Category Archives: PanAm Handball

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Harmony and revitalization in the PanAmerican Congress

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Important new developments in a united PanAmerican Team Handball Federation


During the weekend, PATHF organized the combination of an Extraordinary Congress and a Regular Congress in Panama City. The event was attended by 23 of the 26 PATHF member federations. This included nine of the ten from South America, all the six Central American members, five from the Caribbean region (CUB, DOM,HAI, MEX and PUR) and then the Northern trio Canada, Greenland and USA.

The proceedings were characterized by harmony and a good meeting of minds on all the major issues. This was particularly remarkable inasmuch as the agenda included the revision of the Statutes, the Competition Regulations, and the introduction of a first-ever regulation for a Disciplinary and Ethics Tribunal. I will come back to these issues in a separate article.

But, apart from the elections, the ‘hot topic’ was the revamping of the overall competition structure, especially as regards the system for qualifying to the different categories of PanAmerican Championships. The reality has been that only a small proportion of the PATHF federations have participated regularly in the Championships or in the qualifying leading up to them. Clearly, an effort needs to be made to encourage or ‘force’ more competition, especially on a regional basis among teams of relatively equal strength. This is the key to raising the level across the continent. I will came back to the details of the new system in a couple of days.

For the moment, I will just comment on the election results. The big change was that, after 16 years, there was a consensus that new leadership through a new President was needed, and the unanimous choice was the former Vice President Mario Moccia (ARG). In this team on the Executive Committee, we also have Julio Noveri (URU) as 1st Vice President and Rafael Sepulveda (PUR) as 2nd VP with special responsibilities for development. Hector Fernandez (CHI) moved over to the position of Secretary, making room for Carlos Ferrea (ARG) as Treasurer. Mario Garcia de la Torre (MEX) remains as Representative to the IHF.

The Council has six additional members, including four Regional Vice Presidents: Brian Hayes (CAN – North), Jose Duval (DOM – Caribbean), Carlos Morales (GUA – Central) and Geraldo Paniagua (PAR-South). The two other members are Carlos Gonzales (CUB – Pres. of the Competition Committee and Salvio Sedrez (BRA – Pres. of the Referees Committee).

A new important arrangement is the establishment of an Office with a General Manager function connected to the President; this will be occupied by Miguel Zaworotny (ARG). Finally, the brand new, independent Tribunal for Disciplinary and Ethics matters also had a President named. My ‘modesty’ prevents me from indicating who was placed in that position…

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Audio: Pan American Championships Review with Coach Latulippe

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Team USA singing Happy Birthday to Asst Coach Tilton's daughter

John Ryan discusses the USA performance at the recent Pan American Championships with Men’s Head Coach, Christian Laulippe.  A breakdown of all the games and a little discussion on the future of the Men’s Team.

Podcast length: 47:35

Video Link:  http://mmegatube.com/All/Videos/3379#.T-p-B7WJc4K

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2012 Men’s Pan American Championships: Argentina Again

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Argentina celebrates another gold medal victory against Brazil

The 2012 Men’s Pan American Championship have concluded with Argentina again taking the Gold Medal against arch rivals Brazil.  The match was a tight affair throughout and ended with a little controversy as Argentina scored late to make it 22-21 and Brazil had a little bit of time for one more attack except that Argentina’s Sebastian Simonet immediately grabbed the Brazilian player on the mid-court throw in.  Simonet was promptly red carded, but Brazil had no time left for a meaningful attack.  This was the 3rd straight victory over Brazil in a major PATHF event (2010 Pan American Championships, 2011 PANAM Games, 2012 Pan American Games.

In the 3rd place game, Chile easily dispatched Uruguay 36-27 to qualify for the 2013 World Championships.

In a consolation match for 7th place Team USA beat Mexico easily, 33-17.   Rickey Royal, Martin Axelsson and Vladimir Andeljic led a balanced scoring attack with 5 goals a piece.  The victory was a little bit of revenge as Mexico had beaten the USA last year at the PANAM Games 33-32.

Video of final minutes of Argentina-Brazil:  http://www.mundohandball.com/Continentes/Panamerica/2012/ARG-Campeon-Panamericano.html

 

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2012 Men’s Pan American Championship (Update after Day 4): USA collapse in 2nd half ends World Championship dreams

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USA on attack vs Greenland

Team USA lost last night to Greenland, 36-27, in what first glance might appear to be a relatively uncompetitive match.  Final scores can be deceiving, however, and this is certainly the case with this contest.  Going into the match the USA needed a victory in order to set up a showdown match for 2nd place in Group A vs. Chile this evening. And for about 38 minutes that looked like a distinct possibility.

At the break the USA and Greenland were knotted up at 15-15 and the USA started on a roll in the 2nd half and built up a 21-18 lead.  Following a Greenland timeout, though, the wheels totally fell off the wagon as multiple USA turnovers led to a wave of fast breaks and a 10-1 run for Greenland.  What had been a 21-18 lead was now a 22-28 deficit and the USA never really threatened from then on.

Team USA’s match tonight against Chile will likely have the air of a friendly scrimmage as Chile is all but mathematically locked into 2nd place and will probably rest some of their players ahead of a semifinal match against Brazil on Saturday.  Barring an unlikely Greenland loss to Venezuela the USA will play for 7th place against Mexico in a consolation pool on Sunday.

On demand video of matches: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/cahandball/videos

Tournament webpage: http://www.handballargentina.org/escuela/?p=2749

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2012 Men’s Pan American Championship (Update after Day 3): USA with offensive outburst; Chile draws Argentina in dramatic finish; Brazil/Uruguay Advance

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Chile with one last chance to break the tie vs Argentina

After 3 days of competition at the Men’s Pan American Championships in Argentina the dust has cleared somewhat.  Here’s a quick rundown.

Group A

USA:  Team USA was off on day 2, but came out firing on all cylinders on day 3 with a 43-28 victory.  The 43 goals was a far cry from the miserly 13 scored against Argentina on day 1.  The victory also shows improvement for the USA as the two teams met last year at the PANAM Games and the USA only came away with a 39-35 win in that contest. The win kept Team USA’s hopes of a semifinal berth alive, but upcoming are two much tougher foes, Greenland and Chile.  First up is Greenland (tonight at 7:00 PM, U.S East Coast time).

Greenland:  Two tough losses against Chile (28-31) and Argentina (18-24) have ended Greenland’s dreams of a return to the World Championship.  The best they can hope for now is 5th place

Argentina/Chile:  These two sides played to an entertaining 23-23 draw last night with both teams having a chance to win the match in the closing minute.  This is the second time that Chile has played Argentina close having narrowly lost to Argentina 26-25 in last year’s PANAM Games semifinal. The draw leaves both teams on top of Group A with 5 points each.  Argentina, however, has a +14 advantage in goal differential and has an advantage in terms of remaining opponents.  They play Venezuela tonight while Chile’s remaining game is vs. the USA on Friday.

Video: Arentina vs. Chile (Final minutes): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSJe8ghguGY&feature=player_embedded#! (Courtesy of Mundo Handball and much better quality than the webstream feed)

Group B

Brazil/Uruguay: These two sides have already advanced to the semifinals with easy victories over Paraguay and Mexico.  They play tonight to see who will be seeded 1st and 2nd

Paraguay and Mexico: They play tonight to see who will play in the 5th place match and who will play for 7th.

Tournament webpage: http://www.handballargentina.org/escuela/?p=2749

 

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2012 Men’s Pan American Championships (Day 1): Argentina dominates USA; Chile holds off Greenland

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Greenland on defense vs. Chile

Argentina – USA

Host Argentina lived up to their mantle as pre-tournament favorite with a dominating 33-13 victory over Team USA.  The outcome was never in doubt as Argentina limited the U.S. to only 4 goals in the first half for an 18-4 lead at the break.  The U.S. can get some consolation in that the 2nd half was a more competitive 15-9 defeat and that they still control their own destiny for a ticket to the semifinals.  Team USA will need to shore up their defense and find more scoring, however, if they are to beat either Greenland or Chile.

Team USA Scoring: Gary Hine (3), Devine Jackson (3), Adam El Zoghby (2), Vladimir Adjelic (2), Rickey Royal (2), Martin Axelsson (1)

Chile – Greenland

In a key Group A showdown between 2 teams that have qualified recently for the World Championships, Greenland (2007) and Chile (2011), Chile pulled away from Greenland late in the 2nd half for a 31-28 victory.  Assuming that Argentina wins out, this victory puts Chile in the driver’s seat for 2nd place in Group A.

LINKS

Tournament homepage: http://www.handballargentina.org/escuela/?p=2749

Argentina Federation: USA vs. Argentina summary: http://www.handballargentina.org/escuela/?p=3014

Argentina Federation: Chile vs. Greenland summary: http://www.handballargentina.org/escuela/?p=3068

Video (on demand) Argentina vs. USA http://www.handballargentina.org/escuela/?p=3055

Team USA’s Lewis Howes Blog: http://handballjourney.com/

 

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Pan American Championships to be live streamed

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Good news for Pan American Handball fans: Every match of the upcoming championships will be live streamed

The Argentine Handball Federation web page has announced that all matches for the upcoming Men’s Pan American Championships will be live streamed from Buenos Aires.  The Argentine Federation has also set up a tournament homepage with links to standings, news and related video.  Most likely, these pages will provide the most up to date information on the tournament.

The tournament starts on Monday, 18 June with hosts Argentina taking on Team USA at 6:00 PM, Local Time (5:00 PM U.S. East Coast)

Tournament Homepage: http://www.handballargentina.org/escuela/?p=2749
Live Stream Homepage: http://www.handballargentina.org/escuela/?p=2828

USA Schedule (All Times: USA East Coast)

Monday, 18 June, 5:00 PM, USA vs. Argentina
Wednesday, 20 June, 6:00 PM, USA vs. Venezuela
Thursday, 21 June, 7:00 PM, USA vs. Greenland
Friday, 22 June, 5:00 PM USA vs. Chile
Saturday, 23 June (TBD)
Sunday, 24 June (TBD)

 

Commentary:  I’ll go along with Ruben Gomez’s commentary at Mundo Handball.  Webstreaming is becoming more practical and it should be standard practice for it to be provided at major PATHF tournaments.  I’m not so sure as to whether it should be mandatory yet, but we are rapidly approaching the point where such a requirement will make sense.

Mundo Handball: http://www.mundohandball.com/Continentes/Panamerica/2012/handballtv-panamericano-baires.html

Mundo Handball:  http://www.mundohandball.com/Continentes/Panamerica/2012/panamericanos-con-transmisiones-online.html

 

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Tough path to the semifinals for USA team in Men’s PanAmerican Championship

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USA will play Argentina in the opening game on June 18


The draw for this PanAmerican event, which starts in Buenos Aires on June 18, was undertaken today. There are two groups with five teams each, and what matters is to grab at least the second spot in the group and qualify for the semi-finals, which then gives the chance for getting the third spot overall (behind Argentina and Brazil) which is needed to qualify for the 2013 World Championship.

It is widely assumed that, behind the overwhelming favorites Argentina and Brazil, Chile is the strongest team, as evidenced by a very respectable showing in the 2011 World Championship and in the recent Olympic qualifying. They have several players with high-level European club experience, notably the Feuchtmann brothers and especially the world-class pivot Oneto, who is playing for Barcelona. Uruguay, who was seeded at the same level as Chile, is clearly a more modest opponent. But the bad luck for the USA team is that they were indeed placed in the same group as Chile, so the path to the semi-finals will not be easy.

The draw: Group A: Argentina – Chile – Greenland – USA – Venezuela; Group B: Brazil – Uruguay – Dominican Republic – Mexico – Paraguay. A strong performance will enable the USA team to beat Greenland and Venezuela, but either one of these teams could just as well be a stumbling block. Nevertheless, the key will be the ability to surprise the Chilean team. And should the USA team succeed in that game, then the good news is that the opponent in a bronze medal game would probably be less formidable.

The schedule also may tend to favor the USA team. The very first game on June 18 is against Argentina. I do not want to be cynical, but it is probably just as well to get this game out of the way first, in part to use it as a preparation for the games that really have to be won. Following a rest day on the 19th, USA will play Greenland on the 20th and Venezuela on the 21st. Then comes the game against Chile on the 22nd. By that time, Chile will presumably already have lost against Argentina and will be resigned to facing Brazil in the semi-final. The semifinals are played on the 23rd and the medal games on the 24th.

It had been announced that Canada would take part, but there are rumors that a last-minute decision from their Olympic Committee to withhold funding spoiled those plans. This is why Paraguay suddenly entered the picture. There has speculation about the format for future PanAmerican Championships beyond this event. My sources indicate that the notion of playing Championships with 12 teams is just unrealistic, so future events will have 8 or 10 teams.

But instead of reintroducing the unpopular continent-wide qualifying event (‘Division 1’), it seems that the focus will instead be in establishing regional competition as a basis for the qualifying to the Elite level. For the U.S. teams, together with Canada and Greenland, this would inevitably involve some form of integration with at least the Caribbean nations and probably also the Central Americans.

Finally, efforts are being made to establish some form of web broadcasting, but the details are not known yet.

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USA Team Handball selects Christian Latulippe as Men’s Head Coach for Pan American Championships

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New USA Men's Coach: Christian Latullipe

USA Team Handball has posted the following update on their Facebook Page:

Staff Selection Committee Announces Choices

General Manager Dave Gascon today announced the long awaited selections of staff for the upcoming USATH Men’s National Team (MNT) as they will venture to Argentina for the Pan American Championships, which is also a qualifier for the 2013 World Championships in Spain.

“I am pleased to announce that our selection committee of Olympians Rod Oshita, Bob Djokovich, and Michael Lenard has selected Christian Latulippe as Head Coach, Michael Tilton as Assistant Coach, and Mariusz Wartalowicz as Team Leader for this event. I know the committee spent considerable time and effort evaluating all the candidates in order to provide us with the best possible selections. I am very impressed with the professional and thoughtful process with which they approached their responsibilities. USA Team Handball is grateful to them for their time and commitment to our Men’s National Team Program.”

The Pan Am Championships are scheduled for June 18-24, and although the timeline is not yet finalized, Gascon addressed the possible schedule. “Our tentative goal is to depart for Argentina June 10th and to try to get in a solid week of training before the tournament begins. The athlete selection process is being finalized and we hope to have a team selected around the 23rd of May.

We are hopeful that our newly appointed staff and the athletes will bond quickly and that the team will jell within the week. It will be quite intense,” said an optimistic Gascon. I expect our MNT Selection Committee will pick a great team to represent the United States for this important competition.”

Gascon has indicated he will ask for the assistance of 2011 Pan Am Games Head Coach Darrick Heath and Assistant Coach Wade Sutton, as well as former Pan Am Games MNT player Daniel Kimmich, to serve in some capacity on the selection committee. Latulippe, Tilton, and Wartalowicz will round out the panel.

This will be Latullipe’s second go round as a USA National Team Coach.  From 2004-2007, he was the coach of the USA Women’s Team and was instrumental in the setup and organization of the residency program in Cortland, NY.  In March of 2007, Latulippe, was abruptly replaced (fired, resigned, reassigned- take your pick) as coach shortly before key qualification matches for the 2007 PANAM Games.  Latullipe, a Quebecois Canadian, has been coaching club handball in France where he was recently the head coach of 2nd Division Women’s side, La Motte Servolex.   He also was the assistant coach for the Canadian Men at the 2011 PANAM Games.

The assistant coach, Mike Tilton, is the current West Point Men’s coach.

THN (13 Mar 2007): USA Women’s National Team Coach Resigns: https://teamhandballnews.com/2007/03/usa-women%E2%80%99s-national-team-coach-resigns/
THN (19 Mar 2007): USOC Statement on Latulippe Resignation: https://teamhandballnews.com/2007/03/usoc-statement-on-latulippe-resignation/
THN (22 Mar 2007): An Act of Desperation or Decisive Action?:  https://teamhandballnews.com/2007/03/an-act-of-desperation-or-decisive-action/
THN (18 Jun 2007):  USA Women:  What happened and what’s next?: https://teamhandballnews.com/2007/06/usa-women-what-happened-and-what%E2%80%99s-next/
Handzone (19 Feb 2012): La Motte-Servolex without Christian Latulippe: http://www.handzone.net/asp.net/main.news/news.aspx?id=56593
West Point Team Handball Website (Coaches): http://wpteamhandball.wetpaint.com/page/Coaches

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2012 Men’s Pan American Championship: Apparently, the Field is Set?

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The "Sports Almirante Browm" Arena, where apparently, the Men's Pan American Championship will be played in June.

The participants for the upcoming Men’s Pan American Championships have apparently been determined.  A total of 10 teams will participate in the event scheduled for 18-25 June in Buenos Aires, Argentina.  The field has not been drawn yet, but the performance rows apparently are:

1) Argentina, Brazil
2) Chile, Uruguay
3) Greenland, Canada
4) Mexico, Venezuela
5) USA, Dominican Republic

The teams will be drawn into two groups of 5 and the top two teams from each group will advance to the semifinals.  The Champion, runner-up and third place team from this event will also qualify for the 2013 World Championships, to be played in Spain next January.

The reason for the delay in establishing the field was apparently due to a combination of IHF concerns with the format and structure of the tournament.  The Pan American Team Handball Federation (PATHF) regulations had established a two tier qualification format, with a Division 2 Championship played in the Fall prior to the Elite (Division 1) Championship in the following Summer.  The top 6 teams from the previous Elite Championship qualified directly for the Elite Tournament while the remaining teams in the PATHF region first participated in the Division 2 tournament with the top two teams advancing to the elite tournament.

As we reported last fall, a decision was made at the 2011 PANAM Games to forego the established process in favor of a single, larger Elite Championships to be hosted by the winner of the PANAM Games.  (As a side note, readers should realize that the PANAM Games and the Pan American Championships are distinct, separate events.  The PANAM Games are held once every four years and serve as the qualifier for Olympic competition.  The Pan American Championships are held every two years and serve qualifier for Handball World Championships)

While in principle, the idea had some merit, it apparently came up lacking in terms of planning considerations.  Most notably, how many teams could participate in the bigger tournament and what would PATHF do if every PATHF nation wanted to come?  With the established regulations essentially being ignored the new structure was apparently implemented on the fly and apparently it had raised some concerns with the IHF.

COMMENTARY:  You’ll note the liberal use of the word “apparently” in this post, because, well, because there’s been no official announcement on the PATHF website in regards to this upcoming event.  Our information comes from the Mundo Handball website, which got the information from an Argentine website with a Spanish language interview with Miguel Zaworotny of the Argentine Federation.

As long time readers already know, the PATHF has an unfortunate track record in regards to both time communication and transparency when it comes to organizing competition events.  Nations have on numerous occasions gotten information late (or even not at all!) making it difficult to plan and schedule transportation requirements.  It’s also worth considering this decision to arbitrarily increase the size of the tournament this year in the context of the 2006 Championships.  Back in 2006, Canada was excluded from participating despite having placed 3rd in 2004 because they had not earned enough qualification points under the new regulations. Canada pleaded for a larger tournament, but those pleas fell on deaf ears.  The regulations had to be followed.  Flash forward, 6 years later and the iron clad regulations are apparently changed on a whim during the PANAM Games without fully considering the repercussions.

Reportedly, there is a PATHF meeting scheduled for today to address this upcoming championship, as well as, the format for upcoming events.  Here’s hoping “apparently”, will take some form of reality with a clear communique on the PATHF website in short order.

THN (27 Apr 2006):Canada’s Exclusion from the Men’s Pan Am Championships- Commentary: https://teamhandballnews.com/2006/04/canada%E2%80%99s-exclusion-from-the-men%E2%80%99s-pan-am-championships-commentary/

Mundo Handball (29 Apr 2012): Pan American Championship Adult Male: Confirmed participating teams:  http://www.mundohandball.com/Continentes/Panamerica/2012/panamericano-adulto-masculino-equipos.html

Mundo Handball (4 May 2012): Buenos Aires 2012: First and last Pan American Championship with 10 teams?:  http://www.mundohandball.com/Continentes/Panamerica/2012/buenos-aires-2012-ultimo-com-10-equipos.html

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Handball Talk (Episode 6): Pan American Beach Handball Championships in Uruguay

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USA's Diva Desai takes a shot against Uruguay

John Ryan talks with USA Team Handball General Manager, Dave Gascon, Women’s Coach, Dede Piankova and  USA players, Diva Desai and Erin Kizer from Montevideo, Uruguay, the site of the Pan American Beach Handball Championships.  Included is a discussion on why the USA decided to participate in this tournament, how the game differs from the court version and where Beach Team Handball might fit into the big picture as the USA seeks to further develop team handball in the USA.

The women play their final game on Sunday at 1645, US East Coast Time: http://www.handballtv.blogspot.com/

Highlights of the women’s game against Uruguay are also available on the Day 1 video starting around the 17:00 minute mark.

 

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VIDEO: Pan American Beach Handball Tournament to be webstreamed live

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The venue for the Pan American Beach Handball Championships in Montevideo, Uruguay

 

The Pan American Beach Handball tournament starts tomorrow, 1 March, in Montevideo, Uruguay.  5 men’s teams and 5 women’s teams are participating.

The event will be live webstreamed at this site: http://www.handballtv.blogspot.com/

The USA women will be participating and this is their schedule for their round robin matches

Thursday, 1 March
USA vs Uruguay, 8:45 PM (Local), 5:45 PM (U.S. East Coast)

Friday, 2 March
USA vs Paraguay, 10:00 AM (Local), 7:00 AM (U.S. East Coast)
USA vs Argentina, 6:15 PM (Local), 3:15 PM (U.S. East Coast)

Saturday, 3 March
USA vs Brazil, 6:15 PM (Local), 3:15 PM (U.S. East Coast)

Complete Schedule: http://www.panamhandball.org/index.php?option=com_joomleague&func=showPlayground&p=35&pgid=16

 

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VIDEO: Remarkable goal by Argentina’s Federico Pizarro

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An Incredible goal by Argentina's Pizarro

Right before halftime of the PANAM Games Gold Medal match, Argentina’s Federico Pizarro somehow found a way around the Brazilian wall to put his side up by 15-14.  Link is courtesy of www.mundohandball.com

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaF4pCSA1FM

Mundo Handball article: http://www.mundohandball.com/Continentes/Panamerica/2011/pizarro-golazo.html