are equal.  Raw talent is perhaps, but some towns, some countries can buck those odds with excellent talent identification and training.

Norway (Iowa), Iceland and the Faroe Islands

Case in point, I’ll bring up another less well known movie, “The Final Season” about Norway… Iowa.  Yes, a small town of 545 citizens that won 20 state baseball championships.  The school was so small their graduating classes were only around 25 students, but virtually every boy played baseball and they had a really good coach who produced several college/minor league players and 3 major leaguers.  And, because they were such a small school they only played two sports, baseball and basketball resulting in specialization that other big schools couldn’t take advantage of in 80s and 90s.

On a larger scale, the Iceland men have done roughly the same thing with handball over the years.  They almost always qualify for the World Championships and European Championships and they’ve qualified for 7 of 12 Olympic competitions.  The high water mark is their silver medal at the 2008 Olympics.  Quite an accomplishment for a nation of just 360,000 people competing against much larger nations.  And, make no mistake about it, even if handball is really popular in Iceland, meaning a far greater percentage of their youth athletes are going to take up handball they are still dealing with a far smaller player pool than most handball nations.

Then, there’s the Faroe Islands with just 52,000 people.  Handball is also popular there, but they’ve never come close to qualifying for the World Championships or European Championships.  They have, however, shown some real promising signs recently.  They won the first two IHF Emerging Nations Championships in 2015 and 2017.  And, this past summer their U17 National Team shocked the handball world by winning the first ever European Open Championship for this age group.  And, it was not a fluke, they clearly were the best team at this tournament, beating Norway, Spain, Hungary, Belarus and Sweden.  And beating hosts, Sweden, convincingly 36-29 in the final no less (Match video).  Holy crap, is leading scorer and Tourney MVP, Elias Ellefsen a Skipagotu, the Jimmy Chitwood of handball?

So, I don’t want to take anything away from the young Faroe Islands team.  Winning this tournament was a tremendous accomplishment.  No one is ever going to take that away from them.  But, are the Faroe Islands now on a path to future Sr. Team titles?  I’m thinking probably not.  The team that won that tournament is truly a team.  They’ve got some solid players, but I suspect as they move up to U19 and U21 tournaments the bigger nations are going to take advantage of their larger talent pool and will out talent them physically.  And, at the Sr National Team level with age restrictions removed?  Well, the gap will just increase.  I think the Faroes will be competitive.  Maybe, with the expanded format they will even have a shot at qualifying for the European Championships.  But, competing for titles?  Really unlikely, but believe me it would truly be awesome to be totally wrong here.

Golden Generations and the Team Photo on the Wall

The other way that towns and nations with a small population pool can have success is with the happenstance of a so called “Golden Generation”.  Every town is going to have a good player every 10 years or so, but if you get lucky you might get two or three good players born at roughly the same time.  Or maybe even hit the jackpot with an entire team.  Combine that with decent coaching, a bit of luck and well… you get to put a State Champion photo up in the high school gym or win a U17 European title.  Or even get Hollywood to make a movie about you.  It can and does happen, it just doesn’t happen very often.  That’s what makes it special or golden. 

Is the current crop of Handball American Expats a golden generation?  Having followed USA Handball pretty closely for 30 years or so, I could say “yes or no… depending on your perspective”. 

With the U.S. Men there is a solid core of young Expat players aged 20-23 that could be mainstays on our Sr National Team for a decade.  The U.S. has never had that many talented players at that age level. Ever.  Not even close.  (Heck, historically many of our national team players didn’t even start playing handball until age 22 or 23).  From a comparative historical perspective it’s clearly a golden generation.  But, if one wants to compare that same cohort to the talent of other handball nations it’s less golden.  More accurately, it’s a collection of players that one might expect to see in the German 2nd Division.  Such a team can be competitive and could win a NORCA title and qualify for the World Championships.  I’ve got my doubts, though as to whether they can beat Argentina and Brazil to qualify for an Olympics. And, as a side point that points to Expatica Americana having a Golden Generation: Historically I would assess that a 3rd or 4th division side is what we might usually expect from such a small pool of talent to draw from.

With the U.S. Women there are simply not enough Expats available to field a team similar to the men (e.g. mostly expats with a handful of stateside players to round out the roster).  On a historical basis, though, more expats then ever before are being used and they are playing keying roles. But unless there are a lot of expat players hiding out somewhere in Europe we won’t be contemplating an Expat first strategy with the U.S. Women anytime soon.

The Big Picture

It should be clear now that Expatica American is and isn’t.

What Expatica Americana is:

  • A key cohort of our national teams
  • A cohort that is very, very small in size
  • A cohort that will ebb and flow in terms of quality (sometimes dramatically)
  • A cohort that sometimes (all by itself) will allow the U.S. to put together a respectable national team

What Expatica Americana isn’t:

  • A cohort that all by itself is very, very unlikely to carry USA national teams to greatness
  • A panacea for the lack of stateside grass roots development

So, I would say that’s a pretty thorough overview of our Handball American Expats.  I’ve covered what it means philosophically, their demographics and what can be realistically expected from this key cohort both now and going forward.  Time to move on and think more broadly in terms of how the U.S. should strategically develop its national teams going forward.

Expatica Amercicana (Part 1): What is a Handball American Expat and Philosophically, What is an American?

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Eleyes Baltagi, Asaf Bengozi, Amir Seifert, and Rene Ingram at the Jr World Championships.

Americans who have primarily developed their handball skills while growing up in another country are playing an increasingly important role with U.S. National teams. The first part of this series looks at some common misconceptions regarding this key subset of our national talent pool.

Citizen, Expat and Dual Citizen

First off, I think it’s important to have some common terminology because each of these descriptions of Americans are often used interchangeably when it reality they have some distinct differences.

  • Citizen: A legally recognized U.S. status entailing that person specific rights, duties and benefits. (Kind of a mouthful, but good ol Wikipedia has the best one I could find.)
  • Expat: An American citizen who lives in a foreign country
  • Dual Citizen: Someone who is a U.S. citizen, but also has citizenship with another country

What do each of these definitions have in common? They are all U.S. citizens and they all can represent the U.S. in international competitions.

How Does One Acquire Citizenship

There are 3 ways one can acquire U.S. citizenship. Those ways are:

  • Birth in U.S.: With only a handful of exceptions, if you are born on U.S. soil you automatically are entitled to U.S. citizenship
  • By Parent: If either one or both parents are U.S. citizens than the child can become a U.S. citizen
  • Naturalization: Citizenship can be obtained through the Naturalization process

Each of these methods have their own little rules or process associated with them. Having a U.S. birth certificate is by far the simplest. Claiming citizenship via a U.S. parent requires paperwork and is simplest if done shortly after birth. Regardless of how citizenship was obtained, if you have U.S. citizenship you can represent the U.S. in international competition.

The Typical Handball American Expat

The cohort of athletes that are making the big difference right now for U.S. national teams are:

American citizens that primarily learned how to play handball in another country where the sport is structured and well established.

In most cases these athletes are expats with dual citizenship, but as I took the trouble to explain above neither of those terms always fit or are even relevant to this description. And, some folks will even misconstrue those terms as negative. But, for the purposes of this discussion I’ve got to call them something and for simplistic reasons I’ve settled on “Handball American Expat” or simply expat.

Setting the semantics aside what is a typical Handball American Expat? In many cases it’s an American who has one American parent and one parent that is a citizen of a country where handball is well established. And, those parents have decided to live and raise a family in the country where handball is well established. These American kids are therefore exposed to handball, decide to make it their sport and they develop into handball players just like any other kid might living in that country.

The beauty of these expats is that USA Team Handball doesn’t have to do anything to develop them as players until they approach adulthood. About all that is required is communication and encouragement for them to eventually participate with U.S. National Teams. And, then even when they reach adulthood much of their development continues to be the work of their club teams. There are, of course, some things that USA Team Handball can do as a federation to foster and guide that development and that will be covered in a follow on commentary.

Americans that More Likely than not have Really Thought about their Citizenship

As I alluded to earlier, from time to time I’ve been taken to task for simply distinguishing between dual citizens/expats and state side Americans. Basically, being called out for insinuating that expat Americans are somehow not really Americans. Let me try and explain why that isn’t true on a personal level and why any redneck handball fans reading this might want to rethink that view.

I lived in France as a just visiting American for five years. Five totally awesome years in so many ways. My daughter went to French schools. I played basketball and handball with a local French club. I even speak some French… poorly. In short, I really tried to learn about the culture and be part of it. Of course, not to the extent of someone who decides to live in another country permanently, though, I did seriously contemplate applying for a job at NATO HQ in Brussels and not coming home. Contemplating is not the same as having done so, but it sure gives me a sense of what it might have been like to. To have a foot in two worlds.

And, another thing which surely any expat with a foot in both worlds has to have done a few times is really think about what it means to be an American or to explain to someone else what it means. To essentially defend who you are. I had to do that more than a few times and trust me it required a bit of thought while living in Paris as an active duty Air Force member in the lead up to the Iraq invasion in 2003. Such reflection on one’s citizenship is just not as front and center when you live stateside.

Of course, what I’ve just described is not true of every expat American or stateside American for that matter. Some expats might have ridiculously strong ties to the States based on frequent trips back there to visit relatives or an American parent that religiously reminded them of their citizenship and what it means. And, some expats might have pretty thin ties especially if they were simply born in the U.S. and have parents who are not also Americans. But, even if the ties are thin that individual has made a conscious choice to take on the mantle of being an American.

Any remaining doubts? I suggest that you watch these Handball American Expats when that Star Spangled Banner is played and they’re wearing USA on their backs. You’ll quickly come to the realization that they’re just as American as any American. And, arguably for the reasons I’ve laid out they may well have thought about what that means then the typical state sider.

Definitions and philosophy covered and out of the way. In Part 2, I’ll look a little closer at the demographics of our 51st state, Expatica Americana and how it’s a bit like the Faroe Islands.

USA National Teams on ESPN:  Unprecedented Coverage and a Window to the Future

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Unprecedented Coverage for USA National Teams; All thanks to ESPN’s web streaming Channel: ESPN 3

Trivia Question:  Prior to the 2019 PANAM Games when was the last (and only time) that a U.S. National Team match was aired in its entirety on a major U.S. television network?

Answer:  1996:  A friendly match between the U.S. Men and Brazil was aired on ESPN.  And, this was only due to a contract that the USOC made with ESPN that packaged the TV rights for all Olympic qualification events with a stipulation that every single Olympic sport would get air time on TV.

Flash forward 23 years later and we have ESPN airing seven U.S. National Team matches in eight days.  The USA Women’s semifinal and bronze medal match and all five Men’s games at the PANAM Games.  Yes, ESPN 3 is not ESPN.  It’s not ESPN 2 or ESPN U either.  It’s a “digital” Over the Top (OTT) streaming channel; not a traditional or “linear” channel.

Still, U.S. handball fans were treated to the best video production of U.S. matches ever.  Multiple cameras and a HD stream on a pretty reliable platform.  I watched a dozen matches and recall only a couple of times when there was a bit of buffering or pixelation.

A Window to the Future

This was unprecedented coverage and a window to the future.  I know that I’ve been saying this for a long time in one way or another.  The 2016 Olympics was the most recent example.

The Olympics are over.  Thanks for watching.  See you in 2020. How about sooner?: Link

If the U.S. had qualified for Rio, every USA match would have been on TV because NBC aired every single handball match on their OTT streaming channels.

My desire for an OTT “Handball Channel” has not been met, but more and more sports are migrating to OTT platforms. ESPN’s “ESPN+” has the most subscribers (2M+) and it was recently announced that it will be packaged with Hulu and a new Disney streaming channel.  If you have ESPN+, and you have surfed through the channels it doesn’t take much imagination to envision a “Team Handball” icon next to the cricket and rugby icons.

Another, lesser known OTT Sports Channel, DAZN, has also entered the U.S. market, but for the time being it’s mostly showing boxing.  That’s likely to change and there have even been reports that DAZN will bid for NFL Sunday Ticket package.  More relevant to handball fans is the 2020-2030 EHF contract which DAZN bid for and won in conjunction with Infront, meaning that the Champions League and European Championships could be coming to DAZN a year from now.

It’s hard to accurately predict where exactly our sports viewing experience is headed, but if Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime are a guide it’s headed towards more and more sports streaming.

Room for Improvement

While it was great to have the matches on ESPN 3 there’s still room for improvement in some key areas

  • English Language Commentary: While ESPN aired all the matches they essentially had no role in their production which was handled entirely by the company that the Lima 2019 committee hired.  This is evidenced by the Spanish language commentary that accompanied all of the broadcasts on ESPN 3.  If ESPN had wanted to they could have provided English language commentary.  Of course, there’s an expense with that, but it could have been done without too much difficulty at their headquarters in Connecticut.
  • Network Promotion: ESPN actually did a little bit of promotion through 2 handball inclusions on their Sports Center Top 10 plays of the day.  Video 1  Video 2   Still, it would have been nice for some handball to have been aired on the traditional ESPN Channels or for ESPN to have interviewed our coaches and players on one of their radio programs.

Future Broadcasts: Why some Events are “Free” and some aren’t

But, what about future handball broadcasts?  Well, this as you might expect will depend on costs.  And, for any sporting event there are 3 cost drivers.

  • The “rights” to broadcast
  • Production costs
  • Transmission costs

Handball competitions at the PANAM Games and the Olympic Games have the huge advantage of being one small part of a bigger packaged event.  In other words, handball gets paid for as part of that package.  ESPN in the case of the PANAM Games and NBC for the Olympics have no choice, but to pay for all the events, even if they are really only interested in the more well known events that American audiences will watch for huge ratings and, in turn, sponsorship dollars.

Major handball only competitions like the World Championships and the EHF Champions League don’t have the advantage of being part of a package deal, but the costs to a USA network can be kept to a minimum.  This is because the IHF and EHF are already paying for the production costs and they can choose to waive or sell TV rights to the U.S. at a reduced cost.    This just leaves transmission costs which thanks to the advent of OTT are less substantial than they would be on a traditional linear channel.

With “minor” handball competitions, however, the sticking point will be production costs.  Who’s going to pay for the cameras, commentators and direction that are part of a professionally produced TV sporting event?  With “major” handball events those costs are covered by the TV rights that are sold to markets where there already is a significant handball audience.  Unfortunately, the same thing cannot be done for an event like the North American & Caribbean Handball Championship or a U.S. National Championship.  The audience doesn’t exist to justify a substantial rights fee or even for a network to pay for production.  So where will the money for production costs come from?

Well, there are only a handful of options:

  1. USA Team Handball.  This might seem like a non-starter for a cash strapped federation where national team athletes have had to pay for their own travel to international competition, but if you’re trying to grow the sport it may be necessary.  Hopefully, there’s an increase in the overall budget, though, to make such an expenditure less painful
  2. The IHF.  A solid case can be made for the IHF to fund TV production for continental events like North American & Caribbean Championships.  A quality production that could then be aired in each nation to promote their national teams and the sport in general.  That funding would have to come from somewhere, but I would argue that this should be a higher priority than other initiatives the IHF is funding like the Super Globe competitions.
  3. Sponsors.  In this instance sponsors would pay for production costs in conjunction with their sponsorship of the event.  Indeed, this model has been used for sports like rugby, corn hole and axe throwing.  It would seem feasible that a long term sponsorship deal could be arranged whereby the sponsor pays more up front for costs like TV production and then makes out on the back end of the deal as USA Team Handball gains in popularity.

An OTT Partnership as a Way Ahead

If I were King for a day, I would suggest that the answer would be, “all of the above” because I could see it as a win-win for everyone involved.  A partnership involving the IHF, EHF, USA Team Handball, an established network like ESPN, and a major sponsor collaborating on a joint effort.  An OTT sub channel for handball which maximizes the airing of major and minor handball competitions.   The IHF and EHF would see handball grow in the important USA market.  USA Team Handball would have a place for its USA matches to air, ESPN (or some other network) could become the USA TV home for handball and a major sponsor would have a feel good story of helping a sport takeoff in the U.S.

All that might be too much to ask for, but something like this is in the cards one way or another.  It’s not a matter of if anymore, but when.

PANAM Games Qualification Preview (USA vs Canada) Men:  New Look USA Men’s Team vs Steady as She Goes Canadian Side

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The Canadian Men have been solid consistent performers for the past 6 months. Will that be enough to beat a new look U.S. team?

The USA and Canadian Men will face off against each other in a 2 game series this Sunday in Auburn, AL and Wednesday in Montreal to determine the North American qualifier for the PANAM Games next summer in Lima, Peru.

Unlike the Women, The USA and Canadian Men have played each other recently.  Just this past April, Canada beat the U.S. Men 33-31 at the North American & Caribbean Championships.  And, this was an important match in which a U.S. victory might have led to the U.S. Men qualifying for the Pan American Championships.  While a close match the Canadian Men clearly were a better side that day and consistently a better side throughout that tournament.  They rightly earned qualification to the Pan American Championships that were held in Greenland this past June.

At that tournament, Canada continued their steady, consistent play.  They were not competitive against Brazil (42-13) and were soundly beaten by Greenland (32-20), but they finished up strong in the consolation rounds beating Puerto Rico and avenging an earlier defeat against Uruguay to finish in 5th place.  They may not be the most athletic team, but they play smart and find a way to beat teams on their level.  Not surprisingly, Coach Alexis Bertrand, has kept his roster almost entirely intact, with virtually an identical roster from the two tournaments played earlier this year.

With the U.S. Men, it’s a dramatically different tale to tell.  The U.S. has a new coach, Robert Hedin, and a dramatically different roster with only 6 players returning from the NORCA Tournament.  National Team mainstay, Gary Hines, has returned and several dual citizens, mostly playing in Europe will make their U.S. Sr Team debut.  Some have previously played for the U.S. in Jr team competitions and have shown promise in those events.  Adam El Zoghby also returns after a long spell and the U.S. has added a totally new face in 21 year old Ian Huter who plays for Dormagen in the German Bundesliga 2nd Division.

It’s hard to say who exactly will play the bulk of the minutes for Coach Hedin, but it won’t surprise me a bit if he leans heavily on the new dual citizens and Gary Hines.  And, based on the individual pedigrees of all these players, in theory, overnight, the U.S. has a more talented and athletic team than Canada.  Key words: “in theory.”  Why?  Well, because it’s not always easy to integrate individual talents into a cohesive team.  It takes time to accomplish that task.  And, time has run out for this “new look” U.S. team.  They’ve had limited time to prepare, limited time to practice, and only a few friendly matches under their belt.  None of which were played with the full roster.

Meanwhile the Canadians have played two important qualification tournaments in the last 6 months.  They are as ready to play at their maximum potential as they probably could be.  They know their teammates, their strengths, their weaknesses.  They know that “so and so” likes his pass “right here” on the wing.  And, when if the left back starts his move, the circle runner knows exactly where to go to get the entry pass.  They are a solid “team”.  Not flashy, but solid.  Based on their recent performances they are very unlikely to beat themselves.  Indeed, they’ve shown quite the knack of finding a way to win the close games at crunch time.

So, what we have are a lot of unanswered questions:

  • Will the new U.S. dual citizens live up to their billing? Making the U.S. Team immediately better?
  • And, if so will this new U.S. side play as a team? Or, will they merely be a collective group of individuals that haven’t quite gelled together yet?
  • And, will that leave an opening for a proven Canadian side? To collectively beat a side which is a better team on paper?
  • Or, will the Canadians wilt under pressure from superior talent?
  • Or, maybe the Canadian Men will grow tired of all the hype surrounding a new U.S. team and have that little extra motivation to just prove they are better.

I could go on, but you get the picture.  Lots of burning questions to be answered.  And, the answers to these questions may change over the course of 120 minutes making the aggregate winner of this border war showdown all the more interesting.

USA – Canada PANAM Games Qualification Schedule

Sunday, 2 September at Auburn
USA – Canada (Women) 3:00 PM (Central Time)
USA – Canada (Men) 5:00 PM (Central Time)

Wednesday, 5 September at Montreal
USA – Canada (Women) 7:00 PM (Eastern Time)
USA – Canada (Men) 9:00 PM (Eastern Time)

All 4 matches will be live streamed.  

Live stream for matches at Auburn: Link
Live stream for matches at Montreal:   (Link to be added when available)

I will be on the ground, both in Auburn and Montreal, with interviews, stories and some tweets during the match.  You can follow me here:  https://twitter.com/TeamHandball

I Just Made a Donation to Support the USA National Teams.  Maybe you Should, Too?

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The USA Men and Women will take on their Canadian rivals this Sunday and Wednesday. If you’re watching and being entertained then perhaps you should consider a small donation to defray player travel costs.  Just sayin…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Most likely you’ve seen many online pleas for money.  Support this, support that.  My favorite is the college kid who held up a “Send Beer Money” sign behind the ESPN College Game Day hosts.  And, the crazy thing is that it worked! This guy actually got total strangers to send him money.  Crazy, but ingenious.

And, of course, I’ve seen many pleas for support to handball causes, particularly national team travel.  While my love for the sport of handball and Team USA is pretty high I’ve always been reluctant to contribute to to these campaigns for a number of reasons.  Those reasons:

1) Rewarding the Budget Shell Game.  Back in 2011 USA Team Handball found itself short of cash for upcoming national team trips.  In this commentary, I highlighted what can be called a “Budget Shell Game.”  Essentially, this trick involves first spending all or most of your money on several items that might not be very popular and then playing the pauper, holding your hand out for critical needs that now can’t be paid.  Our Congress uses this trick all the time.  I was a party to it during my Air Force days arguing for budget support.  “Cut something the Fighter Pilots really want and then we will get more money.”  And, USA Team Handball, intentionally or not, sure was guilty of it back in 2011.  The U.S. is really strapped for money now, so if similar machinations are going on now they are on a far smaller scale.  Still, there’s a budget.  Could more money have been found to support National Team travel?  Could something else had been sacrificed?  There’s no way of really knowing for sure and the details behind such decisions, but make no mistake, such decisions are made.  And, I don’t care how tight money is, it just doesn’t seem right that travel can’t be funded by the federation and that pleas have to be made by the players.  It’s annoying, but it can be effective.  I complained back in 2011, but I still made a contribution for travel support.

2) Setting a Continuous Expectation? Further complicating things are the moral questions that play out when you help the homeless guy on the street.  If you give him a buck once, why don’t you give him a buck every time you see him?  Are you helping that guy out or enabling and encouraging him to ask for even more handouts? And, what about the other guy down the street?  Shouldn’t he get a buck, too?  And, why just 1 buck?  Why not a 20 spot?  All of these questions apply with handball fundraisers.  The U.S. has multiple teams and those teams make multiple trips.  Should one contribute to these equally and will these requests ever stop?  As someone who never had to pay for his national team travel I feel a bit conflicted.  On one hand, shouldn’t I help out those making similar sacrifices who are less fortunate than I was?  But, on the other hand am I setting a precedent here?  That this is the new way of doing business and I should just get used to it?

3) Other Handball Needs are More Deserving.  Another conflict I often have is a reflection as to what our sport really needs if it’s ever going to succeed in this country.  As much as I love cheering on Team USA it’s pretty clear to me that youth development, college development and other efforts to broaden our player and fan base are more important in the long term.  In the big scheme of things near term National Team performance won’t make much of a dent, especially with the ultimate goal of Olympic qualification being a real longshot.  Hence annual contributions to Air Force handball and youth programs have gotten priority.

4) Other Non-Handball Related Charities are Altruistically More Deserving.  It goes without saying that the world has a lot of needs.  Yeah, it’s hard to rationalize that flying some athlete to Montreal for a handball match is more important than say giving to a wounded warrior fund or helping starving kids somewhere.  And, 100% selfishly, my daughters’ college funds.

I’m not sure I’ve resolved my feelings regarding these internal conflicts, but I’ve made a donation to the men’s and women’s online campaign for the upcoming PANAM Games qualifiers.  Why these campaigns and not others? I guess I personally really put a premium on matches that are part of Olympic Qualification.  Plus, I’m attending them, so that’s a further point suggesting a contribution.  I am being entertained.  I really am getting something transactional.

And, I would suggest that if you’re planning on spending about 8 hours watching the online streams for those 4 matches then maybe that ought to tip the scales for your contribution as well.  How much do you pay for Netflix or Hulu or to go to a movie?

Just saying…  I really hate people bugging me for money. (And, wow, I just became one of those people.)

You can contribute at the following websites:

USA Men: Link

USA Women: Link

 

 

 

 

USA Team Handball Unveils its Strategic Plan:  That’s a Really Good First Step towards Bigger and Better Developments

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A collegiate final four in the future. A U.S. National Team competing in a French league. A bigger push towards television. There’s a lot to like in USA Team Handball’s 1st ever strategic plan.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This past week USA Team Handball unveiled a Strategic Plan which outlines organizational plans for the next 10 years leading up to the 2028 Olympics.

USA Team Handball article unveiling the Strategic Plan:  Link

USA Team Handball Strategic Plan: Link

The plan covers a lot of ground, but here are the four main focus areas:

Organizational Development:  This area outlines the need for reconstituting the Board of Directors and increasing the size of the administrative staff.  The reconstitution of the Board has already started with 3 new board members (Randy Dean, Dee Miller, and Dave Buckman) recently being added to the Board.  Administrative staff positions have also been identified with plans to hire a CEO later this year and a Digital Media specialist and Technical Director next year.  Current CEO, Mike Cavanaugh will apparently be reassigned to a new Director of Operation position.

Fundraising: This focus area places additional emphasis on the need for improved fundraising with the hiring of a CEO with fundraising expertise, the need to develop fundraising acumen of the Board of Directors, the development of long term strategy for fundraising and to better engage national team alumni

Marketing and Digital Communication:  This area will seek to improved USA Team Handball’s online presence and to better link marketing efforts with fundraising and sponsorship.

Operational and Competitive Excellence:  For most long time followers of the sport this section contains the meat and potatoes initiatives that will seek to improve national team performance and club competitions.  One key initiative will expand the college game and introduce a season ending Final Four Event.  Another initiative will be to improve national team performance through the placement of a U.S. team in a French handball league for regular competition.

Commentary:  Even occasional readers to this website have probably seen me link to this May 5th, 2013 commentary advocating the need for USA Team Handball strategic planning on more than one occasion.  Yes, back in 2012 there was a similar effort that stopped prematurely for reasons that have never been explained.

The need for a strategic plan has been my personal mantra.  A vital first step sorely needed to turn things around and for 6 years I expressed this to virtually everyone in a leadership role.  For sure, I would have like to have seen this process start back up a whole lot sooner, but really, it’s time to just move forward and be glad it’s finally been done.

I also played a small role in the plan’s development with my attendance at one of the planning meetings.  I had the opportunity to share my views and influence the final outcome.  Do I think the “change agent” who advocated such an effort for so many years should have been more directly involved in the document’s drafting?  Yes, for sure, but really, it’s time to just move forward and be glad it’s finally been done. 

But, in effect, even if I was just peripherally involved one doesn’t have to peruse this section on the website very long to see that many elements of what I’ve been advocating have found their way into the strategic plan.   Collegiate focus?  An overseas residency?  More focus in efforts to get the sport on TV?  What’s next?  A rethinking of our stateside residency program? Really, maybe, I should pinch myself.  There’s a lot to like in this plan.

Do I agree with everything?  No.  I think it is a bit too solution specific in a few areas.  In a sense more “tactical” than “strategic” with strawman action plans that probably could stand more vetting and further assessment.  A bit more weighing of all the possible tactical options that might a particular strategic goal before identifying a specific solution.  One specific example: I would suggest that Denmark, Germany and Eastern Europe are possible candidates for a European residency effort in addition to France.  And, that a tactical assessment should be left to the new staff to present to the Board for decision at a later date.

Of course, it’s always a debate as to how tactical a strategic plan should get.  I think it goes too far in some areas.  Others probably want everything spelled out in detail.  Reasonable people can disagree.

There are several other areas that I could nitpick over.  Some of the Appendix A financial goals are very optimistic projections. (Well, optimistic when compared contextually to other USA team sport federations with 50-100 fold larger fan and membership bases).  Youth development goals are not well defined.  The strategic vision of how the U.S. goes in 10 years time to a top 6 team needs a lot more definition…

I could go on, but as I wrote back in 2013 it’s very easy to critique just about any plan.  But, it’s less easy to critique a plan developed through a structured process.  And, while I would have like to have seen this effort involve more people and a formal review process, I won’t complain too much.

It’s time to just move forward and be glad it’s finally been done.

Robert Hedin Hired as USA Men’s National Team Coach

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New USA Men’s National Team Coach, Robert Hedin

USA Team Handball has announced that Robert Hedin has been hired as the interim coach for the U.S. Men’s national team.  His assignment will run through the upcoming PANAM Games qualification matches vs Canada on 2 September (Auburn) and 5 September (Montreal).

Hedin, 52, is a native of Sweden, and is currently the club manager at St Hallvard, a suburb of Oslo, Norway.  Hedin has extensive experience, both as a player and coach.  His playing career includes two Olympic silver medals at the 92 and 96 Olympics and his club career included stints in Spain, Germany and Switzerland.

His most notable coaching assignment was as Norway’s head coach from 2008-2014.  Club coaching assignments include Melsungen in Germany, Aalborg in Denmark and most recently Bregenz in Austria.  At the end of the 2016-17 season he reportedly moved back to Norway at least in part to facilitate his wife’s career as a screenwriter

Commentary:  This is a great hire for USA Team Handball.  While it is only a temporary assignment Hedin will have the opportunity to show what he can do as coach in the 2 game series against Canada.  Canada beat the U.S. 33-31 in April and gained some valuable experience with their 5th place showing at the Pan American Championships in June, but they are clearly beatable.  In my opinion, success will hinge on selecting the right players and then getting them to gel as a team in a short period of time.  This may be a far cry from the sort of coaching challenges a coach faces in a more structured European environment, but it is the sort of challenge an American coach often faces.

Coach Hedin will get his first opportunity to evaluate some of his players in two weeks with a tryout scheduled at Auburn on 22 July.  It will be interesting to see what players there garner his interest as well as which dual citizens ultimately make the roster for the clashes vs Canada.  And, then ultimately how well the team performs in the critical 2 game series in September.

A win on aggregate will directly qualify the U.S. for the 2019 PANAM Games.  A loss will result in the U.S. playing in a 2nd chance tournament against a stronger Chile team from South America and 2 TBD teams from Central American & Caribbean.

Qualifying for the PANAM Games also might lead to some talk of erasing the “interim” from Hedin’s Head Coaching title.  But, should that happen a whole host of other issues would have to be addressed to include salary and job responsibilities.  For instance, would a permanent head coach take on recruiting and player development challenges that are unique to the U.S.

Podcast (Episode 37) EHF Final Four: An Emotional, Cathartic Experience for America’s #1 Handball Fan

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My new friend, Michel, and I celebrate Montpellier’s unlikely return to the top of Europe.

Last weekend I had the opportunity to attend the Velux EHF Final Four in Cologne, Germany.  Six days later I’m just starting to come down from the “high” of doing so.  I’ll touch on a number of items.

What an Experience!

From the moment I arrived in Cologne it was simply special to be surrounded by so many reminders (signage, flags, etc) that this was the mecca for handball.  The opening night party with the club fans cheering on their teams introduction was also special and a reminder that I was now here in the center of the handball world.

But, stepping foot in the LanXess arena as just 1 amongst 18,000 fans was truly a cathartic experience for this American handball fan.  This is because virtually every match I’ve witnessed or played in my home country has been in front of nobody or perhaps a few other players.  I’ve watched games on my computer at home by myself.  I’ve grown a bit tired of explaining the game that I am so passionate about to others.  I’ve come to accept that I’m a bit of an anomaly in my own little cocoon of a world.

In the LanXess arena, though, that feeling of being the sole outlier evaporated in an instant.  It’s a great feeling for even just one weekend to be part of a throng instead of a lone voice crying out in the wilderness.  It’s a long way to get there, but attending at least one Final Four should be on every handball fan’s bucket list.

A Really, Really, Really Unlikely Final (as in 2,400 to 1 at the start of the season)

Choosing which side to cheer on Saturday in the semifinals was pretty easy for me.  If you don’t have a team you root for the underdogs.  And both Nantes and Montpellier clearly fit into that category.  Last September I wrote an article highlighting the odds for each team winning the upcoming Champions League.  In the article I also provided a few predictions of my own and it included this little gem of prophecy:

“Potential party crashers again will be those pesky French sides Nantes and Montpellier.”

But, before I get all braggadocious of my prognostication skills let’s be clear:  I was just referring to “possible” Round of 16 upsets.  Not the freakin Championship match!  Get out of here!  What were the preseason odds to win the Champions League for those two sides?  Nantes was listed at 65 to 1.  Montpellier was listed at 150 to 1.

And what would the odds have been for a quinella bet for those two sides to meet in the final?  I’m guessing that such a bet wasn’t offered anywhere, but if it had been offered here’s the back of the envelope calculations for that match up.  Since winning it all was 65 to 1 and 150 to 1, one can roughly assume that the odds for just reaching the final would be half that (32 to 1 and 75 to 1).  And, then the odds for both occurring is a simple multiplication of those two odds, which equates to 2,400 to 1.

For context, this would be roughly the equivalent of an NBA preseason bet for a projected #8 and #6 meeting in the finals.  Every once in a while you can picture one team coming out of nowhere, but you just don’t expect 2 teams to do so in the same year.

Montpellier, Montpellier, Montpellier 

The unlikely final matchup made it a bit more challenging for me to pick a side on Sunday.  Or, did it?

Time for a bit of a diatribe here, but it’s necessary for full context.  Many readers already know, but as a reminder, I lived in France from 2002-2007.  And, if you were a handball fan living in France during that time frame, you got to see Montpellier play… a lot.  You really had no choice in the matter.  Watch Montpellier (yet again) or don’t watch handball.  Back in 2005 one of my first blog postings lamented this reality with a commentary listing my “Top 10 reasons why I love to hate Montpellier handball.”  I say lamented, but to be honest I really enjoyed “hate watching” Montpellier quite a bit.  Yes, rooting against the NY Yankees of French Handball was just as much fun as rooting against the NY Yankees, New England Patriots and the Golden St Warriors.

After leaving France I continued to follow the French League from afar, but with no league matches available for viewing I could only see the French qualifiers in Champions League matches.  The French league faded from my consciousness.  But, then in 2012 the French League and Montpellier made the news in a big way with the infamous betting scandal.  With several Montpellier players including the Karabatic brothers being implicated and eventually found guilty.  Ha, ha, I said to myself from afar as Montpellier got their comeuppance.

But, then in the aftermath a couple of things happened that got me rethinking Montpellier and its place in French Handball.  First, Montpellier, both their management and their fans handled a very bad situation about as well as they could.  Montpellier cleaned house and got new players.  Their performance dipped, but those Montpellier fans stayed with them.  Begrudgingly, I had to recognize that.

And, then Paris St-Germain invested in Paris handball in a big way.  Qatari money poured in creating a new super team of stars.  They even brought the Karabatic brothers back to France.  I may have once called Montpellier the NY Yankees of France, but PS-G has clearly taken over that mantle with a budget that dwarfs the rest of the league.

Coming Full Circle in Cologne

Sunday’s final was a tour de force for French Handball.  The little league with annually, maybe a quarterfinal participant now had 2 teams facing off against each other in the final.  It was a wonderful atmosphere and a great first half between two sides, both with passionate fans.  At halftime, I decided that the only real way to watch the rest of this match was with those fans.  So I left my seat and made my way to the purple corner of Nantes.  I stood behind the loud and boisterous contingent as they cheered on their team and reacted to every play.  After a while, though, I reflected that I was with the wrong team and found my way to the opposite corner.  To the team that I had “hate watched” so many, many times.

“Really?”  I thought to myself.  “Am I really going to jump on the Montpellier bandwagon?”

Yes, wholeheartedly.  It was the right thing to do.  As the game wound down the fans around me genuinely relished in their victory.  They cheered on their players who later joined them in celebration.

Afterwards, I searched for a Montpellier fan who spoke good English and Michel was kind enough to join me to discuss the experience, the team and their road to redemption.   The interview is about 9 minutes and the link is at the top of the page.

At the end of the interview I reflect a bit on how I’ve come full circle and probably should get a scarf and join the Blue Fox (Montpellier’s fan club).  At which point Michel’s wife reached into her purse and immediately took care of my wish.

I’ve had a lot of great handball experiences in my life and a lot of mementos to remember them, but right now my Blue Fox scarf is my most prized handball possession.

Allez, Allez, Montpellier!

IHF Awards Japanese Men with a Wild Card for the 2019 WC; Does that Mean the U.S. will get the Same Deal in 2027 or Maybe Sooner?

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The IHF Council has awarded the Japanese Men’s team a wild card entry for the 2019 World Championships which will be cohosted by Germany and Denmark next January.  This award is clearly to support Japanese development in the run up to the 2024 Olympics in Tokyo.  For sure, Japan is not the next best available team.  They placed 6th at the Asian Championship losing to Iran 33-28 in the 5th place game.  Iran’s not going to the World Championships and neither will several European teams that surely would beat Japan in competition.  It’s not certain which European teams won’t qualify, but it will be the 9 losers in these 2 match playoffs that will be held in June: Link

There’s certainly some logic to giving a helping hand to a future Olympic host.  As noted, previously the IHF is under pressure from the IOC to show that handball is more than just a European game.  Right now the level of play for the Japanese Men would suggest a winless last place finish with some bad score lines.  Playing in a World Championship will provide some valuable experience that hopefully can narrow the gap some.  Their athletes will also get a chance to shine on the world stage and perhaps use that opportunity to sign a professional club contract.

What’s interesting to note about this decision by the IHF Council is that it was made prior to the European qualification matches.  Meaning, that if a “name” team slips up and doesn’t qualify the IHF won’t be able to award that team a wild card spot.  That being said most of the key “name” teams have already qualified.  I could be wrong, but I’m thinking that if Germany’s qualification was still in doubt the IHF might well have held off on awarding the wild card slot to Japan

A Future Wild Card Deal for the U.S.?

Japan’s award raises the question as to whether the U.S. might be given a similar boost at some point. With the IHF looking to develop the U.S. market, one can certainly see the possibility of the men’s and women’s team getting wild cards in the future.  Should it be necessary, one could certainly envision wild cards in 2027.  But, I suspect the goal is for that not to be necessary nine years from now.

It’s hard to see that far in the future, though, and certainly qualification would be directly tied to whatever future qualification requirements are levied on the new North American & Caribbean Handball Confederation.  Not to mention that Cuba with its inclusion of European pros is an emerging force to reckon with.

One could actually envision an earlier wild card award to the U.S.  After all, participating in a World Championships just a year and a half before an Olympics is kind of a stop gap measure.  It will help, but not set the stage for significant improvement in such a short period of time.  Whereas 3 years or even 5 years ahead of an Olympics provides more time for growth.  However, such an award would not be automatic.  The U.S. would have to show some level of promise.  That the team had real potential for improvement.

It remains to be seen just what is in store with the IHF’s plans for North America, but the helping hand to Japan can certainly be seen as a signal that help may be on the way.

NORCA:  USA Men with Disappointing Results: Where Do We Go from Here?

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2018 Men’s North American & Caribbean scoring summary

Heading into the North American & Caribbean (NORCA) I predicted a wide open tournament. It was hard to really know how well the U.S. would do based on a roster with several new names and one big missing name, Gary Hines.  On top of that, the competition was pretty much an unknown quantity as well.  All in all, I told folks messaging me that any result from 2nd place all the way to 6th wouldn’t surprise me.  In the end, the U.S. Men finished in 5th place, but one could see how they might well have finished as high as 2nd if they had been a little luckier or had played a bit smarter in crunch time.  All in all, it was a disappointing finish as our top rivals Canada and our fellow Americans in hurricane ravaged Puerto Rico were the teams that found a way to qualify for the Pan American Championships this summer in Greenland.  The U.S. meanwhile will stay home, lick its wounds and hopefully, contemplate the future going forward.

Some Bright Spots

While the overall team result was disappointing there were some individual performances that were bright spots:

Sam Hoddersen:  Hoddersen, just 20, was the team’s leading scorer with 37 goals in 5 games.  And, it wasn’t just the goals that he scored, but his court vision and technical skills that got the defense out of position for the next guy to score.  He was the linchpin of the U.S. offense and without him on the roster, I would assess that the U.S. would have finished last in the tournament.  And, may very well have had some games end with some pretty bad score lines.

What I’m still debating, though, is whether Hoddersen has the skills and quickness to overcome his lack of size.  On his club team in Germany, Hoddersen usually plays left wing.  Meaning that at the German 3rd Division level he’s seen more as a wing then a center back.  So, it’s possible that his club isn’t using him properly, but it’s far more likely that the NORCA level of competition is somewhat below that of the German 3rd Division.  For a further look at the issues surrounding the wing vs center back debate regarding shorter players check out this video:  Link

Sean Zimber:  Zimber was the team’s 2nd leading scorer with 32 goals and he and Hoddersen were a nice tandem in the backcourt.  Another young gun, just 21 years old who also has good technical skills.  But, again like Hoddersen, he may also be a bit undersized to play backcourt effectively against stiffer competition.

Alden Mezick:  A while back, I anointed Rene Ingram as the U.S. goalie of the future.  Mezick’s play at NORCA has me walking that statement back.  I don’t know what his save percentage was, but I’m guessing it was pretty decent.  Throw out dozens of opponents fast breaks and it would be even better.  He was another factor keeping the U.S. in games that might have slipped away.

What’s really remarkable is that he’s done this with extremely little experience in competitive matches.  I messaged him on Facebook and he estimated that he’s played around 100-150 competitive matches in his entire career, with a good portion of those matches being just halves.  He’s crazy good for that little experience.  Credit to the coaching staff for developing his skills, but if he hasn’t plateaued in terms of development in the U.S., he surely will soon.  In my opinion, he needs a season or two in Europe with better and more regular competition to see what his potential is.

The Old Guard (Part Time Players)

First off, let me say a few things for context.  I like the guys on the U.S. National Team.  I really do.  Some are friends or friendly acquaintances at least.  And, some guys as they say, I don’t know from Adam.  Regardless, I have an affinity with every player on the team in that I’ve been in the same place:  On a U.S. national team; making sacrifices, doing the best that I can and often getting less than satisfactory results.

Divine Jackson, Jordan Fithian, Chris Morgan and Ty Reed:  These 4 athletes have had a varied path to the national team.  Jackson, has simply made it through hard work at the club level in the U.S.  Fithian developed his game in Germany while doing odd jobs to make ends meet.  Morgan and Reed spent a couple of years at the Residency Program in Auburn, but have since moved to other locales in the U.S.  But, these 4 athletes all have something in common.  They are part time players at best, not in top playing form, yet still making meaningful, significant contributions to the U.S. National Team.  They had to take off work and pay for their own travel to represent their country in competition.  That’s not easy and it’s to be commended.

But, more importantly, what does it say about our Residency Program at Auburn if these part timers who are not practicing regularly can not only make the team, but indeed are playing the bulk of the minutes on the court?

Who Are These Guys?

If you total up the scoring of the bright spots and the old guard you’ll account for 84% of USA Team scoring for the NORCA tournament.  Only one current residency program athlete who also learned to play handball there, left wing, Michael Lee, had a significant offensive contribution.   As a former defensive specialist I’ll be the first to tell you that there is more to handball than putting the ball in the back of the net.  Still… It says quite a lot that 5 athletes, 3 of which aren’t even playing regularly had the bulk of the scoring.

The webstream quality for the tournament was not the best, but best I could tell is that the other members of the team saw limited action on the court.  And, when they did see action their inexperience was fairly obvious.  This is not to say they aren’t good athletes, or that they aren’t trying hard, or that they can’t eventually be great players.  Just, that they’ve got a long, long road ahead of them.

Auburn Residency Program Performance (Team Results and Player Development)

The disappointing results, coupled with an assessment of player development should lead USA Team Handball’s decision makers to take along hard look at how well the Residency Program is working at Auburn and a further assessment of its future both near term and long term.

Let’s be clear: It’s no secret that I’m not a fan of the Residency Program concept.  I’ve spent a lot of ink on that subject.  From trying to kill it before it was started, to trying to explain why conceptually it makes less sense today, to the inherent problems with trying to run such a program on the cheap.

But any bias aside, by almost any conceivable metric one would like to use to measure performance it’s clearly not gotten very good results.

Looking strictly at team performances in International competitions it’s been really disappointing.  Since the program started National Team performance hasn’t improved; In fact, it’s gotten worse:

2014 NORCA Championship: 3rd out of 6 teams
2014 Pan American Championships: 6th out of 8 teams
2015 PANAM Games Qualification:  Lost 2 game series to Uruguay
2015 PANAM Games: Did not Qualify
2016 NORCA Championship: Not played
2016 Pan American Championships: 8th out of 12 teams
2018 NORCA Championship:  5th out of 6 teams
2018 Pan American Championships:  Did not Qualify

National team results always matter, but I could set aside disappointing scoreboard results if I thought a lot of great talent was being developed.  Some talent is indeed being developed in the in the past 4.5 years:

  • Two competent goalies (Goodreau and Mezick); one with long term potential
  • A serviceable left wing in Michael Lee. Not spectacular and prone to too many mistakes.  I would assess that he can continue to improve, but does not have world class talent
  • Two solid U.S. club players in Ty Reed and Chris Morgan. They know how to play the game and can contribute, but they’ve probably plateaued as players and would probably need to travel to Europe to further develop their game.  But, at ages 26 and 29 they are not likely to draw significant interest at a higher level club.  Meaning, by the time they would get good they’d be on the glideslope of decline due to natural physical decline in their 30s.

Note:  I don’t include Sean Zimber in this assessment because having seen him play in the IHF Trophy event last summer he was already a quality player prior to joining the Residency Program last fall.  I don’t think the residency program has hurt his development, but I suspect that he would have improved more as a player if he had stayed in Japan or moved to Europe.

That’s about it for a program that started in the fall of 2013. I could also discuss a few more athletes that didn’t participate in the NORCA Championship.  Some athletes that have left the program or had other commitments that prevented them from participating, but none of those athletes could be seen as legitimate game changers.  Just more hard working athletes making big sacrifices and doing the best that they can.

Not Idle Speculation:  Our dual citizen athletes are clearly better than our Residency Program athletes

After the IHF Junior Trophy victory last summer in the Pan American zone I speculated that the U.S. Junior Team could give our current Senior Men’s tourney a run for the money.  I guess it’s still speculation, but I’ll go on record to say that there’s now very little doubt in my mind that a roster composed of dual citizen players who either are still playing for our Jr team or recently aged out would easily beat a roster of players trained at Auburn.  Take all the players that have ever trained there and pick your team and I’ll bet the farm that right now that our dual citizen players would win by around 5 goals; maybe more.

Could there be any doubt?  The two best court players (Hoddersen and Zimber) in the tourney that just played are part of that cohort. Several others such as Kollman, Baup and Fofana are also solid players and surely still improving.

Finally, here’s a simple extrapolation:  Such a team would have also likely qualified for the Pan American Championships.  Might have won all its games except Cuba.  And, of course, it goes without saying that the same would also be true if Gary Hines, the Men’s leading scorer for a decade or more had played in the tournament.

National Team Development and Plans at a Crossroads?

So, if 4.5 years into a program, if the bulk of your up and coming players are still being developed elsewhere it’s probably time for a reassessment of your strategy.  Maybe you close the program.  Maybe you change its focus.  Maybe you pump more resources into so it can properly work.  Lots of maybes and USA Team Handball is clearly at a crossroads.  Will the federation just muddle along as it often has done in the past or will it select a different path going forward.

For once, there’s a lot to suggest that at this point in time, USA Team Handball might well take a different path going forward.  Elements suggesting a possible change in direction include:

  • The continuing poor results. As just described team performance and the lack of top talent being identified and developed is just too hard to ignore anymore
  • A change in Board leadership. Schiller resigned in January and Bob Djokovich has stepped in as interim President.  And, all appearances are that he’s not treating his interim role as a caretaker assignment.  He’s moving forward with plans to develop a strategic plan for USA Team Handball.
  • IHF and USOC engagement. Both the IHF and the USOC have stepped in with promises to support handball development in the U.S. in the lead up to the 2028 Olympic Games.  Both organization are also directly involved in the strategic plan development.  Indeed, they arguably are the instigators that nudged USA Team Handball towards more strategic thinking.
  • Sr. Men’s National Team Coach Retirement. Javier Garcia Cuesta quietly resigned from his position after the NORCA tournament.  This departure makes it much simpler and easier for USA Team Handball to contemplate plans that may not require a full time coach at Auburn.
  • 7 year contract ending in 2020. Reportedly, the Residency Program contract with Auburn signed in 2013 was for 7 years meaning that it will end sometime in 2020.  Logically, it will soon be time to start negotiating a possible extension.  And, when such negotiations take place the parties typically start to show their hands as it relates to future planning.  Either new commitments re-invigorate existing agreements or the existing agreement sputters along, sometimes even ending prematurely.

All of this suggests some major changes could be coming.  But, the key word here is “suggests.”  USA Team Handball has been in such a position before many times in the past, but for a whole host of reasons we just kept doing roughly what we’ve been doing.

Change is hard.  Change is risky.  Change upsets people.

But, sometimes change is just flat out necessary.  I know I often get accused (wrongly) of always being a pessimist.  Wrongly, in that the presumption is that I’m being pessimistic just to be pessimistic.  When the reality, quite frankly, is that there’s been very little reason to be optimistic for the past few years.

But, for once I see some real reasons to justify optimism because I think there’s a real chance that some thoughtful planning in the U.S. will be taking place soon.  That tough decisions on resource allocation will be made, not deferred.  That the table will be set for some real development in the U.S.  Development that can lead to competitive U.S. National Teams and so much more.

It won’t be easy.  It won’t be quick.  But, this time it just may happen.

EHF Champions League Quarter Finals: Odds, Schedule, Streaming Links and Predictions

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EHF CL Final Four Prediction: 3 French Teams and Vardar as a special wild card guest.  Because.  Because, if there’s an LNH Coupe de la Ligue being staged outside of France, I’ve just got to be there.

The Champions League Quarterfinals started yesterday with Flensburg hosting Montpellier, but I won’t give away the score.  For the handball purist this might well be the best two weekends of handball all year.  Best in the sense, that the two game aggregate format provides fans with a compelling narrative over the course of two games.  Don’t get me wrong, the Final Four is fun and there’s something to be said for a knockout tourney in a festival style setting.  But, for the purist the opportunity to see how each side handles the away leg provides an interesting dynamic.  As does, how each coach makes adjustments between match 1 and 2.

Oh, and I guess there’s something to be said for the World Championships and European Championship being pretty good too, but I’ll take professional club handball over national team handball.  Players that play with each other all season long trumps all star team competitions jammed into a two week period.  But, that probably has something to do with being an American.  (As if the Basketball World Championships can hold a candle to the NBA Playoffs; Why would one think handball was any different.)

First, for context here are the current odds and opening odds for each team to win the title.

Now a bit on each of the match ups.

Kielce – Paris S-G     Sat, 21 Apr 1600 CET    On Demand Video:
Paris S-G – Kielce     Sat, 28 Apr 1730 CET    On Demand Video:

Paris has been on a tear this year in the Champions League, but they’ve had some slips up in the French League which suggests some vulnerability.  Meanwhile, Kielce has been less than impressive and were given a free pass to the QF thanks to Rhein-Neckar’s decision to send their 2nd team to play the first leg in the Round of 16.  I can’t imagine Paris not making the Final Four.  But, then I didn’t think Skjern would knock out Veszpre either.

Kiel – Vardar    Sun, 22 Apr 1700 CET     On Demand Video:
Vardar – Kiel    Sun, 29 Apr 1700 CET     On Demand Video:

Defending Champions, Vardar, are the clear favorites here. Still, despite Kiel’s lackluster season one can envision them getting a solid win at home in the first leg.  And, by solid they probably need somewhere in the neighborhood of 5-6 goals to have a good chance in the return leg.  Further, with their chances in the HBL looking dire for a CL berth next season, maybe this 2 game series is “their season” now.  I know this sounds sacrilegious to any German fans, but maybe for once a CL game is more important than an HBL game.  And, who knows maybe Kiel could even pull off a Liverpool. (In 2005, Liverpool finished 5th in the EPL, but won the Champions League.  Faced with the prospect of the champion not being able to defend their title, they were given an exception to participate the following year.)

Nantes – Skjern    Sun, 22 Apr  1900 CET     On Demand Video:
Skjern – Nantes     Sun 29 Apr   1650 CET     On Demand Video:

A really strange pairing here for the right to go to the Final Four.  Could anyone have even imagined such a match just 2 years ago?  Still neither team is getting any respect as both sides are given the longest odds for winning the title.  I can see Skjern’s long odds, but Nantes should be given more credit.  I anticipate that they will get a convincing win at home in the first leg and probably will win the 2nd match as well in Denmark.  This undersized team plays a quick game that can surprise.  Yes, in my opinion, Nantes is the new Flensburg.

Flensburg – Montpellier    Wed, 18 Apr  1900 CET    On Demand Video:  Link  (Sorry, you may need this too:  Link)
Montpellier – Flensburg    Sun, 29 Apr   1900 CET     On Demand Video:

For me, the prospect of Flensburg playing Montpellier in a Champions League brings back fond memories of their epic clash in 2005.  A 14 goal win by Montpellier in the 1st leg, followed by 13 goal Flensburg in the 2nd leg.  And a crazy 9 meter goal with time expired for Montpellier to win on aggregate.  The greatest “almost comeback” in the history of sport.  (No, not just handball, but in the history of sport).

We can’t expect a similar thriller, but these two teams are evenly matched, but I’ll give the edge to Montpellier.  After all, if they took down Barcelona they can surely take down Flensburg,

Coupe de la Ligue in Cologne?

Yes, I’m predicting 3 French teams playing in Cologne with Vardar as the guest wild card entry.  Funny, with my planned trip to Cologne for the Final Four it will be my second opportunity to witness a Coupe de la Ligue played outside l’Hexagone.  I was in Miami in 2009 for the first French venture to another country.  Should be an interesting scene with a French invasion of Germany.   Well, at least that’s my prediction anyway.

Team Handball News Collegiate Top 5 Poll (April 16, 2018)

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College Nationals is next weekend at West Point, NY and the last poll before a champion is crowned on the court is out.  To no surprise, hosts Army are the unanimous #1 ranked team.  Earlier this month they took 2nd place in their annual tournament narrowly losing to top rated open club team NYAC in the final.  (Albeit a depleted NYAC as 4 members from that squad were playing with the U.S. National Team in Mexico.)

Ranked 2nd are Air Force and Virginia.  Air Force has played well in two recent tournaments in Phoenix and Los Angeles, taking 2nd in the LA tourney this past weekend.  Virginia has also had a solid year, but they slipped up on April 1st with an NHTL loss to Army’s 2nd Team 23-17.

Moving up to 4th Place is Ohio St which had a 4-1 record at the “Arnold Classic” tourney in March.  Their 21-19 victory over Illinois St is probably responsible for their leapfrogging of the Redbirds who slipped to 5th place.

Look out to Nationals

I haven’t seen seeding or pools for college nationals yet, but one can see a potential narrative.  With an 11 years in a row run of National Titles, plus hosting, Army is a huge favorite to repeat.  Air Force and Virginia are in theory the two teams that will fight to play them in the Final, but in reality another home team lurks as a dangerous opponent:  Army’s 2nd team (West Point Gold).  Ohio St is another potential team that could break through, but they’ll need to prove that their gaudy 9-0-4 record isn’t just due to beating up on weak opposition.  Illinois St would be another possible dark horse, but to a lack of funding they aren’t attending.

For sure, there’s one thing that nobody outside of the Cadet Corps wants to see and that is an all Army (West Point Black vs West Point Gold) Championship Final.  And, honestly I bet there’s probably more than a few cadets that probably don’t want to see an intrasquad match either.

Chat Me Up

I’ll be at West Point all day Saturday and Sunday.  Don’t hesitate to stop me and have a conversation about any handball topic.  I’m sure to have an opinion.

Proposed Collegiate Summer Camp for Coaches and Players

And, if you’re interested in taking your game to the next level be sure to let me know if you’re interested in attending a Collegiate Camp this summer at the Lifezone Handball Academy near Chicago.  Craig Rot and I are still formulating plans, but the intent is to help collegiate players and coaches raise their game for next season.  Tentative dates are 2-7 July.  Please let us know if you are interested by filling out this short survey:  Link

NORCA: Final Standings and Top Level Assessment

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(Note: Puerto Rico is 3rd due to head to head victory over Mexico)

Canada and Puerto Rico secured victories on the final day of competition to secure 2nd and 3rd place respectively and to qualify for the Pan American Championships in Greenland.  Canada held off the U.S. for a 33-31 victory.  At one point in the second half the U.S. led 24-22, but Canada was able to rally and secure the victory.  Puerto Rico beat hosts Mexico 30-28.  Puerto Rico was able to control the tempo of the match, avoiding the helter skelter style of play Mexico prefers and was able to keep the crowd out of the game.  Cuba beat the Dominican Republic 40-20 in a game that had no bearing on qualification.

Top Level Assessment

Overall:  While this tournament was still technically an event under the old Pan American Team Handball Federation (PATHF) in many respects it was the first ever event of the new North American & Caribbean Handball Confederation (NACHC).  With 6 nations participating, including an often absent Cuba, it felt like more of a Championship.  And, with 3 spots on the line for qualification to the Pan American Championships there was more to play for with real consequences.  I say this in that sometimes NORCA events have had 4 nations fighting for 3 spots.

The level of play is clearly a rung or two below South America, but was very competitive.  Really, as evidenced by the match scores there’s not a whole lot separating teams 2-6.  The largest margin of victory among the bottom 5 teams was 6 goals and even in those 2 contests the matches were closer than the score indicates.  2nd Place Canada squeaked out a 1 goal victory over 6th place Dominican Republic.  4th place Mexico played to 3 draws.  Yes, every team that played in that tournament can go home thinking they could have qualified if they had just done one or two things differently.

Going forward one can envision a competitive 8 Nation Championship.  Greenland, which didn’t participate because it’s hosting the Pan American Championship, might well have won the event.  Then add one more Caribbean team to round out the field.  Yes, a nice little tournament today and one that would get better as the nations further develop their programs.

Cuba:  This tournament provided a taste of what Cuba might have in terms of a national team.  I say a “taste” because I don’t think that Cuba did a very good job of integrating their professionals playing in Europe with their younger talent still on the island.  Still, they had talent to spare and that’s why despite inconsistent play they were the class of the field.

Canada:  A very workmanlike and consistent performance by the Canadian side resulted in their 2nd place finish.  Canada doesn’t have the most athletic team, but they are pretty solid technically and this paid dividends towards the end of several close matches.  They kept their cool and let their opponents make mistakes.  And, as anyone who follows handball knows that’s often the difference between 2 goal losses and 2 goal wins.

Puerto Rico:  Puerto Rico clearly wins the comeback award.  They started poorly with losses to Canada and Cuba.  Then played a draw to the Dominican Republic- the Dominican Republic’s only point in the tournament.  But, they still controlled their own destiny and had solid convincing wins against both the U.S. and Mexico to qualify.  They’ve got a couple of very talented players to build around.  And build they must as from what I observed they lack depth.

Mexico:  Mexico may have one of the best fast breaking teams in the tournament, but they lacked discipline in the half court game.  As the host nation, they surely will look upon three draws as all games they could have won.  And, all they needed to qualify was just 1 more point.

USA:  A disappointing finish for the U.S.  I’ll have more to say in a separate commentary

Dominican Republic:  The Dominican Republic certainly has some athletes, but was very inconsistent on offense and defense.  They show signs of promise, but need more match experience to get better.

Match Results

Tuesday April 3
Puerto Rico 27×31 Canada
United States 30×41 Cuba
Mexico 33×28 Dominican Republic

Wednesday April 4
Cuba 36×23 Puerto Rico
Dominican Republic 26×32 United States
Canada 26×26 Mexico

Thursday April 5
Puerto Rico 29×29 Dominican Republic
Canada 24×27 Cuba
Mexico 30×30 the United States

Saturday April 7
United States 28×34 Puerto Rico
Dominican Republic 21×22 Canada
Mexico 28×28 Cuba

Sunday April 8
United States 31x33vs Canada
Cuba 40×20 Dominican Republic
Puerto Rico 30×28 Mexico