The USA Men’s National Team is participating in the IHF Emerging Nations Championship. This page is intended to serve as a handy reference point for the tournament
The USA Men participated in their second straight World Championships this past January and finished in 26th place with 3 wins and 4 losses. At first glance this doesn’t look like a great tournament result. After all, at the 2023 World Championships the U.S. made the main round and finished in 20th place. But, while the end result was a lower overall ranking, the body of work this time was, in my opinion, clearly better. Here’s a look at how the U.S. did in all 7 matches.
Match by Match Review
Preliminary Round
Portugal – USA 30-21 (15-10): The outcome of this match was never in doubt, but the U.S. made the eventual 4th place Portuguese work the whole way.
Norway – USA 33-17 (13-7): This was clearly the worst U.S. performance of the tournament… But, after Norway lost their first match vs Brazil, was there any doubt that the hosts would do everyting in their power to right the ship and take out their frustration?
Brazil – USA 31-24 (10-12): The U.S. led at the half and the match was tied at 18-18 with twenty minutes left. A remarkable performance against a Brazil side that edged out both Norway and Sweden for a QF slot. While Brazil dominated the final twenty minutes playing a world top 8 team to a standstill for forty minutes was a great confidence booster. One that hopefully serves as a stepping stone to an eventual 60 minute result against a top side.
President’s Cup
USA – Japan 27-25 (15-13): While Japan was missing some key players many players on their roster had just played in the Olympics this past summer and had been part of Japan’s successful Asian qualification. Not a top European side, but an experienced side that had played some big matches. The U.S. trailed early, but came back and led most of the way. Most importantly, they took control of the match in crunch time.
USA – Cuba 27-26 (14-15): Against their continental rivals the U.S. played a subpar match and even fell behind 4 goals (15-19 early in the 2nd half. But, the U.S. didn’t panic and eventually took a 24-23 lead with 9 minutes. Again… the U.S. was the better team in crunch time. Poised, they found a way to win when they weren’t having their best day. And, that’s what confident sides do.
USA – Bahrain 30-28 (15-14): At the 2023 World Championships Bahrain defeated the U.S 32-27. The match was not a blowout, but Bahrain was clearly the better side. This time around the U.S. was the better team and (we have a theme here) the better team in crunch time.
25th Place (President’s Cup Title Match)
Poland – USA 24-22 (11-13) (10-8) (3-1) : Heading into this match the U.S. was a 7.5 goal underdog and the odds of an outright victory were 13-1 against. Poland is no longer a top European side, but their handball history is decidedly superior to the U.S. But, none of that mattered and the U.S. held a lead in the 54th minute only to see the match end in a regular time draw (21-21). The U.S. then came up short in the penalty shootout. Sure, I would have preferred a title, but all things considered, that’s a solid performance.
Overall Team Assessment
Over the course of two weeks the USA Men played 7 teams of varied experience and talent levels. We didn’t know it going into the tournament, but based on the final rankings of the teams participating, Group E (Portugal (4th), Brazil (7th), Norway (10th) and the USA (26th)) was the strongest Preliminary Group in the Tournament. And, then against peer nations in the President’s Cup, the U.S. won all three of their 3 group play matches and played to a draw in the President’s Cup final, only to lose on penalties.
Betting lines are by no means official, but it’s telling that the U.S. covered the goal handicap spread in 5 of their 7 matches, only failing to cover versus Norway and Cuba. And, in two cases, against Japan and Bahrain they won matches relatively comfortably agains teams they were expected to lose to by 3 or 4 goals. By these numbers, there is no debate… The U.S. repeatedly exceed expectations.
How did the U.S. do it? Well, here are some of the reasons that I think are behind the team’s success.
Solid defense: The U.S. gave up an average of 27.7 goals/match. The IHF doesn’t provide a handy ranking for this metric, but a quick review of match scores for the teams the U.S. played shows that the U.S. held their opponents to fewer goals than their average. While some of this might be attributable to the somewhat methodical U.S. offense, keep in mind that same offense also had it’s fair share of turnovers. In fact, if one takes out the resultant fast break goals, the U.S. set defense (dare, I say it?) approaches the defense played by some of the top teams. It approaches… it’s not quite there yet. But, if one is trying to understand how the U.S. was tied with Brazil with 20 minutes left… it’s good defense combined with fewer turnovers on offense.
And, the defense starts with a center block of Domagoj Srsen and Patrick Hueter with Drew Donlin and Paul Skorupa filling in with no real drop in performance. Yes, 4 big, physical guys that are largely interchangeable and familiar with each other’s play. Throw in Ian Hueter and Abou Fofana playing pretty good “2” defense as well and it’s very capable defense
Reliable wing scoring: I’ll be doing a more indepth position by position review, but right wing, Sean Corning and left wing, Sam Hoddersen provided consistent scoring both on the wing and fast breaks
Crunch time leadership: Center back 1a, Ian Hueter and center back 1b, Alex Chan kept the team poised in crunch time. Games the U.S. might have lost in the past due to mistakes, are now games we are winning.
A core group with several years of shared experiences: Back in 2018 at a PANAM Games qualifier, I saw a backcourt of Abou Fofana, Ian Hueter and Gary Hines make short work of a Canadian side that had beaten the U.S. a few months earlier. More players have been added and roles have changed, but a talented core group has now been together for several years… and, it shows. We aren’t the team that has to figure out how to play and work together a week before the tournament. We are the the team that already knows what to do.
When determining an overall grade for this U.S. team I guess one could simply say 26th out of 32 teams and think C-, at best. And, for sure, I would love for the U.S. to be a side that makes the Main Round, the Quarterfinals and play for medals. But, I think it’s more appropriate to take the talent level of the team into account and match it to expectations.
Overall, this is a team with some talented athletes. Competitive, pretty good athletes, but no individual athletes with the talent that makes them can’t miss, top club professionals. However, when you combine these individuals into a team, the sum is greater than the individual parts. And, it is why their performance repeatedly exceeded expectations and is a performance that I think deserves an A+ grade overall.
Coming up: I’ll provide a more indepth position by position review and I’ll also start looking ahead towards 2028.
(John Ryan on defense against Magnus Wislander at the 1993 World Championships)
Magnus Wislander played 384 international matches for Sweden and is considered one of the all time great handball players. Two of those 384 matches were against the U.S. at the 1993 World Championships and the 1996 Olympics. He was in Oslo at the 2025 World Championship for Swedish Radio and by chance, we were both asking ourselves the same question: How would the U.S. national team of the 1990s fare against the current U.S. National Team? This short 3:30 minute discussion addresses that question and how the game has changed in the past 30 years.
Commentaries from 2023 comparing the 1993 and 2023 USA National Teams
Two Handball World Championships in Sweden Separated by 30 years (Part 1): Nostalgia and and a Little Bit of Deja Vu: Link
Two Handball Championships in Sweden Separated by 30 Years (Part 2): From 0% to 83% Dual Citizens- Does that Matter?: Link
Watch on YouTube or listen/download the mp3 file at the top of the page.
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(Pro Handball USA press conference; photo from Fredericia Avisen)
Yesterday, Pro Handball USA, held a press conference and kick-off event in Herning, Denmark to introduce the new organization to the Handball world. With the theme, “America Deserves Handball” Pro Handball USA will first seek to bring pro clubs to the U.S. for matches as part of a summer tournament in 2026 and is targeting a U.S. based pro league for 2028. According to one report on the press conference, Barcelona and Paris-SG have committed to participate in the a summer 2026 tournament which will take place over 10 days in Las Vegas.
Of note, unlike previous pro handball related this effort is focused on both men’s and women’s pro handball and will also include a community based effort “The Handball Frontier.”
Attending the press conference, was the Pro Handball USA CEO, Mads Winther, USA Team Handball CEO, Mike King, IHF Executive Committee Member, Narcisa Lecusanu and two Pro Handball USA ambassadors, Mikkel Hansen and Stine Oftedal.
Here are a few articles related to the press conference:
Mikkel Hansen and the stars’ plans for handball in the USA: Link
Mikkel Hansen wants to make handball an American sport: Link
I’m not naive to think that it will happen overnight, says Mikkel Hansen: Link
This is what Mikkel is doing now: – I’m not going to the USA to live: Link
Hey, media person, just discovering handball: Think you’ve got a “new idea“ on how the U.S. can win Olympic Handball Gold? Think again… Check out these articles dating back from 1996.
This past weekend the New York City Team Handball Club beat the hosts, Denver Wolves in a shoot out to take the Samala Cup title. Their stand out performer was the tournament MVP, 21 year old, right back, Togba Aboubacar. After the tournament I sat down with Togba to discuss his handball journey and his remarkable life journey from Guinea to the U.S.
Here’s a summary with links to some of the items we discussed:
His handball beginnings in Guinea and playing for the U18 National Team there
His finding the NYC Team Handball Club after a few false starts with wall handball
How NYC has taken the concept of “club family” to a higher level
Unrest in Guinea which led to his decision to move to the U.S. at the tender age of 16 and living in foster care
Togba’s essay about helping someone in a wheel chair: Link
Learning English
On being a nursing student and his goal to eventually become a doctor
On becoming an American citizen and playing for the U.S. National Team
On possibly playing handball in Europe
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.
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And, be sure to check out the podcast archive with interviews and great handball discussion going all the way back to 2006: LinkPosted in College Handball, Handba
Has the lack of information provided regarding a wild sequence of events been a brazen disregard of transparency or has it simply been the justifiable limits of information sharing?
The 85-10-5 Rule of Thumb
When you write about handball in the United States for nearly 20 years you learn a few things about where the sport is situated relative to all the other sports in this country. In terms of pecking order, team handball is very near the very bottom. Aside from our quadrennial increase in awareness due to the Olympics very few Americans care or even give a second thought about handball.
And, then, even within our very small community of handball devotees, the people who really care about the governance and handball politics of our sport is an even smaller number of people. Based on experience/observation, I would assess that of the 1,000 or so people who care about handball in this country around 85% could care less about who’s running the sport. They just want to play, coach, ref or watch. Their only question is typically, “Just tell me where to send my money.” Another 10%, if pushed, will engage some. Typically, this is a coach or team leader, that recognizes that the top level organization of the sport impacts what they are doing. They don’t like getting involved, but they understand that somebody on their team has to, to some extent. Essentially, they dip a toe in the water and then get out of that water as quickly as they can.
And, then there is the 5% that genuinely care about the politics and governance of the sport. They care about who is in charge of what and they care about what is planned in terms of grass roots development, national team performance, marketing efforts and other organizational matters. As to why they care, that answer varies. Sometimes it’s simply personal… they want to be in charge of something. Sometimes it’s out of frustration… they don’t like how things have been done and want to see changes. And, almost always… it’s because they are truly very passionate about the sport of handball.
So the 85-10-5 Rule of Thumb is:
85% don’t care about governance and politics at all and are very unlikely to to get involved.
10% care somewhat about governance and politics and they will get involved if they need to,
5% genuinely care about governance and politics and they get involved as much as they can.
So we could quibble about the percentages. Maybe it’s 80-10-10 or 90-8-2 or some other variation, but if you’ve been around awhile… you’re probably thinking that it’s a pretty accurate binning of our small community.
Can the 5% be Ignored?
If there are around 1,000 people who care about handball in the U.S. this means that only around 50 people are fully engaged in political/governance matters. Or to put it another way only around 50 people would really be interested in finding out more about something like the “sequence of events” sooner and in greater detail. Heck, I’ve even been told before that this number is even smaller and that I (John Ryan) am literally the only person that cares. I don’t think that’s quite true, but the number is small enough that a brazen total disregard for basic transparency has at times been a very effective strategy for USA Team Handball. Yes, if USA Team Handball wants to do something shady/unorthodox/questionable and not tell anyone about it… there’s a solid chance that no one will be the wiser. But… just because that’s an effective strategy… doesn’t make it right!
Outside Entities: Also Left in the Dark?
Beyond the small USA Handball Community there are also other players that probably have been left in the dark. The USOPC has been informed via grievances, but one wonders if the IHF and USA Team Handball’s largest sponsor, Verizon would also liked to have been fully informed as to what had been taking place. Certainly, one can speculate as to whether any lower level concern that those entities might have had regarding disputes between the Handball Union and USA Team Handball would have been easily trumped by higher concerns regarding an unorthodox “sequence of events” that was unfolding.
The Lack of Transparency
Here’s a chronicling… of some significant events that either have never been mentioned or were reported only long after they happened as a news items on the USA Team Handball website:
No mention whatsover regarding the multiple actions related to Board Member, Ebiye Udo-Udoma
His removal by the Athlete’s Advisory Council (AAC) and, in turn, his removal from the Board of Directors
The determination by the Judicial Committee that his removal was improper and his reinstatement to the Board
The determination by the Judicial Committe that decisions made in his absence were still valid
No mention whatsoever regarding the “sort of” merger between USA Team Handball and the US Handball Union? Or dissolution of the Union? (I’m still not sure what that was all about)
No mention whatsoever of Martin Branick’s removal from the CEO position and subsequent departure from the organization.
No mention whatsoever of Camille Nichol’s and Lawrence Taylor’s resignations from the Board of Directors
No mention whatsover of David Buckman’s resignation from the chair of the Nominating & Governance Committee
A Personal Breaking Point
As a pseudo-journalist and the de facto, unofficial lead for the “5 Percent” I’ll have to admit to some complacency in regards to all this. I had heard some rumors and had been told that it was a little messy, but I was somewhat resigned to the Board’s decisions.
And, then someone sent me Camille Nichol’s and David Buckman’s resignation letters. I don’t know either very well, but we’re all retired military and service academy graduates. Do not try and tell me that a retired 2 Star General and Colonel don’t know how to play in the sand box. That’s just silly and isn’t going to fly with me.
So, I reluctantly put on my investigative journalist hat and the more I found out, the more I was troubled by all that had happened and pretty upset with the secretive nature of it’s implementation.
Board Meeting Minutes (A Window of Transparency)
Board Meeting Minutes are often frustrating in that they usually tell only part of the story, but nevertheless they are typically the only source of official information as to what is taking place in terms of USA Team Handball matters. They’ve always been tucked away in a corner on the website and are typically quietly posted with no mention on the website or social media. Because of this I’ve gotten in the habit of periodically checking the USA website to see if any new minutes have been posted.
You might be “shocked” to learn that after former Board President Michael Wall’s resignation that Board Minutes were not posted for several months. And, that the availaiblity of video for the open portion of board meetings also quietly disappeared. As rumors that things were starting to get a “little messy” began popping up, I started to check the USA website more regularly and on 23 October I discovered that some Board Meeting Minutes had finally been posted. And, when they were later taken down I decided that it was time for a little sunshine so I posted them on the Team Handball News website. This then resulted in a request from the new CEO, Michael King to take some of them down due to their publishing via illegal behavior.
The Missing Minutes (What Changed?)
Here’s a table summarizing the Meeting Minutes in question:
There was no issue with 4 of the meeting minutes and these were left up on the Team Handball News website and posted on the USA Team Handball website (I’m not sure of the date, but I think it was in early November).
The minutes from the 10 July 2024 meeting have not been posted again by USA Team Handball. The stated purpose of the meeting was to afford US Handball Union leadership an opportunity to present its current situation and vision to members of the USATH board. They look like Meeting Minutes, but include this disclaimer on the bottom of each page: “Meeting minutes taken for the purpose of follow-up conversation – not intended for publication” I’m not sure why this is the case, but here’s one little interesting tidbit. The new, recently appointed USA Team Handball Independent Director, Andre Carter is listed in these minutes as part of the US Handball Union Leadership. That would seem to really stretch the definition of “independent” but, at this point why would anyone be surprised anymore.
The remaining 3 Meeting Minutes were eventually posted on the USA Team Handball website on 15 November, but not after undergoing some editing. This is concerning as it relates to the 8 August meeting minutes since they were formally approved by a Board motion at the 27 August meeting.
The nature of the changes fit broadly in to two categories:
Contractual dispute: Both the old and the new minutes discuss an ongoing contractual dispute. The old minutes mention the name of the company and provide more details. The new minutes omit the name of the company and are less specific in nature.
Naming of Board Members: The old minutes often used the first names of board members and indicated how board members voted on certain motions. The new minutes use last names and the record of how each board member voted has been replaced with a simple tally of the vote result.
In general, I’m fine with the changes that were made. In regards to the contractual dispute, the old minutes provided more detail than was necessary. Meeting minutes should also refer to people by their last names. For key votes of consequence it would certainly be preferable to know how Board Members voted, but I guess if there are privacy requirements that need to be followed it should be anonymous. I’m not sure what the requirments are exactly, but maybe a change to the bylaws is warranted to consider the possibility of making key votes public. I could be wrong, but it wouldn’t surprise me if most Board Members are totally comfortable with that. Finally, it goes without saying… don’t formally approve minutes and then change your mind. It’s bad form even if the reasons for changing said minutes are valid.
Red Herrings to Keep Info on the Down Low
I think most people are familiar with the concept of red herrings, which are intended to distract from what’s actually relevant. Contractual disputes and how people vote are of some interest, but they are pale in comparison to the wild “sequence of events” that had been taking place. A sequence of events that in it’s entirety could at best be described as unorthodox. And, at it’s worst described as Mickey Mouse dysfunctionality.
Maybe it’s possible to rationalize this “means” as absolutely necessary to getting to the desired “ends.” It seems like a real stretch, though, and it’s certainly a tough proposition to sell. So, if one can hide behind red herrings to keep the real story on the down low… well, that is very, very convenient. And, of course, that’s just for the Meeting Minutes. There was nothing preventing USA Team Handball from reporting more (actually anything) as to what had been going on. To deal with the uncomfortable explaining that comes with transparency.
But, doing so could very well have resulted in an early crash out of the sequence of events. Certainly, it would have made things very uncomfortable. Yes, for all intents and purposes secrecy seems to have become the chosen course of action. Because if all you care about is the end state, here’s the standard Machiavellian playbook to follow:
Keep all the bad information secret as long as possible. The fewer people that find out anything the better… because those people start asking questions and taking action
Minimize the amount of bad information that seeps out. If you can’t keep everything secret dribs and drabs of information are better than a total release. (Such a strategy didn’t work for Nixon, but it can work if the 80-15-5 rule applies.) If some people just know some of the story the notion of things being just a “little messy” is still sellable
Delay information release as long as possible. The more time that passes the better. This is especially true if everything can be normalized as quickly as possibly. Ideally it becomes a fait acompli where people might say, “WTF! That was really crazy, but everything seems OK now. I guess there’s no sense in rocking the boat.”
Is this what happened? Is what is still happening? Well, outward signs in terms of how information was mostly not shared the past few months mimics this playbook very closely. And, as the old saying goes if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck… It’s probably a duck.
(The USA Team Handball By-Laws introductory paragraph on Independent Directors and the four Independent Directors that resigned from the Board)
A Little History Lesson
When I wrapped up the “Sequence of Events Video” I remarked how for oldtimers the current situation might feel a lot like the events of 2005-2006 that led to the U.S. Olympic Committee’s decision to decertify the U.S. Team Handball Federation (USTHF). So, I decided to do a little review of what happened way back when by digging into the Team Handball News archives. In doing so I re-remembered that the very first post on this website on January 2, 2006 and many of the posts in that timeframe covered the Board of Director divisions, the USOC investigation and ultimate decertification.
First of all, can I just highlight that that was almost 19 years ago. 19 years! There have been over 2,300 posts on this website since then. I’ve been writing and commenting about handball in this country a long time. And, it’s funny, but while some of the names have changed or moved on we’re still talking about many of the same issues and challenges. As, I said to Bjoern Brembs as we discussed the decertification in a very early podcast, “I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.” And, again, that was 19 years ago…
However, there are a few things that have indeed changed for the better and one of those changes was an Olympic Committee requirement for National Governing Bodies (NGB) to have “Independent Directors” on their Boards of Directors. Because back in 2006 there was no such requirement. In fact, everyone on our Board was a handball person duly elected by the membership. Not just two members like today’s 9 member board… but all 24 members. (And, of course, that total number of board members was also silly and cumbersome, even if there also was a smaller Executive Committee that functioned more like the Board does today.)
As part of that first ever post I also had the two very first handball podcasts as I had interviewed representatives of the two board factions, Board President Mike Hurdle and Athlete’s Advisory Council Representative, Matt Van Houten. In both of the interviews the topic of independent directors was brought up, but we mostly focused on how these new independent directors would help in the all important (and still important) topic of fundraising.
But, another important role of these independent directors as the name, of course, implies is simply their independence. In theory, they can participate in board matters without the bias that comes simply from having been directly involved with the often fractured politics that is handball in the U.S.
Looking back at the situation in the 2005-2006 I’m pretty sure that if the Board had been composed of 44% Independent Directors (44% is 4/9 of our current board structure) that things would have not turned out the way they did with eventual decertification. That an impasse would have been resolved. I’m not sure exactly how it would have played out, but it would have been different.
Independent Directors (Sometimes in Name Only)
With the selection of the Dieter Esch group to become the new NGB for handball in 2008 the U.S. a new board structure with nine board members was adopted. From my notes at the 2008 summit there were to be nine board members with seven board members with business backgrounds contributing $50,000 each. Thanks, surely in part to the Great Recession, I don’t think this ever materialized and eventually the board structure adopted our current stucture with just four independent members.
I’d like to say that over time the Independent Directors have raised tons of money, but this clearly hasn’t been the case. Additionally, in some cases our Independent Directors weren’t very independent. They might have fit the definition outlined in Section 6.6 (B) of our By-Laws, but in practice some Independent Directors were actually very partisan in their views. In the 2018-19 timeframe board infighting eventually led to some direct engagement from the USOPC with the end result being the hiring of CEO Barry Siff and the selection of a new, very clearly Independent Director, Michael Wall to become the Board President.
2019 – 2024 The Most Independent Board Ever?
Arguably, the Michael Wall era Board of Directors may well have been the most independent Board USA Team Handball has ever seen. Independent in that “handball people,” for better or worse faded largely into the background. The Board had some handball people, but was signficantly less partisan than it had been. By and large it seems that decisions were being made with less bias from deeply held handball convictions. Notably, the Board also hired two CEOs (Barry Siff and Ryan Johnson) with no handball background whatsoever to make the day to day decisions.
From my persepective (and many others) this composition of Board and Administrative staff had some pros and cons. On the one hand it was a pleasant change from the historically, fractious nature of board politics. We were actually functioning like a normal organization! I realize that’s a ridiculously low bar… but historically it’s one that we’ve often struggled to clear.
But, on to other hand, I think there was a lack of direction and a tendency to avoid major decisions. For organizations with abundant resources and a clear mission it’s possible to float along comfortably at a slow pace. For organizations with very limited resources and many challenges/choices to make floating along can be very frustrating to the people that really care and are heavily invested in the sport. And, eventually it becomes more than a source of frustration as problems mount and opportunities are lost.
The Revenge of the Handball People (Actually Just Some of the Handball People)
I think the concept of Independent Directors was envisioned, in part, for those Independent Directors to serve as arbitrators between competing factions. To provide a big picture, good governance perspective on a topic rather than a partisan, passionately held viewpoint. When a board has two opinions being hotly debated by the handball people the independent members can help steer the discussion towards conclusion with their independence and often their experience with other boards of directors being taken into consideration.
But, what happens if there aren’t competing handball factions on a Board of Directors? Either because, all the handball people are in agreement… or one faction has a new, temporary majority? (i.e., A 4-3 majority due to a vacant independent board seat and the temporary removal (improperly as it turns out) of one pesky board member.)
Well… you have what just unfolded the past few months with USA Team Handball. Yes, a small group decided to seize the moment and take action with a very unorthodox sequence of events. To essentially tell the Independent Directors, we know best and we don’t really have to listen to you anymore. Or, to put it in a more positive light. It was time to quit just being frustrated and to take action to remove the uninvested roadblocks standing in the way of progress.
If you are part of this handball faction you probably see this whole sequence as a little messy, but something that just had to be done. Regrettable, but justifiable.
Or… Canaries in the Coal Mine?
However, if you are not part of this handball faction, you likely have a different perspective. And, for sure, if you not a part of any handball faction. If you are “independent” with no handball bias, you will undoubtedly see this whole sequence as very dysfunctional. Or as one Olympic Movement person said recently, “Handball just doing what they always do.”
The four Independent Directors who have resigned all saw this sequence of events as very messy and dysfunctional. Something that most definitely didn’t have to be done… but something that a small group wanted to be done. Their resignation letters all address the lack of process and poor governance.
I guess it’s possible that over time these uninvested, non-handball people gradually turned into highly invested partisan roadblocks. But, it seems rather unlikely that 4 independent directors would consciously form a new faction focused on getting their way for their new handball passion. Indeed, when push came to shove they all effectively said we just don’t want to be a party to this anymore. In that vein, the Independent Directors are canaries in the coal mine warning us that there are major problems with this current Board.
Which is it?
Well, to some extent, I’m still formulating my opinion. Gathering information, which continues to seep out. I’m actually to a certain extent sympathetic to both viewpoints. I follow handball pretty closely in this country and I’ve been been frustrated with the lack of action and leadership. That said, I’m also very much a process oriented person. That boards should strive for compromise and and consensus. Even if it takes longer and is frustrating.
It’s the age old question, “Does the end, justify the means?” I’ll have more to say on this later, but right now the more I’ve learned about the means… the more inclined I’m to say: No, not in this case.
Thomas Schumake is the head coach of the Bret Harte Middle Schools boy’s and girl’s handball teams. This past weekend both teams took home the California Youth Cup Middle School titles. I sat down with Coach Schumake to discuss his approach and journey to become a handball coach. And, we also discuss what it might take to get handball to become an officially sanctioned school sport in California.
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)
Good Governance and the Importance of Meeting Minutes
Meeting Minutes are one of the few windows to the inner workings and decisions made by the USA Team Handball Board of Directors. A “window” because they sometimes don’t provide enough context to fully understand what’s being discussed or decided. They’re not perfect, but they’re better than nothing and reviewing them can give one a better sense of what’s going on.
Making them readily available for everyone to read is certainly “good governance” and USA Team Handball’s By-Laws, Section 16.1 lists multiple requirements for meeting minutes including this sentence: “Every reasonable effort will be made to publish the minutes within fifteen (15) days of approval by the Board.“
Needless to say USA Team Handball has historically very rarely met this guideline. If you been around awhile, you’re probably not shocked by this. And, there can be multiple reasons for this to include short staffing and problems with the website. But, if you think those are the only reasons and that USA Team Handball would never delay the posting of meeting minutes to delay the exposure of what might be considered a convoluted sequence of events… you just might be a little naive.
For the past several months USA Team Handball’s Meeting Minutes webpage section hasn’t been updated. The last listed minutes go all the way back to March 7th. That’s over seven months and the board has met multiple times and made multiple decisions. And, since the 15 May meeting the practice of announcing upcoming meetings and making the open session available for anyone to view online as part of a Zoom webinar has been discontinued. Perhaps that had something to do with former Board President Mike Wall’s resignation on 5 June. Perhaps that’s just a coincidence.
A Window of Transparency Opens…
Anyway… On Wednesday, 23 October, as I periodically do, I checked the USA Team Handball website to see if any new Board of Directors Meeting Minutes webpage had been added. Usually, this is a fruitless check, but, lo and behold it had been updated. “Finally,” I said to myself, “A little smidgen of transparency for this organization.” I immediately downloaded all the newly posted meeting minutes and started to try and piece together what in the hell exactly had happened the past few months. Not an easy task and after a couple of hours sorting through the documents and with a two day trip to California to attend the San Francisco Cal Heat Youth Cup to get ready for I had to pause my efforts.
…And Closes
But, I thought it would be nice to let everyone else know that these meeting minutes were now available so I prepared some social media posts to get the word out. A seemingly simple task, but it takes a bit of time to pull up Facebook, Twiter and Instagram, find a suitable picture, and craft a few bullet points. I did that and then went back to the USA Team Handball website for the meeting minutes link… only to find the meeting minutes had disappeared for some reason.
I suppose there could be a number of reason as to why such a window opens and then closes. I’ll leave it to everyone to speculate further. But, any excuses as to logistical reasons for not posting minutes due to time constraints… well, those excuses are pretty silly.
USA Team Handball Board of Directors Meeting Minutes (May – September 2024)
So, if USA Team Handball isn’t going to post Board of Director Meeting Minutes, I guess I will. (Good thing, I downloaded)
Not the Usual “Look at Us. We’re Growing Handball” Exaggeration
I have a daily Google search feed for “handball” that shows up in my inbox every day and it’s often an eclectic mix of stories. One type of article that regularly shows up is the “Look at us. We’re growing handball in a far flung region of the world.” I generally, read these stories with a few shakers of salt as typically they are about some IHF project that shows up for a couple of days, hands out some balls, runs a clinic and takes a few photos for social media. These are not bad initiatives… It’s just that they are typically trumped up for accomplishing a lot more than they really are.
The past few days there have been several articles from the Cook Islands about a beach handball competition there including an article about two IHF referees and an officiating clinic, the Prime Minister playing and record participation. The usual, “Look at us. We’re growing handball,” articles… except my curiousity was piqued, so I dug a little bit more… and went way down a rabbit hole.
The Cook Islands: Per Capita, Beach Handball’s #1 Nation
What initially triggered my interest was the article on record participation which stated that participation for this year’s event had more than doubled to 444 participants. In case you were wondering… that’s quite a few participants. I’ve been to the largest U.S. Beach Handball competition, the Southern California Beach Handball Championships twice and that seemed like a bigger number. Turns out the Cook Islands competition is, indeed, a little over twice the size of this year’s U.S. competition. The U.S. competition had 18 total teams (12 Men and 6 Women). While the Cook Islands competition had 37 total teams (10 Men, 9 Women, 6 Youth Men, 6 Youth Women, and 6 Masters) Source: Cook Islands Handball FB Page
Well, it would appear that some real growth is indeed actually taking place. If you scroll the Cook Islands Handball Facebook page you can get a sense of the competition by checking out the photos and videos. The Cook Islands Games is a multi sport competition which appears to be simlar to state based games in the U.S., but on a much smaller scale because the Cook Islands is a pretty small country. If one looks at the team names they mostly match the different small islands that make up the Cook Islands. Some of these islands have just a few hundred inhabitants so it’s a lot more feasible to field a beach handball team than a regular indoor handball team. And, in Polynesia I’m sure finding a beach to play on is way simpler than a 40×20 Meter indoor court.
Future World Championship Qualification?
Based on a few video clips the competition was spirited, but not at an elite level. That said… if you have that many people playing, some cream is going to rise to the top. And, they had 12 youth teams (6 men and 6 women) participating. Take the best players from each of those teams, give them a little training and there’s surely some potential there for a solid national team. One that could challenge for an Oceania Championship title and qualficiation for the World Championships. In fact, according to this report on 2023 Oceania qualification they did play Australia and New Zealand close last time around.
While a total population of around 14,000 people is not a lot to work with against those two much larger nations the Cook Islands could well be on a path to a Beach Handball World Championship.
I’ve been running a little campaign against the (don’t call it the Super Globe) IHF Club World Championships Roster Rules (of lack, thereof). I know it’s a bit of hopeless cause, but I like to think if you point out the very obvious problems with something change is bound to happen. Shine the light of day and some decision makers will look at the totality of it and ask themselves, “Is this really what we want to do?”
I won’t fully reiterate some previous commentaries (Link 1, Link 2, Link 3) but, I will again highlight the composition of the North American & Caribbean Handball Confederation (NACHC) representative at the ongoing IHF Club World Championships. Here is a compilation of the California Eagles roster based on data from the Official Final Roster, Provisional Roster, their first match report and some quick internet searches. (Again, you can’t believe everything you find on the internet; there might be a few errors, but this provides a pretty accurate snapshot)
Here’s what’s problematic with this roster:
Nationality: With the exception of Ty Reed all of the key players on the roster aren’t American. This is not to say that expats aren’t important to the development of the sport in the U.S. or that clubs shouldn’t have any expats playing for them. But, it does point out some underlying problems with the organizational structure of the sport in the U.S. That organizational structure inhibits the development of American athletes and the Super Globe “carrot” has further exacerbated the problem.
Residency… where the club is actually located: There are only 2 athletes on the roster that actually live anywhere near where the club is located. This is very problematic if you think a “club” is a collection of athletes that regularly practice and play games together.
Residency… in the country where the club is actually located. Over half the roster doesn’t even live in the United States. I do not have to explain how silly and absurd that is.
New Citizenship Requirement
It was brought to my attention that the IHF quietly installed a new citizenship requirement for the this year’s competition. Each club participating in the tournament is required to have six athletes with the same citizenship as the club’s location. (I don’t know if I should get any credit for this rule being added, but I’ll take a little.)
Best that I can tell this rule impacted three clubs: The California Eagles, Sydney Uni and Veszprem. With the California Eagles it appears they went on a little bit of an expedition to find American citizens that could be called up to meet the 6 athlete requirement. If you look at their preliminary roster its a mix of dual citizens and former national team athletes not playing club ball in Europe. Not surprisingly… the minimum 6 Americans were added to the roster. And, it appears that the the same thing happened with Sydney Uni and Veszprem. Yes, Veszprem, which has a roster jampacked with non Hungarians had to dip into it’s Academy roster to meet the requirement. And, amusingly this has resulted in a 7th American, Benjamin Edwards, getting to play at the Super Globe.
This is not a bad rule to have and, I think the U.S. should consider a similar requirement for it’s club teams. We probably should even consider a higher number or percentage to incentivize American athlete development.
Residency Requirements Next?
Similarily, the IHF, NACHC and USA Team Handball should take a long, hard look at adding some residency requirements. Obviously, it makes sense for clubs to consist of athletes who live in the same town. In fact, some Europeans reading this are probably shaking their heads and having a hard time contemplating how it would be otherwise. But, the reality is the U.S. is a very big country with a very small number of players. Not everyone has a nearby club to join and sometimes that nearby club is at a lower level then that athlete might want to play at.
But, again our existing structures and the Super Globe “carrot” are impeding the establishment of more clubs nationwide. Clubs have zero incentive to split off and create more clubs… because that would make the resultant clubs weaker. Athletes might prefer to play locally, but know they can only compete for a title if they join a bigger club in a bigger city that’s further away. This inevitably results in a few “super teams” loosely connected to a geographic area supplemented by Europeans flying in to further improve the team. A comical arms race to attend the Super Globe. This is not development.
To change the status quo… will require some new “carrots” and probably a few “sticks” to incentivize growth. That is… if we think we should take steps to incentivize growth and the development of American athletes.
Super Globe Future
While nationality and residency rules would crack down on some of the silliness with the current rosters it would create another problem. It would result in even weaker teams that simply can’t compete against professional teams. Or, to put it another way: The IHF can continue the charade of allowing fake teams so the matches are somewhat closer… or the IHF could recognize that the IHF Club World Championships should only be contested with professional sides.
I’m in favor of the latter. Let’s have four European clubs take on four non European pro teams. That’s a worthwhile measuring stick to see if the rest of the world is catching up. But, amateur sides? I just don’t see the point.
With little fanfare the European Handball Federation (EHF) has quietly instituted a subscription fee for it’s web streaming service, ehfTV. Depending on where you live this is either really big news or a footnote of passing interest. If you live in a country that already shows competitions like the EHF Champions League on TV you probably didn’t use ehfTV much. But, if you live in a country like the U.S. this is really big news. The free gravy train of watching every match of every European competition free, live and on-demand is sadly over. You can still watch… but now it’s going to cost you. For club competitions it will be 7.99 Euros for a monthly subscription and 45.99 Euros for a yearly subscription. And, if you want to watch the 2024 Women’s Euros it will be 8.99 Euros for the whole competition.
Short Sighted or a Reasonable Business Decision?
So, is this a short sighted or reasonable business decision? Short sighted, in that it limits handball exposure in new and emerging markets. Or, reasonable, in that ehfTV is a pretty good product and it’s certainly not free to produce and deliver that content world-wide. A solid case can be made for either argument.
Short Sighted Case: Handball is a virtually unknown in many parts of the world. Charging people to watch is essentially deciding to give up on newcomers because virtually no one is going to pay to watch something they aren’t familiar with. Building new markets and acquiring new fans is way more important than the 46 Euros you are now going to get from the handful of committed fans in countries like the U.S. One wonders how many of those fans even exist. Well, we’ll soon find out…
Reasonable Business Decision: Producing and delivering quality handball content is not a free proposition. Even if it results in marginal revenue streams it’s still better than nothing. Further, consumers are getting more and more accustomed to paying for streaming content. What once was a novelty is now commonplace. Finally, we can’t discount the impact of VPN and piracy. There are very likely some free loaders watching ehfTV from non geo-blocked locations. Eliminating all pirated streams is an impossibility, but simply removing the free streams will likely encourage some free loaders to pay a reasonable subscription fee.
My Take: Reasonable, but New Market Development Efforts Should Shift to Finding Great Streaming Partners
I generally come down on the side of free… Who doesn’t? But, I’ve been following this for quite awhile and the streaming world has evolved quite a bit. Here’s my first mention of ehfTV way back in 2008 and a commentary that I wrote four years ago. I was afraid we were going to lose ehfTV in 2020 and we actually got another four years. The EHF gave away a great product for 16 years. That seems like a pretty reasonable effort to grow new markets to me. I’m actually surprised it lasted this long.
That said, the battle to develop new handball markets shouldn’t be forgotten. Instead, it should move on to new battlefields. In particular, the EHF, IHF, HBL and other content owners should redouble their efforts to find streaming platform partners in countries like the U.S. Because while ehfTV was free there was very limited discovery opportunity. i.e., If you weren’t already familiar with ehfTV you were very unlikely to find it. Whereas with a good partner with decent customer reach, the platform can promote handball to potential new fans.
Case in point, EHF content can be watched on DAZN in Canada and is even available for free on Pluto TV in Germany. Pluto TV could be an option for the U.S. So could ESPN+, Roku TV and Peacock. I’m currently on the Peacock bandwagon, but due diligence would be to engage each potential partner with an eye on market growth. Because it doesn’t matter where committed fans like me watch handball. It matters where handball is best exposed to potential new fans.
