This article is part of a series, Charting a Way Forward for USA Team Handball (2019 Reboot)

A Brief Diatribe on American and European Sports Structures

When describing handball in the U.S., it’s important to contextually to consider one’s audience.  Simple terms like club, schools, colleges, intramurals, leagues, tournaments and championships can mean radically different things to a European or an American. 

Case in point, I’ll never forget a comical discussion I had with my French basketball teammates regarding what the NCAA basketball tournament was.  This “knockout” tournament is a huge deal in the U.S. and was getting a little publicity in France since the son, Joakim, of a famous Frenchman, Yannick Noah, was playing in it.  Why was this conversation comical?  Because I couldn’t go one sentence without having to backtrack down a rabbit hole with further explanations.  Here’s roughly how it went:

Me:  So, it’s a tournament to determine the college national champion
Teammate 1:  What kind of a tournament?
Me:  Well, it’s a tournament where the top 64 teams keep playing each other until only 1 team is left
Teammate 2:  Oh, so like the Coupe de France.
Me:  Well, no it is just for college teams and it’s played over 3 consecutive weekends.
Teammate 3:  College teams?  Huh, Why not the NBA and the 2^nd division below the NBA.
Teammate 4:  No, Claude.  They don’t have divisions in the U.S.  College is their 2^nd division.
Me:  Well, sort of, but not exactly.  It’s our 2^nd best competition, but the players are amateur and only get scholarships.
Teammate 5:  What’s a scholarship?

So… I could go on and on and the conversation actually did for another 15 minutes or so, but it was really stretching my French speaking skills.  Still, even if I had been fluent it would have been a huge challenge.  Also, the funny thing was that since by that time I had lived a few years in France I fully understood why they had asked each and every question. 

It was also revelatory to me about all the expats I had played handball with in the U.S.  No wonder they were so confused.  Our structures are so different in so many ways and what I’ve learned is that each culture takes so many things for granted simply because… Well, that’s the way it’s always been done.

So, if you’re wondering why the obvious is being explained, keep in mind I’m writing for two different audiences.

Men’s Team Handball Organizations and Activities in the United States

Training Centers:  A Training Center is a place where handball is taught intensively.  Two common examples:  A European style Academy and what the U.S. has called Residency Programs in the past.   Currently, there are no handball training centers in the U.S., although the youth program in Chicago has some elements of an Academy, albeit on a smaller scale.

Clubs:  There are approximately 40 adult men’s clubs in the U.S.  These clubs vary significantly in terms of size, organization and level of play.  At one end of the spectrum is the New York City Team Handball Club with dozens of members, most of whom have played before in another country.  At the other end of the spectrum are perhaps around 10 clubs that have maybe 5-10 dedicated players and are struggling to keep afloat.  With few exceptions U.S. clubs are also simply adult recreational clubs.  There are no youth teams progressively teaching more skills as athletes get older. The adult members do take the sport seriously, but practices are at most once or twice a week with competition limited to weekend tournaments.  The one exception to this is North East Team Handball League.

Collegiate Clubs:  An important subset of clubs are collegiate clubs which are affiliated with a college or University.  There are roughly 13 Men’s collegiate clubs in the U.S.  It should also be emphasized that collegiate club sports are dramatically different from sanctioned NCAA sports.  There are no scholarships and colleges typically only provide top level support.  As athletes are college students, in most instances they are ages 18-23.

Youth Programs:  These programs consist of athletes in Middle School (ages 12-14) and High School (ages 14-18).  There are two fairly well established programs in the U.S., one in San Francisco with roughly 130 participants and one in the Chicago area with roughly 20 participants.  The program in San Francisco is a school based competition while the Chicago program is focused around one athletic facility.

Other Activities:  Team handball is played in Physical Education classes in hundreds, maybe even thousands of schools.  This handball, however, is often just a rough facsimile of the game, taught by teachers unfamiliar with the sport, for a few lessons and with a lot of rule variants.  There are also a number of colleges with intramural programs.  (Intramural sports are lower level competitions where multiple teams at one college play each other.)  Again, the handball that is played is often just a facsimile of the game we are all familiar with.

USA Men’s Club Demographics (2019 National Championship Snapshot)

This past April and May the U.S. staged its Collegiate Club and Club National Championships.   Unlike European countries there is no nation-wide league and these championship events are played over only 3 days and are open to all comers.  3 Canadian clubs even attended.  This chart breaks down the total participants in these 3 events. 

(Note:  Club nationals had 2 separate competitions: Elite and Div 1)
(Note:  Citizenship data in these tables relied heavily on roster names to assess nationality.  Such an assessment surely is prone to error as Americans don’t always have “American Sounding” names and conversely some expats have deceptively “American Sounding” names.  Overall, though I would assess that it’s a pretty good ballpark data.)

A few obvious points from these tables.

• A majority of our Club National Championships participants are not U.S. citizens (Only 23% of the combined total of Elite/D1 Male athletes were U.S. citizens)
• A majority of our Club National Championships participants are over the age of 30
• An overwhelming majority of our College National Championship participants are U.S. citizens
• An overwhelming majority of our College National Championship participants are younger than 24 years old.

U.S. Citizen Demographics (Male)

In terms of National Team planning it is, of course, a necessity to focus strictly on U.S. citizen demographics.  The following tables break out the citizen representation from U.S. clubs and adds estimates for expat Americans playing overseas and youth program participation.  These estimates were based on an extrapolation of National Championship data and National Team roster data.  For USA based numbers I added athletes based on known clubs that didn’t attend nationals.  For overseas numbers I took the number or expat players that have played on Sr, Jr, and Youth rosters the past 10 years or so (60 total) and doubled it, figuring that would conservatively account for unknown or lower level players.  Anecdotally, I would assess that the yearly total is higher at younger ages and gets significantly smaller as players age out.  For the most part I tried to error on the conservative side.  The only exception is that I did not pad this data with the inclusion of school Phys Ed programs and college intramurals.

Key Points and Logical Follow On Questions: 

• Conservatively, there are less than 600 Male U.S. citizen handball players in the world.  (It depends on one’s semantics, but it’s probably less.)
  • Question: Should USA Team Handball’s top priority be increasing this very, very low “total number”?
• Stateside demographics clearly do not follow the traditional pyramid structure often seen with other sports (massive youth participation at the base and professionals/national teams at the tip.)
  • Question: Is not having a pyramid a problem?
  • Question: How should limited resources be applied to different levels of this would be pyramid
• The only level with a competition that is structured somewhat normal (right age; predominantly American) is our college championships.
  • Question: Why is there some level of success at this level?
  • Question: Can this success be duplicated at other levels of the pyramid? Why or why not?

This is meant only as a top level analysis.  In a future article I will take a closer look at the U.S. Elite Player Pool and the existing and potential pathways for athletes to enter this pool.

Why a Reboot and Some Personal Reflection

Five years ago I started a series of commentaries that considered different strategies for USA Team Handball to improve National Team performance.  I did the series as a counterpoint to what I saw as some flawed strategic planning.  Flawed planning and a lack of process that led to the setup of National Team Residency Programs at Auburn.  Programs that were by almost any measure not very successful and have since been closed down.

But, as I pointed out in my critique there’s a basic truism regarding planning in that it is relatively easy to sit on the sidelines and critique a plan.  Especially a plan tackling a really tough problem.  So, I said to myself, if you’re going to critique something as flawed, you better come up with some alternatives.  Hence the series highlighting the pros and cons of several different alternatives.

Flash forward several years later and it appears USA Team Handball is now in a position similar to where it was in 2012.  Trying to figure out how to move forward.  On a personal level it’s gratifying to see that some of the options I’ve identified such as a focus on college programs targeted for some sort of implementation.  But, then I’ve also heard some top level ideas regarding water polo players transferring their talents and pro leagues starting up just around the corner that has alarm bells ringing loudly in my ears. I’m not saying such strategies can’t work (though I have my doubts), but, for sure, I’m wondering how well they stack up vs other possibilities.

I’ve also reflected on what I got right and what I got wrong in the original series of commentaries.  As I’ve learned more about handball’s structure in Europe and the changing dynamics in U.S. sporting structures it’s clear that some of the options need to be tweaked.  Further, on a real positive note, outside organizations like the IHF, EHF and Europe’s top professional clubs are now willing to provide resources, making some options a lot more feasible.

Big Picture:  Taking Stock of What We Have

One item I neglected in the original series was sufficient analysis as to what the current state of handball is in the U.S.  How many people, or more importantly, how many Americans are playing the sport?  How old are they?  What is the level of play?  How many American Expat players are there?  For sure, we are all capable of anecdotal assessments, but impressions can be often clouded to reflect what we want to see.  I’ve now done a real deep dive into the data and rest assured, it’s very telling data that should heavily influence any planning USA Team Handball does going forward.

• Demographics (Men)
  • American Citizen Male Athletes (Overview): Link
  • USA Men’s Elite Player Pool (Overview): Link
  • USA Men’s National Team (Part 1: A Closer Look by Position- GK and CR): Link
  • USA Men’s National Team (Part 2: A Closer Look by Position- BC and RW/LW): Link
• Demographics (Women)
  • American Citizen Female Athletes (Overview): Link
    USA Women’s Elite Player Pool (Overview): Link
• 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
• Finances
  • Part 1: USA Team Handball Revenue (Grants, Contributions and Sponsorships): Link
  • Part 2: USA Team Handball Revenue (Membership and the Importance of Tracking that Data): Link

Big Picture:  Taking Stock of What We Want to Be

While determining “What we want to be” might seem straightforward it’s really a tough question.   In broad terms everyone wants to develop the sport and have successful national teams.  How developed, though, do we want the sport to be?  How successful is successful enough?  Not to mention, the two overarching goals of development and national team success can sometimes be in direct conflict with each other. 

• Part 1: A review of the USA Team Handball Strategic Plan and National Team Targets: Link
• Part 2: A review of USA Collegiate Development Targets: Link
• Part 3: A review of Fundraising Targets: Link
• Part 4: A review of Marketing Targets: Link
• Part 5: A review of the “Big, Hairy, Audacious Project: Link

Big Picture:  How We Get There? (Or More Accurately, Can We Get There)

And, then just about everyone has different ideas regarding “How we get there.”  So, how does one decide which option(s) are better?  Answer:  Very, very carefully after a lot of assessment in terms of cost, schedule, risks, SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats), pros, cons, etc.  And, after all that is done another question has to be asked for each option:  Can we get there, from here?

• Part 1: The Project Management Triangle: Link
• Part 2: National Team Targets: Link

Big Picture:  Taking Stock of What We Want to Be… Urr, Actually Can Be

This, of course, leads to the reality that “What we want to be” and “What we actually can be” are often two very different things.  One has either to find more resources, change the time frame, or lower expectations.  (Or, in project management terms:  adjust cost, schedule or performance).  

This is often “where the rubber hits the road.”  Where decisions have to be made on how much to spend and where.  And, unless the budget in unbounded there are going to be winners and losers.  Some efforts will get funded and some won’t.  That’s just the way it is.

If all this is done properly, in the end you should get a nice flow chart where everything lines up.  The “How we get there?” matches “What we want” because we’ve tempered expectations to match what actually can be done.

An Ongoing Series

As before I will be updating this page with links to analysis.  First up, I will be tackling the “What we have” block in detail.  Yes, the demographics of our National Team programs and clubs.  Data which in stark terms shows just how minor our sport is in this country.

Former Swedish National Team Coach and Player, Staffan Olsson has been hired to be USA Team Handball’s new High Performance Director.  He is filling a vacant position that was previously held by Dave Gascon, who had performed the role on a volunteer basis from 2013 to 2018.

While the name, Staffan Olsson, has little meaning in the U.S., he is indeed a handball legend and is regarded as one of the best right backs of all time.  His coaching career has also been solid with stints as a co-coach of the Swedish National team and one of Sweden’s top clubs Hammarby.  Most recently he was an Asst Coach for one of the top clubs in the world, Paris Saint-Germain.

Three Primary Roles

The USA Team Handball write up lists three primary roles for him as High Performance Director.

1) oversee the management and direction of USA Team Handball’s national teams,
2) determine a pipeline of new athletes at the elite level, and
3) develop the training program for coaches and officials at various levels of the sport

The 1^st role seem like a pretty good fit for Olsson.  It will be somewhat “different” to manage 3^rd tier national teams like the U.S. instead of a premier national team like Sweden.  Different for sure in terms of budget, but familiar.  And, then developing training programs for coaches and officials will also be something he is well suited for except for maybe the starting from zero aspect that is often necessary in the U.S.

For sure, though, the most challenging role for the new High Performance Director will be to “determine a pipeline of new athletes at the elite level.” Why, the most challenging?  The U.S. currently lacks any significant grass roots development, meaning that there are very, very few elite athlete candidates available to enter any would be pipeline.  This reality has bedeviled USA Team Handball for decades.  In fact, I would argue that it’s an intractable problem that can really only be properly addressed after grass roots programs have been patiently and sufficiently built up. 

Maybe, however, there is some secret Swedish sauce that he will be able to apply to solve this problem in some other, quicker way.  Regardless, there’s little doubt in my mind that he will do a great job of looking after the players we have. Getting them good preparation for tournaments and helping them find clubs in Europe.

Me vs White Snake Back in 1993

It’s not very often that I get to pull the “Yeah, I played against him” card, but back in 1993 I indeed played against Staffan Olsson at the World Championships.  Why, as I wrote in this commentary back in 2016, I’ve even claimed to have shut him down after a few beers on more than one occasion.  Something tells me though, that just like USA Men’s Coach, Robert Hedin, he probably doesn’t even remember playing that match against the U.S.  When you play 358 International Games, some are surely forgettable.  Whereas when your resume is just 12 matches, you remember them all. 

Oh, and the White Snake reference?:  The U.S. Men’s team honored him with that nickname back in 93.  You see there was this band in the late 1980s… “Here, I go again on my own…”  In retrospect, his hair was long, but not that long.

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.

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.

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

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 5^th, 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.

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 2^nd 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.