A discussion on the new North America & Caribbean Handball Confederation
In Part 1, I chatted with Marxwell Masauna Frederiksen and Jackson Howden about their handball backgrounds. In Part 2 we discuss the cancellation of the North American & Caribbean Championship and the IHF’s decision to give the U.S. the NACHC slot for the Men’s World Championships. We also talk about the future of the NACHC including the possibility of the roommates playing against each other, the NACHC getting more spots for the WC, the possibility of Greenland playing in the PANAM Games/Olympic Games, expansion of the Forum Club Handball (FCH) program to help other NACHC nations and the development of beach handball in Greenland and Canada. Beach Handball in Greenland?
Kras Volendam Women’s Head Coach, Mark Ortega (Photo: Jaap van der Pijll)
The following interview was conducted by Dutch club KRAS Volendam
The USA national team is going to the World Championships. Anin-depth interview with Mark Ortega/Coach of KRAS Volendam ladies
Recently the USA Men’s National Handball team has been invited to participate in the World Championships. Normally this news would not have a great impact on HV KRAS/Volendam, but this season we feel the effect due to our American trainer Mark Ortega and players Alex Binderis and Christine Mansour.
How many games will the USA win at the World Championships?
“The USA has never won a game at the World Championships. I predict we will win at least two, but more importantly we will show our growth as a handball team and as a nation.”
Team USA made it to the World Championships. The world doesn’t really know much about this. Tell us about the journey?
“The last three to four years Team USA has made some huge leaps. This is a combination of various factors. The last few USA Junior National teams have had some recent success on the international stage. Due to the new IHF developing Nations Tournaments. The last four years the USA Men’s Junior National team has qualified for the IHF Developing Nations Final, which has led to the Junior National team qualifying for the Junior World Championships in Spain (2019). There’s also a new program developed where the USA Handball players (both male and female) are placed at high level clubs in Europe. FCH (Forum Handball Club) started this program with a selected group of athletes and coaches and currently contains approximately 10 athletes and one coaches. In my perspective the IHF, FCH and EHF are all doing their part to see the USA Handball develop. From creating high level youth and junior tournaments to creating programs designed specifically for player and coach development, allowing these players and coach to be part of major clubs throughout the world. It’s easy to see that we, Team USA, are on the fast track to possibly bring our national teams to a higher level. I’m excited to see this new development.
On a personal level HV KRAS/Volendam has seen this as an opportunity and jumped on board. It’s great to work with a club that sees things in advance and isn’t afraid of anything abnormal within the handball world.”
What’s your role at HV KRAS/Volendam and for Team USA and how does this combination work?
“My role at HV KRAS/Volendam is a combination between creating a stable women’s handball foundation for HV KRAS/Volendam and working on the development of the Team USA handball.
It’s a challenge for me as fulltime trainer/coach for our Ladies first team. But the club gives me enough space to combine my daily work with the position as USA assistant within the men’s National Team. I’ve been the assistant there for the past six years and have been responsible for many aspects regarding the development of the team. For example, I’ve worked as the full-time residence coach in Auburn for the past five years, Alabama, USA. Where I’ve had the privilege of working with five-time Olympian Javier Garcia Cuesta helping develop USA players. Most of the players in the residency program were ‘late starters’ of the game, many football or basketball players. Ty Reed is one of those players who started in Auburn and now plays in Flensburg, Germany. But I’ve also recruited high level athletes and dual citizens for the USA national team, which is not easy. Without any funding and only being able to talk about what if… what if… scenarios, to recruit players. Players such as Ian Hueter, Patrick Hueter and Domajoj Srsen have heard my talk of what the USA National team can do and it’s great seeing them get a chance to participate in a World Championships early in their career. These players have dual citizenship and respectfully played or have played in the top leagues in Europe.”
Team USA and HV KRAS/Volendam don’t seem to be a logical match? Can you tell me if there is a match?
“HV KRAS/Volendam and Team USA are actually much alike. The fit is obvious in regard to the players and coaching levels. The club is still emerging in the league and is trying to develop players at various skill levels, just like our national team programs. Coaching handball in the USA is not considered the highest level throughout the world and you have to develop players with various skill levels and mindsets. The same goes at HV KRAS/Volendam. An emerging club with large differences in skill level and mindset between the players. As a trainer I work with developing the talent that is at hand. That’s a different way of creating impact and improving skill sets to when you ‘just buy’ pro players and work on a team. HV KRAS/Volendam has amateurs with highly skilled talents. You have to know how to reach each one of them to impact them all.”
“I have to say that I’m thankful for HV KRAS/Volendam’s work. They made this opportunity possible for me. You have to be able to look outside of the box to give an American an opportunity like this. It says a lot about their direction and vision as a club. To broaden the program and impact for Team USA we need more clubs who are willing and able to facilitate like HV KRAS/Volendam does. In the end HV KRAS/Volendam’s investment for the future will give them a unique position within the handball world.
They have also given me the opportunity to complete my IHF Master Coaching Course via the Spanish association. In February I’m expected to receive my EHF Master Coaching course/Pro License. This EHF license will make me the first American born coach to have the necessary license to legally coach Pro teams and National teams at EHF and IHF official competitions. I’m very proud of this.”
Alex Binderis is also at HV KRAS/Volendam. Could you tell us something about him?
Alex has a unique story. As a younger player he participated in some of Sweden’s National team development programs. As the years went by Alex and his family continued to follow the USA National team. At the age of 19 Alex and his brother Max decided to try and join the USA National team. Both have seen recent success participating in IHF Developing Nations Tournaments. Alex was invited to join the FCH program last year and Volendam answered the call. After playing many years on different Swedish teams Alex is not only fulfilling his dream to play as a professional but also fulfilling his Dad’s dream for Alex to be a professional handball player in the Europe’s top league.
We take it you’ve had some influence in the arrival of Christine Mansour as well.
“We were able to invite her this year to join HV KRAS/Volendam to train and compete with the women’s teams. The interesting thing about Christine is that she’s never played indoor handball before; however, Christine is the best beach handball player for Team USA and her potential is enormous. Even with the Covid outbreak Christine is making enormous steps to becoming a better all-round handball player. I expect her, when we start again, to play an important role. Again HV KRAS/Volendam thinks out-of-the-box and gets it done. A great development for USA team handball.”
What is your direction and drive for handball?
“Handball has been a central part of my development for the past 17 years. I understand with our sport that sacrifice is needed a lot. I learned this as a player and expect this mentality from my players. I also realized in my career as a player that if I was on the court it was important to find players that were better than me. You have to test yourself and commit to getting better. My wife and two kids moved to Volendam as part of our sacrifice and commitment to our goal of becoming a better coach and representative for the USA.”
What are your plans for the future?
“Recently, I resigned as the assistant to the National team coach to concentrate on representing the athletes on the Board of directors of USATH. Being in the Netherlands and seeing what goes on in the management of the club I’ve come to realize that we can make huge strides in the development of USA team handball, both on management and board level. Since I stepped down from my position as assistant coach of Team USA, I’ve been elected to represent the athletes on the board of Team USA. Seeing what happens behind the scenes at HV KRAS/Volendam gave me the insight to make this move and get more involved directly with all the athletes. My goal will be to help all athletes’, men and women, to find the road helping them succeed. This is a role long needed within the USA as American athletes don’t have a contact person to whom they can go whatever their playing level. And I would like to be that person. My goal is to develop new programs, similar to our program at HV KRAS/Volendam. This would give athletes more opportunities to play and develop.”
Athletes first, seems to be your message.
“Being a head coach in the Dutch Women’s first league now opens a new and wide road of development for coaching. Being an American coach in Europe means many eyes will be on me, and that attention will help the USA gain more possibilities. I hope my path will give more athletes and coaches inspiration to keep pursuing their handball goals. Christine, Alex and I have a great situation in Volendam, and we proved that it’s possible. We hope we can continue to contribute to the development of the HV KRAS/Volendam program and our ideas about life and handball are really similar. Let’s keep this movement going.
We’ve also been busy contributing to the development of new handball players around the World via my personal YouTube channel. I try to cater to a specific demographic group of adults who have never played handball before but want to learn the sport. Of course, we use my players at HV KRAS/Volendam. Check out the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoeQucS7UvA
Abou Fofana and Angers take on Strasbourg today at 2000 (CET) / 1400 (US ET) Watch live on the Angers Facebook page
While the Coronavirus pandemic has resulted in several matches getting postponed this week, for the most part the European Leagues are marching on with a near full slate of matches. And, this has got to be a first: 3 Americans with 3 different club will be playing simultaneously later today.
American Athletes in Action
French Pro Ligue: Angers vs Strasbourg (Tuesday, 2000 CET): Link
Left back, Abou Fofana plays for Angers. Both Angers and Strasbourg are near the bottom of the table and could use a win. This video will be on Facebook and is the first opportunity we have this season to see Abou Fofana with his new club
EHF European League: Leon (-5.5) vs Metalurg (Tuesday, 2045 CET): Link
Leon lost to Logrono on Saturday and will look to bounce back vs Metalurg. It will be interesting to see how ready Metalurg after their 40 hour bus drive from North Macedonia to Spain.
EHF European League: USAM Nimes (-3.5) vs IFK Kristianstad (Tuesday, 2045 CET): Link
Goalkeeper, Rene Ingram, plays for Kristianstad. Ingram is Kristianstad’s 3rd keeper and is on the roster due to an injury to their top keeper.
HBL 2: TSV Bayer Dormagen vs. HSG Konstanz (Wednesday, 1930 CET): Link (may require VPN)
Hosts, Dormagen (Ian and Patrick Hueter) should be solid favorites over 17th place Konstanz
Other Matches this Week
EHF European League
10 matches on Tuesday at either 1845 or 2045 CET
Top Matches: Both of these matches are interesting in that they feature more well known top clubs as 3.5 goal favorites on the road
Nexe vs Montpellier (-3.5) (Tuesday, 1845 CET)
GOG vs Rhein-Neckar (-3.5) (Tuesday, 1845 CET)
EHF Champions League
Top Matches: It will really be very interesting to see how struggling Paris (only 1 win) does against Porto. Kiel vs Barca is the other standout match. No spoiler preview: Link
Aalborg vs Veszprem (-4.5) (Wednesday, 1845 CET)
Flensburg (-4.5) vs Meskov Brest (Wednesday, 1845 CET)
FC Porto vs Paris S-G (-2.5) (Wednesday, 1845 CET)
Zagreb vs HC Motor (-1.5) (Wednesday, 2045 CET)
Vardar vs Kielce(-2.5) (Thursday, 1845 CET)
Kiel vs Barca (-1.5) (Thursday, 1845 CET) <<English Commentary>>
The pandemic appears to be ramping up again, so you might want to catch some handball action online… while you still can. Thankfully, there are a plethora of options this weekend. Here’s some links to online streams with the goals handicap betting odds courtesy of Bet MGM.
EHF Women’s Champions League: Round 8 includes 3 matches on Saturday and 3 on Sunday.
The U.S. may have an outsider’s chance against Austria at the World Championships. Check out how well another outsider, Estonia, fares against them today.
Austria hosts Estonia today at 8:25 PM (CET) / 2:25 PM (US ET) in an European Championship Qualification match. The match can be seen on ehfTV. (Requires free registration). The oddsmakers have Austria as a 6.5 goal favorite. (Bet MGM)
The U.S. has drawn France, Norway and Austria and without a doubt that’s some stiff competition. It’s pretty hard to imagine the U.S. having any chance whatsoever vs France and Norway, but one can at least speculate on the possibility of the U.S. putting up a decent fight vs Austria.
Austria’s Roster
Austria is a 2nd tier European handball nation that sometimes challenges 1st tier European nations. Case in point: hard fought matches vs Croatia and Spain on home soil this past January at the European Championships. And, at the other end, they are a nation that has slipped up against lesser opponents. Case in point: A 32-24 loss to Chile at the 2019 World Championships.
Further, with their best player, Nikola Bilyk, out due to injury, the team participating in Egypt will be a notch down in quality from the side that participated in the most recent tournaments. Their roster features a handful of players playing in Germany, most notably Robert Weber, and other countries, but the bulk of their team plays in Austria. The Austrian League is a solid competition, but it’s not as strong as the leagues in other nations.
Estonia: A European Outsider
Austria’s opponent, Estonia, is a European outsider that’s never had any real success in handball. They’ve never qualified for the World Championships or European Championships and I don’t think they’ve ever come close. Their roster is mostly composed of athletes playing in Estonia or for 2nd tier foreign pro teams in other countries. The notable exception is Mat Patrail who currently plays for Rhein-Necker in the German Bundesliga.
An Estonia – USA Comparison
While Estonia has had no real success against Europe’s best teams, they’ve shown their better than Europe’s minnows. To get to this stage of qualification they easily beat Luxembourg 69-53 on aggregate. This same Luxembourg team easily defeated Great Britain, Bulgaria and Ireland and, those 3 nations were all at the 2019 Emerging Nations Championship which the U.S. also participated in. The U.S. beat Ireland 37-32 and lost to Bulgaria, 38-35, but the U.S. was missing some key players from their roster. I’m pretty certain a full strength U.S. roster would have won those matches and probably convincingly.
If one compares where the top U.S. players are currently playing club handball to Estonia you’ll see some similarities in terms of the level of play. The U.S. has the Hueter brothers (Ian and Patrick) playing in the German 2nd Division, Abou Fofana playing in the French 2nd Division and Drew Donlin playing a supporting role for Leon in the Spanish Liga Asobal. And, then several players playing in lower divisions throughout Europe, including 3 athletes (Ty Reed, Rene Ingram and Nico Robinson) that are also getting some practice time with Champions League Clubs.
Overall, based on these common foe comparisons and club assignments I would say that the current U.S. squad probably is somewhere between Estonia and Luxembourg in quality. Of course, that’s just a paper assessment based on limited information. It will be interesting to see how Estonia fares today and how the U.S. can do in January.
Yes, the IHF is a business and business concerns are rightly part of the decision making process
Yesterday, the IHF nominated the U.S. to participate in the 2021 IHF World Men’s Handball Championship as the North American & Caribbean Handball Confederation (NACHC). It didn’t take long for a firestorm of protest to emerge pointing out that this wasn’t deserved and that Greenland should have been selected instead. It was very predictable and on the surface it seems pretty unfair. If one digs deeper, however, one can also conclude that it was clearly the right decision.
Establishing some Bonafides
For the record, I’m an American and former U.S. National Team player. I bleed red, white & blue and, of course, one could consider me as ridiculously biased. How could I possibly be objective here?
Well, let’s take a trip down memory lane to the 2006-2007 timeframe when Greenland was unceremoniously removed from the Pan American Team Handball Federation (PATHF) for essentially being too good. (And, yes, I regret to say that my own nation was part of those machinations.) Why, on two occasions (2002, 2006) Greenland beat the U.S. to secure World Championship spots. The 2006 defeat was a real bummer because I was living in Europe and looking forward to covering the U.S. at the 2007 World Championships in Germany.
Instead, I got to watch Greenland play instead. As you can see and hear from this 2007 article/podcast I became a pretty big fan. For sure it was very obvious that the whining I had heard in the states that Greenland’s team was just a bunch of Danish mercenaries, was totally hogwash. This was a legit team with real fans that were proudly Greenlanders. That’s why I was outraged when Greenland was kicked out of PATHF and used my soap box to lobby for their reinstatement. Whether this little website played any role is debatable, but thankfully the IHF forced PATHF to reinstate Greenland.
13 years later I still am a big proponent of Greenland handball. In 2018, I watched Greenland almost pull off a big upset over Chile on home soil to secure a 2019 WC slot. What a match and atmosphere! Check out this interview with Minik Dahl Hoegh regarding that match and handball in Greenland.
Anyway… If all this doesn’t convince you I can be objective… Nothing will. Moving on.
The IHF Role: They Decide and There’s No Established Criteria
So, why is the IHF making this decision? Well, due to the COVID-19 and probably the limited budgets of the nations involved it became impossible to hold a NACHC Championship. And, let’s be absolutely clear here:
No one. I repeat no one. Is happy that no championship could be held to decide a winner on the court. No one.
So no championship. How is this resolved? Does one turn to the NACHC regulations to see what it says under force majeure? No… not even if such regulations exist. As the IHF announcement points out, the applicable regulation is IHF Competitions, Section 2.8, World Championships: Non Appearance which states in part:
“If a Continental Confederation does not use its performance or compulsory places, the IHF Executive Committee shall decide on the reallocation of such places.”
So, with no championship being held, technically, the IHF didn’t even have to give this World Championship slot to a NACHC nation. They could have decided (as some have suggested in social media) given this slot to North Macedonia.
IHF Rationale for Selecting the U.S.
So, basically this was a free ticket for the IHF with no actual requirements dictating a solution. The IHF, however, provided some rationale, which I mostly agree with. That rationale is listed below:
USA are a very important handball nation for the worldwide handball development;
In view of the size of the population, a specific strategy was developed to accelerate the progress of handball in USA, aiming to grow the IHF’s TV audience worldwide and increase the social network impact of handball, which will help to maintain the status of handball in the Olympic system and ensure the future of handball at the Olympic Games;
The former Pan American continent was split in order to increase the number of handball activities and offer the countries in NACHC better chances to reach IHF major events. A special focus was placed from the very beginning on the USA being a major market.
An agreement with major TV broadcasters in the USA has been made to show handball matches.
As Los Angeles, USA is hosting the 2028 Olympic Games, having strong host teams should be an overall target;
From those teams that have registered for the planned qualification event and showed interest in playing the qualification (Canada, Greenland, Puerto Rico, USA), USA are the best-ranked team at the last official competition, namely the 2019 Pan American Games.
The first five sets of rationale listed all relate to U.S. development and growing the U.S. market. Strictly from a business standpoint it’s hard to find fault with this rationale. And, make no mistake, the IHF is a business. Honestly, after years of shaking my fist in frustration at the lack of effort to develop a U.S. market, it’s refreshing to see criteria I’ve championed before being listed as reasons to give the U.S. an opportunity on the world stage. To promote the sport in this country.
A Rising Tide Lifts all Boats
It’s also worth noting that what’s good for USA Team Handball is also good for handball, in general, both in North America and the World. I get how the other nations of the NACHC might be resentful of the economic weight of the U.S. dictating this decision. Even if it is a unique, one off decision that’s only be made due to a global pandemic it still can leave a bad taste in one’s mouth.
But, make no mistake if the U.S. becomes a handball nation it will help everybody, much the same way the U.S. development as a soccer nation has helped the development of the CONCACAF. Yes, the CONCACAF isn’t UEFA, but make no mistake the U.S. caring about soccer now means some big paychecks for that organization. Big paychecks that have trickled down to all the CONCACAF nations.
Could the same thing happen with the NACHC? Yes, it could. Nicer competitions with a crowd and a TV contract. The U.S., Cuba, Canada, Greenland and others battling on the court for a WC slot in a nice arena in front of cheering fans.
So that’s the business case, but there’s actually a pretty solid case to be made that the U.S. is also the better team on the court. In Part 2, I’ll take a deep dive to explain why I think that is also true.
Yearly expenses for several sports programs at Ohio State University. Team Handball actually does have a bar, but at $3,376 it just doesn’t register at this scale.
The COVID-19 Pandemic has been a catalyst for several colleges and universities to reevaluate their collegiate sports programs. And, that reevaluation has resulted in 90 sports teams being dropped from the athletic departments of 26 schools. All told, around 1,500 athletes will no longer be competing at the Varsity level. (Source: NBC Sports: College sports cuts in the wake of Covid-19 are clouding the future of Olympics participation)
As you might expect a number of people are very upset with this development. This includes the 1,500 athletes who in many cases have lost a partial college scholarship, the college coaches who have lost jobs and the Sports National Governing Bodies (NGB) that have lost multiple sources for the development of potential future Olympic athletes. Not to mention the entrepreneurial $30 Billion dollar youth sports industry that has sprung up in part to develop athletes to get those scholarships.
Many articles and comments are along the lines of what a shame it is that this collegiate support for “Olympic” sports is being lost. And, that it will inevitably impact Team USA performance in future Olympics. My gut reaction to all this hand wringing is…
Hold on a second…You’re not talking about “all Olympic” sports here. Cry me a river and welcome to my world, fencing, shooting, etc.
This visceral feeling is well founded, both as a former college handball player and coach. I’ve seen first hand the disparity in terms of resources and support with what an Athletic Department “Varsity” sport receives and what a Club Activity sport receives. It’s night and day. Varsity sport athletes have scholarships, full time coaches, dedicated practice space and substantial travel budgets. Club sports typically have no scholarships, volunteer coaches, often compete for gym space and sometimes get a little funding to defray a portion of their travel costs.
As I started working on this commentary, however, I realized that I needed to go beyond the gut reaction and that it would be better to quantify just exactly what the financial disparity actually is. This resulted in a trip down the rabbit hole only to discover that it’s even worse than I had imagined.
Ohio State University Support to Sports Programs
There are many colleges and universities in the U.S., but only 19 collegiate handball clubs in the U.S. For my initial investigation I chose Ohio State University which has an extensive NCAA sports program and a team handball club.
It took a little digging and some reorganization of available data, but here is a table which lists the total expenses for every varsity sports program and the team handball club.
For me, this data was a real eye opener. I always knew that club sports were getting the short end of the stick, I just didn’t realize how short it was. Seriously, handball’s budget is over 1,000 times smaller than men’s ice hockey. Or, just 44 times smaller than women’s pistol. Pick your varsity sport. It doesn’t matter. It’s a big difference. A really big difference.
Does such a big difference make sense? Should there perhaps be some reimagining about how this funding is allocated?
Of course, there should be. And, I’m not alone when it comes to such thinking. Recently, the New York Times published an essay by Tom Farrey of the Aspen Institute, “Colleges Are Cutting Varsity Sports. That Could Be a Good Thing.” In the essay he make several great points about why indeed it could be a good thing. How such a shift could lead to fewer parents chasing scholarships for their kids and how club sports can often provide a better balance for students between athletics, academics and just being a college student.
Overall he concludes that:
“Reducing the number of varsity teams will mean fewer athletic scholarships, but also potentially less money spent pursuing them and more university support for other forms of campus sports.“
I’ve added the italics and boldface, because the words “potentially more university support for other forms of campus sports” are music to my ears… except for that pesky word, potentially. Because such a reallocation is easier said than done.
In Part 2, I’ll take I’ll examine what it might take for the word potentially to become reality. At the same time I’ll try and play devil’s advocate to justify why sports like Ohio State’s Synchronized Swimming program should continue to expend resources at a $1.1M/year clip.
Andreas Hertelt (on the right) with USA Men’s Head Coach, Robert Hedin (Photo: Markus Hausdorf)
Andreas Hertelt played 13 seasons in the German Bundesliga and represented his country in 10 international games. He has been a Team Leader for the U.S. Men’s National Team and he has been facilitating the placement of U.S. players with European clubs. On the podcast we discuss this program which is financially supported by the Forum Club Handball (FCH) and the U.S. players currently participating in it.
Don’t miss an episode: – Subscribe to the podcast in iTunes: Link – Or use this RSS Feed to sign up for the podcast in your favorite podcast aggregator: Link
And, be sure to check out the podcast archive with interviews and great handball discussion going all the way back to 2006: Link
Things that make you go Hmm?: “Free” registration at an “ehfpayments” url.
<IMPORTANT UPDATE (3 July, 2020)>
The EHF has informed me that the answer to this question is “No. There are no plans whatsoever to change ehfTV to a paid subscription service. The misleading URL is a result of the switch to a new streaming partner which serves other entities that charge a subscription. The URL has been flagged for an update. The EHF, however, noted that handball fans will need to register and login to ehfTV to watch live matches. A small requirement, though, to watch the world’s best handball free.
<Original Article (Posted 2 July, 2020)>
ehfTV: The Best Thing Ever for Handball Fans in Far Flung Countries
Big things are a foot with the European Handball Federation (EHF). A new 10 year contract for TV and Marketing rights is now in full swing. The result: a revamped Champions League format, fresh new web pages and a new look ehfTV.
If you’re reading this article and are any kind of a handball fan you already know what ehfTV is. Why, it’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me as a fan of the sport here in the U.S. All of the Champions League matches, European Cup matches and even the European Championships available* for free viewing. Free! What a deal.
Are the Days of a Free Ride Coming to an End?
ehfTV is such a good deal that I’ve been wondering for years just how long it would last (Article from 2016). I mean we have to credit the EHF for being so forward thinking with this positive promotion of the sport, but they are a business and “free” generally is not a smart long term business move.
And, indeed in some countries the free ride ended a few years ago. There’s an asterisk on “available” and that’s because some matches are geo-blocked in some countries if the TV rights have been sold. That’s totally understandable. If I was a TV network owner I wouldn’t want the match being shown for free elsewhere. I would want viewers watching my channel.
But, it’s only understandable if the match can actually be seen in the country in question. In the U.S., beIN Sports (the previous rights holder) usually only aired 1 match a week on a delayed basis on Wednesday mornings. But, because they had a TV contract that match and many others were geo-blocked. This was extremely frustrating and forced handball fans like me to use VPN to watch matches on line. VPN is a less than desired workaround, but as a paying beIN Sports subscriber I had no moral qualms with using that alternative.
A New U.S. Network?
With a new 10 year contract kicking in there is now a chance for the EHF Champions League being seen on a new network. There are several possibilities that hopefully are being considered. NBC is a possibility and they’ve already shown the 2019 Men’s and Women’s on the NBC Olympic Channel. Other possibilities include Fox Sports, CBS Sports Network, TNT, 11 Sports or yes, a return to beIN Sports.
My preferred choice, however, is ESPN and specifically a combination of ESPN linear channels and ESPN+. As this earlier commentary highlight ESPN+ practically begs for a dedicated handball sub-channel: Link
Maybe Everybody Pays?
But, there’s another model that might at some point come into play. If you’ve checked out the new ehfTV platform you may have noticed that it invites you to register for free: Link
But… the url is for ehfpayments.streamamg.com. Yup. The “free” registration is at “ehfpayments”. Which is certainly a “Hmm” moment. As in, “Why would you call it that?”
Pure speculation on my part, but I can envision the EHF eventually transitioning ehfTV to a tiered service with some matches still being free, but adding a subscription to watch more matches and additional content.
Assuming such a subscription was reasonably priced this would actually be a good solution. Some matches on regular TV, some matches on free ehfTV and some matches on premium ehfTV. Actually I could get real used to that. HBL, LNH… are you listening?
The death of George Floyd in Minnesota and the Black Lives Matter protests that have taken place all over the U.S., and even around the world have brought the issue of racial discrimination against African Americans in the U.S. to the forefront.
While for the most part overt racism has been practically nonexistent in USA Team Handball circles underneath the surface there have been issues at play that have likely kept African American participation numbers down.
Joining me to discuss this issue and more are 1996 Olympian, Derek Brown, former North Carolina coach and U.S. Jr National Team Asst Coach, Myles Bacon and NYAC/National Team player and USA Team Handball New York City Ambassador, Divine Jackson.
Here is some background information for some of the items that are discussed in the podcast:
USA Team Handball Diversity & Inclusion Data for Total Membership
USA Team Handball Diversity & Inclusion Data for National Team Athletes
Excerpt from USA Team Handball Newsletter (8 Jun 2020)
Link to the recent USA Team Handball Newsletter: Link
USA Team Handball’s Current Diversity & Inclusion Plan: Link (Note this plan was actually approved in 2017 and called for the formation of a Diversity & Inclusion Committee back then. It would seem that recent events have provided an impetus for getting this work started.)
Don’t miss an episode: – Subscribe to the podcast in iTunes: Link – Or use this RSS Feed to sign up for the podcast in your favorite podcast aggregator: Link
And, be sure to check out the podcast archive with interviews and great handball discussion going all the way back to 2006: Link
A Little History: Ambitious Targets that have become Increasingly Difficult to Meet
Since I’ve been following USA Team Handball the goal has always been to qualify for the Olympics. And, then once at the Olympics to medal or to reach the quarterfinals. Up until the 2000 Olympics these goals were perfectly reasonable. Qualification was expected. Indeed the only failure to qualify prior to 2000 was the Men falling short in 1992. Getting a medal was a bit of a stretch, but the 1984 Women’s team came close as a win over West Germany would likely have earned a bronze medal. (The U.S. lost 18-17)
But, since hosting (and automatically qualifying) for the Olympics in Atlanta in 1996, neither the U.S. Men or Women have come close to qualifying for the Olympics. There are multiple paths to Olympic qualification, but in practical terms for nations in North and South America it has meant winning the PANAM Games Handball tournament in the year prior to the Olympics. Neither the U.S. Men or Women have made it to the title game since 1995 and the few teams that we’ve made the semifinals it has resulted in a double digit loss. In 2007 and 2015 the U.S. even failed to qualify for the PANAM Games. (Historical PANAM Games Results: Link) Here is a summary of the U.S. performances since Handball started being included at the PANAM Games in 1987.
U.S. National Team Targets for the 2024 Quadrennial
Going forward, USA Team Handball appears to have similar targets. As a review here are the Strategic Plan targets for the National Team
Qualify for the IHF World Championships by 2024
Top 12 Finish at IHF World Championships by 2024
Top 2 finish at 2023 PANAM Games
Qualify for the 2024 Olympic Games
Additionally, there are some top level plans identified as potential ways to support achieving these targets:
Project France, whereby the U.S. National Team would compete as a team in a French league
Identifying up to 200 athletes new to handball and sending them to Europe for additional training. I’ll call this the Great Leap Forward Elite Player Pool Project.
Past Projections
Being the analytical type, I’ve done my best to project U.S. chances for Olympic Qualification for the past two quadrennials (2016 and 2020) and I’ve even already projected out to 2024. Here’s a summary of those assessments and when they were made:
March 2013: Assessment of U.S. Chances for 2016 Olympic Qualification: Link
September 2015: Assessment of U.S. Chances for 2020 and 2024 Olympic Qualification: Link
October 2017: Assessment of U.S. Chances for 2020 Olympic Qualification: Link
November 2017: Assessment of U.S. Chances for 2024 Olympic Qualification: Link
The cliff notes summary is that I’ve been pretty spot on with only a few things surprising me a bit. (i.e. Perhaps, I just might know what I’m talking about.)
Methodology for 2024 Quadrennial Assessments
While, reviewing my assessments, however, I noticed a couple of shortcomings. First, I didn’t fully characterize and define the “What We Have” starting point that USA Team Handball was working with. Perhaps it was obvious to some readers, but I’m not so sure. In particular, I don’t think key decision makers fully comprehended just how low of a starting point USA Team had been working with for years.
The second key shortcoming was the lack of actual targets and benchmarks to shoot for. This has now been rectified with the Strategic Plan. Again, it’s not a perfect document, but it does provide structure in terms of what we want.
Finally, I’m going to try and take a look at what happens to the “Can We Get There” if we change cost, schedule or performance constraints. Of course, we can’t always actually change them (the 2024 Olympics most likely will occur in 2024), but such analysis can provide further insight as to the feasibility and rationale for different projects
First up: A closer review of how feasible it is for the U.S. Men to qualify for the 2024 Olympics and other targets in the 2020-2024 Quadrennial.
Finding the Sweet Spot: High, but Achievable Goals
I spent quite a bit of time and energy reviewing “What We Have” and “What We Want” (Yikes: 17 articles!) But, that tedious process was really, really necessary. Sure, it’s a lot more fun to actually draw up the plans to move this great sport forward. Heck, that’s true with almost any planning process. Enough, already! Paralysis by analysis. Let’s get to work!
Problem is, though, if you don’t do that legwork up front you could well be drawing up plans that given your current situation simply aren’t practical. Or, you might be planning for something that doesn’t actually match your organization’s goals very well. Sometimes big projects will even take on a life of their own so much so that nobody can even remember what the original reason for them was in the first place.
All of those are big reasons why it’s necessary to closely look at “What We Have” and “What We Want” and determine how feasible it is to get from one to the other. Because if it’s not feasible that’s a major problem. And, that major problem can only be fixed in one way: By scaling back “What We Want”. Sure, it would be nice to magically change your “What We Have” starting point, but you can’t change your current reality. It is, what it is.
And, at the other end it can also be tough to lower your expectations. To downscale lofty goals. That’s no fun, either, but often that’s the only thing you can do. Otherwise you’re simply setting yourself up for failure. The fix, however, is not to come up with simple goals that can be easily met. No, the solution is to find the sweet spot of high, but achievable goals. Obtainable goals worthy of special effort that can genuinely move handball forward as a sport in this country.
The Project Management Triangle: Cost, Schedule and Performance
So, how does one determine whether it’s possible to go from “What We Have” to “What We Want”? For “projects” or project like efforts that assessment can be done through a review of the project plan. A “project” is defined as a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service or result. In terms of USA Team Handball there have been a number of “endeavors” over the years intended to grow the sport or to produce good national team results. The Boys & Girls Club pushes in Los Angeles (1980s) and Atlanta (1990s and early 2000s) could be classified as projects. The various residency programs implemented over the years were projects typically focused on maximizing national team capabilities for the Olympic Handball Tournaments. Currently, efforts to grow collegiate handball, youth handball, improve near term national team performance and yes, the Big, Hairy, Audacious Project are all projects.
And, like any project they are constrained by cost, schedule and performance. What is often referred to as the Project Management Triangle. A project has an intended performance outcome, but only has so much money to spend and time to work with. And, if you want to alter one element of the triangle it’s a given that you have to change the other parts of the triangle in some respect.
A Test Case for Illustrative Purposes: Growing College Handball to 100 Clubs
Let’s take growing collegiate handball as an example. Let’s say our goal is to have 100 collegiate clubs by the end of the 2020. With currently only 15 Men and 4 Women’s clubs that’s pretty ambitious. Throw in the COVID-19 Pandemic and it seems pretty unlikely that we can meet our targeted performance (100 clubs) in the desired schedule (31 Dec 2020). Keep those constraints and you can only attack the problems with more money. I guess if we had $5M we could provide direct cash payments to 81 colleges to start college handball programs and hire 5 full time staffers to be 100% focused on this effort, but that doesn’t seem very practical.
This logically means scaling back schedule and/or performance. With the pandemic it’s not clear what the 2020-21 season will even look like and that could make starting new clubs pretty challenging. It’s debatable, but a better target end date would likely be May 2022 or May 2023. Further, some more work is probably needed in fleshing out a good target for performance (# of clubs).
Defining Performance: Clearly Defined Deliverables and Targets that can be Tracked and Measured
This leads to another aspect that requires some careful thought and consideration. Namely, a project plan with a schedule and clearly defined deliverables and targets. Simply having broad objective statements like “we want 100 college clubs” leaves way too much open to interpretation. Clear targets like “100 college clubs that contest 15 matches/year” are better along with other deliverables like a college handball start-up kit that will help get to the final project objective.
Competing Goals and Projects
It would be nice if USA Team Handball had just one goal and one project to worry about. Unfortunately, however, that has never been the reality and this has been most visibly displayed over the years by choices that have been made between grassroots development and national team preparation. There has never been enough funding to properly do both (or even just one) and in most cases, the “decision” has been made to focus on national teams. I’ve put “decision” in quotes because many times it’s not been clear as to whether a thorough decision making process to prioritize limited resources was used or whether the decision just happened by default.
I bring this reality up, because sometimes folks think that it doesn’t matter if we as an organization fall short of lofty, audacious goals. That such goals can serve as inspiration and we’re going to strive for our best regardless of whether we fall short… So, what’s the harm? Well… the harm is that there are competing needs and spending resources on an effort that is unlikely to succeed is highly questionable if there are other options with greater chances of success.
Can We Get There?: Determining Feasibility
The next parts of this series will assess the feasibility of a number of different efforts that USA Team Handball has started or plans to start in the near future. In particular, it will review “What We Have” and assess whether can feasibly get to to “What We Want” in terms of cost, schedule and performance.
Spoiler Alert: We are likely to fall short in almost every instance. Please don’t shoot the messenger…
Bini Mustafa, the President of the New York City Team Handball Club has been taking advantage of the COVID-19 lock down to interview several handball personalities both in the U.S. and internationally. I was honored to be one of the personalities he chose to interview and it was great to have someone else ask the questions for a change. He through me a couple of curve balls so, in my opinion, it’s a pretty interesting interview.
Here’s a timeline of some of the highlights of our conversation
05:15 My handball origination story
11:30 Playing at the 1993 World Championships
13:50 Bini asks me, “Someone with a resume like yours, a background like yours… Why, are you not involved with the business of USA Team Handball?”
21:50 Bini asks me, “In your opinion, from the practical and tangible aspect of it, what will be considered truly a successful outcome for this new leadership?”
26:15 A discussion on the latest Pro League concept
32:10 Indoor soccer and why that might be the model for a pro handball league
35:10 How USA Team Handball might coordinate with a pro league
36:40 A discussion regarding handball on TV in the U.S.
40:50 The best thing that’s happened to me all year…
42:20 The financial arrangements for handball on TV in the U.S.
44:30 The problems with 3rd party agencies being responsible for selling TV rights in the U.S.
46:50 Why cornhole is on TV and handball isn’t
48:45 Why handball is headed to a better TV network (fingers crossed)
49:45 The reality handball show concept
52:55 Bini asks me, “If you had $10M to invest in handball how and where would you invest it first?”
56:50 The great advice USOPC Executive, Rick Adams, gave USA Team Handball at the 2012 Strategic Planning Session in Utah
59:15 Bini asks me, “Who’s your all time favorite U.S. Club?”
1:02:40 Bini asks me, “Who’s your all time favorite U.S. born player?”
My apologies for forgetting your name, Richard Jacobs!
1:06:50 Bini asks me, “Who is my favorite expat player in the U.S.?
1:08:50 Discussion on U.S. Nationals still taking place this year
1:11:40 Bini asks me, “Who I think is the best player in the world, currently?”
1:13:25 Bini asks me, “If you were to change one rule in handball what would it be?”
1:16:40 Discussion on adding a 13M line for two point goals
And, my interview is just 1 of 10 recently posted. It’s a diverse group that includes Carlos Prieto, Sayed Shalaby, Danilo Rojevic, Ljubomir Vranjes, Vladimir Bicvic, Julio Sainz, Mark Ortega, Gil Pires, Vid Kavticnik, Kim Ekdahl Du Rietz and Laszlo Nagy. That should keep you busy!
