Tag Archives: college handball

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Collegiate Handball Recruiting: Tips and Tricks from Dodgeball

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(College Dodgeball has seen some solid growth the past few years. Here are some dodgeballrecruiting tips and tricks collegiate handball might want to borrow from)

With the start of the Fall Semester approaching collegiate handball clubs are gearing up for what is arguably the most important time of the year for their club: Fall recruiting

Why is it the “most important” time of the year? Well, that’s because for many clubs successful recruiting at the start of the school year might well be the difference between their club’s survival or joining the Collegiate Handball Graveyard.

Kind of a grim way to look at it… but, it may well be true because there is no better time to recruit athletes to join your club. Thousands of Freshman are arriving on campus and hundreds of them are athletes looking for a club to join. Some of them are handball players and life long fans of the sport… They just don’t know it yet.

Anecdotally, a good portion of the collegiate clubs that have disappeared did so because the athletes that started the program failed to keep the momentum going with new recruits coming in behind them. And, when they graduated the program had its cupboard depleted and just couldn’t keep going.

Always Be Closing (ABC)

Team Handball has so much going for it. (It’s fun to play. It’s an opportunity to meet people from all over the world. It’s even an Olympic sport with real future national team prospects for the most elite players.) But, it’s also important to remember that it’s a niche sport that’s not universally known. Collegiate handball clubs can’t just sit back and wait for prospective athletes to find them. And, they can’t even afford to go through the motions with a couple of folks sitting at a club fair table hoping someone will be curious and talk to them.

No. No. No! It’s actually necessary to be enthousiastic selling and actively talking to people. Fear of a Freshman rejecting your pitch? Please… that should be of no consideration whatsoever. It’s a numbers game and the more people you talk to the better. And, the end goal should be to close the sell. To get that new recruit to show up to a practice where the odds are fairly decent that new recruit will become a life long handball fan.

Recruiting 101 Tip and Tricks, Courtesy of Dodgeball

But, while enthousiasm is important and can go a long way towards closing the deal it’s also important to recruit smartly. Ohio St Head Coach, JD Orr, recently shared a Dodgeball podcast that included a Recruiting 101 segment.

Side note: Yes, we can add dodgeball to the list of sports that have been blowing right by handball in terms of collegiate development. At least it’s not a sport derived from Harry Potter.

There are a lot of good tips and tricks that are discussed and here’s the link to the podcast queued up to the recruiting segment.

And, here is a compiled list of the tips and tricks from the podcast:

  • College Club Fair Tips
    • Interactive Engagement: Dodgeball offered cash bounties for new recruits who could catch low balls from their fastest throwers.
    • Have a team banner hanging from the bottom of your table
    • Tri-Fold Display with info on team
    • Wear team jerseys
    • It doesn’t hurt to have your top players attend (Athletes… can best sell to athletes)
    • Have giveaways (wristbands, stickers) with your team name on it
    • Have a small handout (doesn’t need to be a full page) to give to people
      • Club name, QR Code for Groupme, Time/Location of first practice
    • Use a laptop to gather contact information (name, email, phone #) instead of paper as it avoids deciphering anyone’s handwriting
    • Ask new recruits to follow the club IG page
  • Instagram (IG) Tips
    • “IG Method”: How to use IG to cast a wide net that’s still pretty targeted towards more likely recruits
      • Note: Use your club’s IG page (not your personal IG page)
      • Find the incoming Freshman IG page for your college (for this year it’s Class of 2030 pages) High School pages for recent graduates (i.e. Class of 2026) are another option, but you will have to search for posts related to what college they are attending
      • Review incoming student posts for potential recruits. Sometimes posts will mention sports played in High School.
      • Follow potential recruits on IG. If they follow back start a DM conversation with them
      • If they don’t follow back wait a few days and comment on one of their posts; perhaps a post that is sports related or a recent post
    • Unfollow, then follow back trick. Apparently, this takes advantage of the “new follower” alerts that can trigger more awareness. So, if your initial follow was sometime ago unfollowing first and then following will get more attention
  • Club Communication
    • Both email and phone are important. At the start of the school year everyone’s busy and they might not see an email or text. Contacting via multiple methods helps get the word out.
    • Some clubs are moving from Groupme to Discord
    • E-Board is another communication tool
    • If there is a large number of initial recruits consider splitting them into smaller groups and assigning a group to different team members
    • Prior and after the first few practices there should be multiple communication check ins
  • Initial Engagement and Practice Tips
    • Fully engage newcomers at the first couple of practices; As the season progresses shift the focus towards veterans and the broader team
    • Make friends/learn names
    • Plan social engagement/team bonding outside of practice early on. Make it clear that a college club is different from a high school sports team
  • 1st Competition
    • Schedule a simple competition early in the season
    • Ideally nearby without a full weekend commitment
  • 1st Travel Tournament
    • Overnight road trips are bonding experiences; athletes that attend often become more committed to the club
  • Throughout the Year Recruiting
    • Team members should always be approaching potential athletes
    • Turn new Freshman members into instant recruiters as they know other Freshman who might be likely to join
    • Team members should approach incoming Freshman they knew from their high school
  • Sell aspects of handball that are different from other club sports
    • Not as expensive as some club sports like hockey and baseball
    • Club handball is serious, but less of a time commitment than other sports
    • Handball is an Olympic sport and there is more potential for eventual national team consideration
    • Playing handball is likely to more interaction with athletes from all over the world

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USA Handball Talk (Episode 27): Don’t Pass the Ball to Dika Mem

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 38:15 — 30.8MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | RSS

John and JD discuss the infamous Dika Mem pass, NBC Peacock’s handball broadcasts and promotion of the sport, and John’s efforts to start club handball programs at Colorado and Colorado St.

Here’s a summary with links to some of the items we discussed:

  • The infamous Dika Mem pass that saw France lose to Germany in a dramatic Olympic quarterfinal: Link
  • NBC’s Peacock coverage and John’s commentary that Peacock should become the USA TV home for handball: Link
  • Sports writer/influence Rodger Sherman’s All Caps Tweet that he will storm ESPN HQ if they don’t broadcast more handball: Link
  • Handball on Peacock petition: Link
  • Brazilian GK, Gabriela Moreschi on Instagram: Link
  • Euronews “No Comment” news segments: Link
  • 2022 Wheelchair Handball Championship Gold Medal Highlights: Link
  • Goalball Explainer video: Link
  • John’s Initiative to try and start handball clubs at CU-Boulder and CSU: Link
  • Ralphie the Buffalo Handlers: Link
  • JD interviewed on local Columbus TV: Link
  • Ohio State Rugby Club Alumni Association: Link

Watch on YouTube or listen/download the mp3 file at the top of the page

If you have any suggestions for future topics that you would like us to consider please let us know on social media.

  • Subscribe on YouTube: Link (Earliest Availability)
  • Subscribe to the podcast in iTunes: Link
  • Follow the  Team Handball Handball News podcast on Spotify: 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

Commentary: Re-Imagining The U.S. Collegiate “Olympic” Sport Model (Part 1): The Enormous Disparity between Varsity and Club Sport Funding

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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. 

Sources: Ohio State University Equity in Athletics Data Analysis (EADA) 2018 submittal; Ohio State Handball Club Financial Summary (avg of last 2 seasons)

Time to Rethink These Allocations… You Think?

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.