Mika Maunula and John Ryan: Beach Handball pioneers reunited at the So Cal Beach Handball Championships
25 years ago, Mika Maunula and I dragged a couple of handball goals onto the sand in Hermosa Beach, California to play what we thought at the time was beach handball. The sport has come a long, long way since those humble beginnings. In this short podcast discussion Mika and I trace the past 25 years and look forward as to what the sport might look in the future.
Note: U.S. Men’s Coach, Michael Hansen was listening in and didn’t concur with the timing of all our recollections. I suspect he’s probably right in some instances. Regardless, I think it’s a fairly accurate representation of the sport’s gradual evolution and rapid development the past few years.
Expatica Americana: When it comes to handball our 51st State is Kind of Like the Faroe Islands.
In Part 1, I reviewed some definitions and addressed misconceptions that some folks might have with our Handball American Expats. In this second part I take a closer look at the demographics of what in some respects is our 51st state.
The Demographics of
Expatica Americana
Just exactly how many Americans don’t actually live in the United States? Would you believe that number is 9 Million strong? According to this State Department document that’s how many there are. I, for one was surprised at the sheer size of this number. Put it this way, if Expatica Americana was a country in terms of total population it would rank 97th amongst the countries of the world. Almost twice as big as handball power Denmark. 27 times bigger than always respectable Iceland. If Expatica Americana was really a state (instead of an unofficial one) it would be ranked 11th in terms of population. Why, it would even have 12 congressional districts and 14 Electoral votes. Easily enough to swing an election in what would surely be a deep blue state.
From a handball development perspective, having 9 million
Americans living in other countries where handball is possibly a more important
sport is a good thing. A certain portion
of those living overseas will have kids and those kids will grow up in a handball
environment. Free development of
players!
For a number of reasons, though, this population
unfortunately is not roughly the size of New Jersey (8.9M) with kids from
Hackensack to Newark playing the seven aside game with passion.
The Demographics of
Expatica Americana in “Handball” Countries
And, then, of course handball is mostly a European game with North Africa thrown in for good measure. That draws down that number based on this compilation of multiple sources to around 1M or roughly Rhode Island’s size. A small state, but that’s still 3 times the size of Iceland.
Finally, however, we’ve got to further break down that
number to separate the “just visiting” to the semi-permanent to permanent Expat
Americans. Because the reality is that
there’s a big difference between moving to Europe for job/school reasons for a
few years and moving to Europe and deciding to stay there. To stay there and raise a family and
potentially a handball playing American son or daughter.
I wasn’t able to find any hard data on how many Americans are doing that, but I’m going to suggest that number is only around 5% of the 1M, if that. Taking that 1M down to 50,000. 1/12 the size of Wyoming, our least populous state. The population of Casper, Wyoming or more appropriately in handball terms, roughly the population of the Faroe Islands. Pretty small, but even a small handball country like the Faroe Islands can rise up and win a major title.
The Real Demographics
(Past)
But, maybe the prospect of a Faroe Islands size cohort isn’t
even accurate. Maybe it’s even a smaller
pool of potential handball players.
Certainly, from an historical perspective it was a lot smaller. If one looks back to the 70s, 80s and 90s
there were only a handful of expats on our national teams. I’ve been told that there were a few
“naturalized” Europeans in the early days of USA Team Handball, but until Terje
Vatne, who first played handball in Norway and who played for the U.S. in the
80s and 90s I don’t think there were any expat players.
There could be a number of reasons for this. First off, this was before the internet, so finding “handball American expats” was a lot more challenging. Think about it: An American playing handball in Europe wanting to play for the U.S. would first have to know that playing for the U.S. was even possible, then they would have to track down an address to mail a letter or call information to find the USA Team Handball phone number. And, further complicating things would be the semantic issue of handball being a different sport in the U.S. It’s comical to think about this earlier era and this problem, but make no mistake it was a real problem.
Despite these handicaps, USA Team Handball did make attempts
to find players and during my short stint with the U.S. National Team a couple
of expat players got a quick tryout right before the 1993 World Championships. Apparently, USA Team Handball sent a letter
to European Federations inquiring about dual citizens and a Norwegian and
Swedish player answered the call. They
showed up at our training camp in Finland a couple of weeks before the
championship and they were both decent players.
I don’t remember their names. The
Norwegian was young (maybe 18) and a decent left back. The Swede played center back and while a
little undersized he had very good technical skills. If he had been practicing with the team
longer I think he probably would have made the team.
And, that last sentence leads to a reality which surely limited dual citizen participation. Namely, if you have a residency program where players are practicing and bonding together on a daily basis, bringing in some new players to take their spot on the roster is not good for team cohesion. And, back in 1993 we were talking only 2 roster spots. Today, with more and better quality expats available for the Men’s team such an issue has been rendered moot. One just has to compare the Men’s national team roster from the 2018 North American Championship to the 2019 PANAM Games to quickly come to that conclusion. And, while it’s quite appropriate to simply select the best players available, it becomes a more complicated decision if it also calls into question the validity of your national team development concept.
The Real Demographics
(Present)
Which leads to a discussion of the current reality. Exactly, how many expats does the U.S. have
at its disposal? Well, it’s relatively
simple to add up the number of such players that have played for the U.S. Men’s
and Women’s national teams.
My unofficial tally is that there have been 48 expat men and
18 expat women that have been played for the U.S. Sr, Jr (U21) or Youth (U19)
national teams in the past 10 years.
This number is surely not 100% correct as I may have missed a few names
or mistakenly identified athletes as expats/non expats. Here’s a couple of charts that further breaks
down the data
Handball American Expats by Country
No major surprises here. Germany, the country with the world’s most handball players and with several U.S. military bases, by far contributes the most athletes. Scandinavia also has decent representation, although, one might think there might be more Danish-Americans lurking out there somewhere. Israel’s representation at first glance might be surprising as handball is not a major sport there and the population of Israel is just 8M. But, since there are such strong ties between Israel and U.S., there are 200,000 Americans living there to work with, roughly double the number of Americans living in Germany.
Handball American Expats by Birth Year
This table provides some insight as to the actual numbers of
Handball American Expats that might be available to play for the U.S. In particular, if one averages out the birth
years (1995 – 2001), roughly 5 expats have been identified each year. This is probably indicative of what might be
expected on average since this covers the period of time for which more Jr and
Youth competition opportunities became available. For the women, there is less data to work
with, but roughly 2 athletes by birth year appear to be available on average
each year.
Of course, average means that some years there will be more
and some years there will be less.
Further, I haven’t gotten into detail as to relative quality of these
available athletes. Having had more opportunities
the past few years to actually see the U.S. Jr and Youth teams play, though, it’s
clear that these athletes cover the spectrum.
Some have been high quality athletes that aren’t too far from making a
European side, while others have been lower tier club players that have only
been selected because there simply wasn’t much competition to make the team.
So now, that I’ve taken a closer look at the underlying demographics of our handball American expats, we’ve got a pretty decent handle on what this key cohort looks like. In Part 3, I’ll look at the implications of this small talent pool and why it’s kind of like Hickory High, the fictional 1952 Indiana State Basketball Champions in the movie, Hoosiers.
Team USA and Ademar Leon circle runner, Drew Donlin.
Team USA’s Drew Donlin has moved to Leon, Spain where he’s now playing for one of Spain’s top clubs, Ademar Leon. It’s a significant step up from his last club, Dormagen, where he played for their 2nd team in the Oberliga, Germany’s 4th level of play. Now with Ademar Leon, he’s practicing and playing with their 1st team which participated in the EHF Champions League last year. And, making some significant contributions so far in the very early season.
This past weekend Leon played in the Viseu pre-season tournament in Portugal, where Donlin got playing time vs HBC Nantes and scored 3 goals and played solid defense vs Portugal’s SL Benfica. Even getting a mention in the local paper for a surprise performance.
Donlin is not the only player from Pan America, with Chile’s Erwin Feuchtmann, and Argentina’s Gonzalo Carou and Federico Vierya also on the roster. It’s probably not a coincidence that Argentina’s head coach, Manolo Cadena is also Leon’s head coach. One might even assess that the PANAM Games served as a pseudo tryout for Donlin.
It’s early yet, but so far so good for Donlin in terms of his progression as a handball player. At age 27, he might seem behind in terms of development, but he didn’t take up the sport until he was 18. He played for Air Force for four years in college, but after graduation he didn’t have regular, consistent training until he joined Dormagen last year. One could argue that experience wise he might be roughly the equivalent of a typical 20 year old circle runner in Europe.
It certainly will be interesting to track his play this season with Leon. Leon had a disappointing season last year, placing 5th in the Liga ASOBAL, so they’ve dropped down from the Champions League to the EHF Cup. Assuming Leon makes it to Group Play several of their matches should be on ehfTV. And, several of Leon’s matches will also be on Andebol TV, including this past weekend’s matches.
Leon Noticas: Drew Donlin, reinforcement for the pivot of Abanca Ademar: Link
Ademar Website: American Talent for Ademar Leon: Link
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.
A new handball season will be starting soon and I’m looking to freshen up the website with a new logo. So I’ve decided to have a simple contest for our creative handball readers. The winner will get a $75 donation to their favorite non-profit handball entity.
Logo Requirements:
Needs to include the words, “Team Handball News”
A drawing or picture that clearly conveys the sport of team handball (e.g. a person throwing a ball; court dimensions; goal area, etc)
PNG file format
Square dimensions (360×360 pixels)
No photos subject to 3rd party copyright
Send your entry to me at john.ryan@teamhandballnews.com by 20 August, 2019. I will ultimately select the winner, but I intend to reach out to a few individuals to get their opinions as well. Thanks for participating.
Unprecedented Coverage for USA National Teams; All thanks to ESPN’s web streaming Channel: ESPN 3
Trivia Question: Prior to the 2019 PANAM Games when was the last (and only time) that a U.S. National Team match was aired in its entirety on a major U.S. television network?
Answer: 1996: A friendly match between the U.S. Men and Brazil was aired on ESPN. And, this was only due to a contract that the USOC made with ESPN that packaged the TV rights for all Olympic qualification events with a stipulation that every single Olympic sport would get air time on TV.
Flash forward 23 years later and we have ESPN airing seven U.S. National Team matches in eight days. The USA Women’s semifinal and bronze medal match and all five Men’s games at the PANAM Games. Yes, ESPN 3 is not ESPN. It’s not ESPN 2 or ESPN U either. It’s a “digital” Over the Top (OTT) streaming channel; not a traditional or “linear” channel.
Still, U.S. handball fans were treated to the best video production of U.S. matches ever. Multiple cameras and a HD stream on a pretty reliable platform. I watched a dozen matches and recall only a couple of times when there was a bit of buffering or pixelation.
A Window to the Future
This was unprecedented coverage and a window to the future. I know that I’ve been saying this for a long time in one way or another. The 2016 Olympics was the most recent example.
The Olympics are over. Thanks for watching. See you in 2020. How about sooner?: Link
If the U.S. had qualified for Rio, every USA match would have been on TV because NBC aired every single handball match on their OTT streaming channels.
My desire for an OTT “Handball Channel” has not been met, but more and more sports are migrating to OTT platforms. ESPN’s “ESPN+” has the most subscribers (2M+) and it was recently announced that it will be packaged with Hulu and a new Disney streaming channel. If you have ESPN+, and you have surfed through the channels it doesn’t take much imagination to envision a “Team Handball” icon next to the cricket and rugby icons.
Another, lesser known OTT Sports Channel, DAZN, has also entered the U.S. market, but for the time being it’s mostly showing boxing. That’s likely to change and there have even been reports that DAZN will bid for NFL Sunday Ticket package. More relevant to handball fans is the 2020-2030 EHF contract which DAZN bid for and won in conjunction with Infront, meaning that the Champions League and European Championships could be coming to DAZN a year from now.
It’s hard to accurately predict where exactly our sports viewing experience is headed, but if Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime are a guide it’s headed towards more and more sports streaming.
Room for Improvement
While it was great to have the matches on ESPN 3 there’s still room for improvement in some key areas
English Language Commentary: While ESPN aired all the matches they essentially had no role in their production which was handled entirely by the company that the Lima 2019 committee hired. This is evidenced by the Spanish language commentary that accompanied all of the broadcasts on ESPN 3. If ESPN had wanted to they could have provided English language commentary. Of course, there’s an expense with that, but it could have been done without too much difficulty at their headquarters in Connecticut.
Network Promotion: ESPN actually did a little bit of promotion through 2 handball inclusions on their Sports Center Top 10 plays of the day. Video 1Video 2 Still, it would have been nice for some handball to have been aired on the traditional ESPN Channels or for ESPN to have interviewed our coaches and players on one of their radio programs.
Future Broadcasts: Why some Events are “Free” and some aren’t
But, what about future handball broadcasts? Well, this as you might expect will depend on costs. And, for any sporting event there are 3 cost drivers.
The “rights” to broadcast
Production costs
Transmission costs
Handball competitions at the PANAM Games and the Olympic Games have the huge advantage of being one small part of a bigger packaged event. In other words, handball gets paid for as part of that package. ESPN in the case of the PANAM Games and NBC for the Olympics have no choice, but to pay for all the events, even if they are really only interested in the more well known events that American audiences will watch for huge ratings and, in turn, sponsorship dollars.
Major handball only competitions like the World Championships and the EHF Champions League don’t have the advantage of being part of a package deal, but the costs to a USA network can be kept to a minimum. This is because the IHF and EHF are already paying for the production costs and they can choose to waive or sell TV rights to the U.S. at a reduced cost. This just leaves transmission costs which thanks to the advent of OTT are less substantial than they would be on a traditional linear channel.
With “minor” handball competitions, however, the sticking point will be production costs. Who’s going to pay for the cameras, commentators and direction that are part of a professionally produced TV sporting event? With “major” handball events those costs are covered by the TV rights that are sold to markets where there already is a significant handball audience. Unfortunately, the same thing cannot be done for an event like the North American & Caribbean Handball Championship or a U.S. National Championship. The audience doesn’t exist to justify a substantial rights fee or even for a network to pay for production. So where will the money for production costs come from?
Well, there are only a handful of options:
USA Team Handball. This might seem like a non-starter for a cash strapped federation where national team athletes have had to pay for their own travel to international competition, but if you’re trying to grow the sport it may be necessary. Hopefully, there’s an increase in the overall budget, though, to make such an expenditure less painful
The IHF. A solid case can be made for the IHF to fund TV production for continental events like North American & Caribbean Championships. A quality production that could then be aired in each nation to promote their national teams and the sport in general. That funding would have to come from somewhere, but I would argue that this should be a higher priority than other initiatives the IHF is funding like the Super Globe competitions.
Sponsors. In this instance sponsors would pay for production costs in conjunction with their sponsorship of the event. Indeed, this model has been used for sports like rugby, corn hole and axe throwing. It would seem feasible that a long term sponsorship deal could be arranged whereby the sponsor pays more up front for costs like TV production and then makes out on the back end of the deal as USA Team Handball gains in popularity.
An OTT Partnership as a Way Ahead
If I were King for a day, I would suggest that the answer would be, “all of the above” because I could see it as a win-win for everyone involved. A partnership involving the IHF, EHF, USA Team Handball, an established network like ESPN, and a major sponsor collaborating on a joint effort. An OTT sub channel for handball which maximizes the airing of major and minor handball competitions. The IHF and EHF would see handball grow in the important USA market. USA Team Handball would have a place for its USA matches to air, ESPN (or some other network) could become the USA TV home for handball and a major sponsor would have a feel good story of helping a sport takeoff in the U.S.
All that might be too much to ask for, but something like this is in the cards one way or another. It’s not a matter of if anymore, but when.
USA Center Back successfully defended her Doctoral dissertation then headed off to Europe for a 3 week training camp. Now she and her teammates are in Lima, Peru and they can’t wait for the PANAM Games to begin on Wednesday.
Jence Rhoads had a stellar basketball career at Vanderbilt University and then played hoops professionally in Iceland and Romania. But, in 2004, after her mother, Melinda Hale Rhoads, attended a reunion with her 84 Olympic Team Handball teammates she decided to take a road trip to Auburn, Alabama and tryout for the Women’s National Team. The tryout went well and she has been a key player for the Women’s side ever since.
Rhoads, however, says that it wasn’t an immediate decision to switch sports, “I went back and forth for a while, because I wasn’t sure I was done playing basketball, but the opportunity arose to start my Master’s. And, with the opportunity to continue playing a sport at a high level, particularly on a national team I decided to move to Auburn… Now here I am in Lima, Peru with my Doctoral degree.”
But, learning a new sport over the past four and half years has had its ups and downs, “It’s funny to think about myself five years ago as a young handball player and think about myself now and what I’ve gotten better at and what I still need to improve upon.”
One aspect of her game that she’s taken with her from basketball is her unselfish style of play. She notes that it receives a lot of praise, but also some criticism, “I don’t want to say it’s something that I struggle with because it’s sometimes a very good thing. Sometimes I maybe wait too long in the game to turn on an ‘attack mode.’ I have a tendency to try to get the play to develop and get everyone involved before I look for my own shot.”
Jence and her teammates are coming off a 3 week training camp in Europe where they played a lot of matches against different levels of competition in preparation for the PANAM Games. First up, on Wednesday night in Lima will be group favorites, Argentina, a team the U.S. hasn’t beaten in 20 years. They will then play the Dominican Republic on Thursday afternoon and then finish up Group Play vs hosts, Peru on Saturday.
Team USA is raring to go and ready for the challenge. Even at the prospect of facing world handball power, Brazil in a possible semifinal matchup, “I love those kind of games… That’s part of the reason why you play the sport. To have that chance to topple the giant.”
For more on Jence’s transition to handball, her experience playing professionally in Spain, the conditions on the ground in the athlete’s village and her perspective on their opponents Team USA will play in Group Play check out the podcast.
Eduarda “Duda” Amorim and Brazil are Overwhelming Favorites to Take Gold
The 2019 Pan American (PANAM) Games officially open on Friday, 26 July, but the Women’s Team Handball competition will get started two days earlier. Here’s some key information about the tournament and the nations that will be competing.
What’s at Stake: The tournament winner will automatically qualify for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. The runner up will be guaranteed a spot in an Olympic qualification tournament to be played in spring 2020. Additionally, there’s a possibility that 3rd place will also get a ticket to an Olympic Qualification slot, but that won’t be known until after 2019 World Championships in December.
The Format: The eight nations that qualified for the competition have been split into two groups of four. Each group will play a round robin. The top two nations from each group will then advance to the semifinals and the bottom two nations will advance to the consolations semis. The winners of the semifinals will play for gold while the semifinal losers will play for bronze.
Schedule:
Wednesday, 24 July Group Play
Thursday, 25 July Group Play
Friday, 26 July <PANAM Games Opening Ceremonies>
Saturday, 27 July Group Play
Sunday, 28 July <Rest Day>
Monday, 29 July Semifinals
Tuesday, 30 July Placement Matches
Details: Link (Note: Lima, Peru is 1 hour behind US ET)
Where to Watch: The Pan American Sports Organization has a new online channel, but it is not clear which matches will be broadcast. An earlier notice indicated that handball matches would not be broadcast until the Women’s Semifinals. In the U.S., ESPN owns the rights to all PANAM Games content and has signaled that they will show content on ESPN Deportes and their OTT platform, ESPN+. Again, it is not clear if and when handball will be shown. (Check back here on on the Team Handball News Facebook or Twitter pages for updates)
Brazil How qualified: 1st place at South American Games Recent Pan American Results:
– 2015 Pan American Championship: 1st
– 2015 Pan American Games: 1st
– 2017 Pan American Championship: 1st
– 2018 South and Central American Championship: 1st Key Player: Left back, Eduarda “Duda” Amorim is considered one of the best players in the world. Outlook: To say that the Brazilian Women have dominated Pan American handball competitions is almost an understatement. In multiple Pan American competitions over the past 10 years they are undefeated. They are hands down the favorite to win the tournament.
Puerto Rico How qualified: 2nd place at Central American and Caribbean Games Recent Pan American Results:
– 2015 Pan American Championship: 4th
– 2015 Pan American Games: 6th
– 2017 Pan American Championship: 6th
– 2019 North American and Caribbean Championship: 2nd Key Player: Backcourt, Nathalys Ceballos, has been their primary offensive weapon. Outlook: Puerto Rico came within 3 goals of qualifying for the 2019 World Championships, losing to Cuba 27-24. They’ll seek to avenge that defeat in Group Play in what will be a likely show down for 2nd place in the Group.
Cuba How qualified: 3rd place at Central American and Caribbean Games Recent Pan American Results:
– 2015 Pan American Championship: 2nd
– 2015 Pan American Games: 5th
– 2017 Pan American Championship: Did not participate
– 2019 North American and Caribbean Championship: 1st Key Player: Left Back Lizandra Lusson has been Cuba’s top scorer for the last several years. She was the top scorer at the 2015 PANAM Games and led her nation in scoring at the 2015 World Championships. Outlook: Cuba’s up and down performance can be directly correlated to whether their top European based players show up or not. If they do, Cuba may well have the 2nd best team at the tournament.
Canada How qualified: 1st place at 2nd Chance Qualification Tournament Recent Pan American Results:
– 2015 Pan American Championship: 10th
– 2015 Pan American Games: 7th
– 2017 Pan American Championship: Did not participate
– 2019 North American and Caribbean Championship: 7th Outlook: The Canadian women were soundly defeated by the U.S. in the North American qualifier, but bounced back to win the 2nd chance tournament. They are a younger side and will be looking to improve upon their disappointing performance earlier this year at the North American Championship
Team Profiles (Group B)
Argentina How qualified: 2nd place at South American Games Recent Pan American Results:
– 2015 Pan American Championship: 3rd
– 2015 Pan American Games: 2nd
– 2017 Pan American Championship: 2nd
– 2018 South and Central American Championship: 2nd Key Player: Right Back, Luciano Mendoza, has been Argentina’s leading scorer for the past several years and Elke Karsten is an up and coming player who recently was signed by Hungarian club, Debrecen Outlook: The Argentine Women have been the perennial bridesmaid to Brazil in just about every Pan American competition for the past 20 years. They are favorites to win Group B and if they do that could mean a semifinal match vs Cuba.
USA How qualified: Beat Canada in North American Qualification Series Recent Pan American Results:
– 2015 Pan American Championship: 10th
– 2015 Pan American Games: Did not qualify
– 2017 Pan American Championship: 5th
– 2019 North American and Caribbean Championship: 5th Key Players: Center back, Jence Rhoads, is the conductor of the U.S. attack. Left back, Nicole Andersen is the top scoring threat. Outlook: The USA Women failed to qualify for the 2015 PANAM Games and following that disappointment they set their sights on returning in 2019. Mission accomplished, but they would like to do more than just compete and are focused on a semifinal berth. The U.S. Women will be under dogs to Argentina, but a strong defensive performance coupled with a consistent offensive attack could provide a surprise. Barring an upset there they will need to beat the Dominican Republic to reach the semifinals.
Dominican Republic How qualified: 1st place at Central American and Caribbean Games Recent Pan American Results:
– 2015 Pan American Championship: Did not participate
– 2015 Pan American Games: Did not qualify
– 2017 Pan American Championship: 8th
– 2019 North American and Caribbean Championship: 4th Key Players: Wings, Nancy Pena and Yojaver Brito have done the bulk of the scoring for the Dominican Republic in their recent competitions. Outlook: In 2014 the Dominican Republic was banned from Pan American competition for having played over-age players at the Women’s Youth Championship that they hosted back in 2010. Their program is on the rebound as evidenced by the title win at the Central American and Caribbean Games. A potential show down with the U.S. for 2nd place looms Thursday.
Peru How qualified: Host Nation Recent Pan American Results:
– 2015 Pan American Championship: Did not participate
– 2015 Pan American Games: Did not participate
– 2017 Pan American Championship: Did not participate
– 2018 South and Central American Championship: Did not participate Key Players: Unknown Outlook: Peru qualified as host nation and until recently does not appear to have even had a women’s national team. At the 2018 South American Games they lost by an average of 37 goals to Argentina, Chile and Uruguay. This lack of experience will be hard to overcome so playing competitive matches and perhaps winning a match in consolation play is about the best outcome that could be expected
Team USA’s Beach Handball Specialist/Reality TV show Icon, Jacobo Garcia, and the rest of Team USA are ready to take the gold.
The 2019 North American and Caribbean Beach Handball Championships will start today (Thursday, 11 July) in Trinidad & Tobago. USA Men’s coach, Michael Hinson called in from Trinidad last night to talk about their preparation, the USA Men’s roster and their competition at the tournament.
Tournament Groups
Group A: USA, Barbados, Haiti, Trinidad & Tobago, Dominica
Group B: Mexico, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, St Kitts & Nevis
USA Men’s Schedule (All times are Local / US ET)
Thursday, 11 July
10:30 AM USA vs Barbados
3:30 PM USA vs Haiti
Friday, 12 July
10:30 AM USA vs Trinidad & Tobago
1:00 PM USA vs Dominica
(Note: The format for the Men’s competition has the top 2 teams from each group qualifying for the semifinals. Teams placing 3rd to 5th will play consolation matches.)
Saturday, 13 July
TBD Semifinal
Sunday, 14 July
TBD Placing Match
USA Beach Handball Links
Website: Link
Facebook: Link
Twitter: Link
Instagram: Link
During the podcast, Michael and I talked about Jacobo Garcia’s 2nd place finish on the Telemundo Reality TV show Exatlon. Here’s a few links:
Jacobo Garcia on Telemundo show Exatlon: Link
Jacobo Garcia Instagram: Link
Coach de Oliveira expects big things from newcomer circle runner, Christine Mansour. (Photo: Jochen Korn)
The North American and Caribbean Beach Handball Championships will take place this week at Turtle Beach, Trinidad & Tobago. USA Women’s coach, Juliano De Oliveira and I talk about his handball origin story, the USA Women’s roster and their competition at the tournament.
Thanks to Right Turn Media for their help with editing the podcast audio: Link
USA Men’s and Women’s Roster Announcement: Link
Tournament Groups
Group A: USA, Barbados, St Kitts & Nevis, Trinidad & Tobago
Group B: Mexico, Puerto Rico, Haiti, Dominica
USA Women’s Schedule (All times are Local / US ET)
Thursday, 11 July
11:20 AM USA vs St Kitts & Nevis
5:10 PM USA vs Trinidad & Tobago
Friday, 12 July
12:10 PM USA vs Barbados
Saturday, 13 July
TBD Quarterfinal
Sunday, 14 July
TBD Semifinal
TBD Placing Match
USA Beach Handball Links
Website: Link
Facebook: Link
Twitter: Link
Instagram: Link
Kevin Gruzinsky and Joey Williams recently spent several months in Denmark for extended handball training at the ISI Sports Academy in Ikast, Denmark. In the podcast we discuss how they each discovered handball, how they decided to attend the ISI Sports Academy and their experience there.
ISI Sports Academy Handball Program Website: Link
ISI Sports Academy Handball Program Facebook Page: Link
Team Handball Academy (THA) Facebook Page: Link (THA Director, Craig Rot, linked Joey and Kevin up with the ISI Academy)
Thanks to Right Turn Media for their help with editing the podcast audio: Link
North Carolina’s Aaron Hamm and Texas A&M’s William Kennedy
Texas A&M’s William Kennedy and North Carolina’s Aaron Hamm are leaders on their respective collegiate teams and members of the U.S. Jr National Team that recently competed at the IHF Trophy Inter-Continental Championships. I sat down with both of them at the conclusion of the USA Collegiate National Championships to discuss their experience in Kosovo and the state of collegiate handball in the U.S.
Men’s Results (Includes links to On Demand Video for several matches): Link
Women’s Results (Includes links to On Demand Video for several matches) Link
No movement at the top Since the last poll in February. Army continued to stay undefeated in collegiate play with relatively easy wins over Auburn and Cincinnati at the Arnold Classic in Ohio. North Carolina held on to the 2nd spot despite a mediocre showing at the Carolina Blue Cup. They picked up collegiate victories over James Madison and Auburn, but didn’t pick up a win in their other matches vs at large clubs. Ohio Stayed also held on their 3rd place ranking. They took 2nd at the Arnold Classic and travelled to Denmark over spring break where they suffered some big losses to a couple of handball academies. Still, they are hopeful that the experience will pay dividends next month at College Nationals. West Virginia held on to their #4 spot while Air Force rode a respectable showing at the Valley of the Sun Tournament to move back into the rankings.
Here are the records for the remaining collegiate club teams (thru 20 March 2019)
