Tag Archives: Lewis Howes

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Commentary: Our Germans are Better than your Danes

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(Handball Inside’s Instagram Story montage of Los Angeles Team Handball’s recent recruiting spree)

Our Germans are Better than their Germans

Back in the day, long before I became America’s #1 handball fan, I was a Flight Test Engineer at Edwards AFB in California. As such, it probably wouldn’t shock you that the 1983 movie, The Right Stuff, is one of my all time favorites. Parts of the film were actually filmed at the base and Chuck Yeager used to periodically show up at the Officer’s Club on Friday nights because he was a living legend and kind of owned the base. In one memorable scene, Senator (and later president) Lyndon Johnson is told that the Russians are ahead in the Space Race because of all the German rocket scientists working for them only to be told by Wernher Von Braun, that “our Germans are bettter than their Germans.” Which, indeed, ultimately was proven true in the end.

Yes, one of the lesser known tales, is that at the end of WW II, Germany actually manufactured a pretty capable rocket, the V-2, and, both the Soviet Union and the United States were very interested in aquiring the knowledge behind that technical development. And, thanks to Operation Paperclip, the U.S. did a better job and over 1,600 German scientists, engineers and technicians were resettled in the U.S. after the war. The U.S. has plenty of very capable people, but this German core helped us get the job done once we put our mind to it.

Our Germans are Better than your Danes

80 years later a different talent acquisition battle is taking place on American handball courts. This time two teams, the Los Angeles Team Handball Club (LA THC) and the New York Athletic Club (NYAC) have both “acquired” European handball players to bolster their prospects of winning the USA Team Handball National Cup. Initially, I thought that only LA THC was bolstering their roster with Viran Morros and Domogoj Srsen coming from Europe along with most of the upper echelon handball athletes (Drew Donlin, Ty Reed, and Akuro Zuwed) living in the U.S. joining the team. But, then NYAC suprised LA THC at the first weekend of competition in October. This is because NYAC had very quietly added some Danish Handballers to augment their roster. LA THC lacked backcourt scoring and NYAC beat them 28-24 and whined about losing to a “Danish team.” I found this to be amusingly hypocritical and posted this on Instagram.

In response to the upset LA THC went on a recruiting spree and barring Mikkel Hansen quietly coming out of retiriement for NYAC they should dominate play with the addition of these athletes this weekend:

  • Michell Gabriel Hildebrandt
  • Alexander Hermann
  • Maximilian Hermann
  • Dalibor Doder
  • Martin Johannes Strobel
  • Tobias Reichmann
  • Joscha Ritterbach
  • Vid Kavticnik

Yes, just like the Soviet Union launching Sputnik to wake up the U.S., NYAC’s win in the first weekend tournament has woken up LA THC. The match has yet to be played, but, on paper, their Germans (and Austrians, Swede and Slovenian) are better than NYAC’s Danes. Way better.

Some Positive Aspects of this Development

While, I can’t help but chuckle at this whole development there are some positive aspects of it to include:

  • Publicity (Rest of World): Handball publications in Europe have been covering these player acquisitions as if they are somehow similar to Simon Pytlick signing with Berlin. And, some social media posts have gotten a significant number of likes and comments about how cool it is. I’m not sure if it really moves the needle much, but it doesn’t hurt for the world handball community to contemplate the possibility of handball in the U.S. becoming bigger even if it’s very debatable if it’s actually occuring.
  • Publicity (USA): In theory, former professionals playing handball in the U.S. could trigger greater handball interest in the form of press coverage, fans showing up to watch matches or watching competition online. I haven’t seen any signs of that yet, but, in theory, it could happpen.
  • Better competitition for upper level handball players in the U.S.: The U.S. may not have a very robust talent pyramid composed of handball athletes in the U.S., but it does exist. And, if you are at the very top of that pyramid your opportunities to play against similar or higher level competition are few and far between. The importation of some high quality athletes to play against (even if it’s just three weekends) is a good deal for those handful of athletes at the tippy top.
  • Great learning experience for the West Point collegiate program: Of the six teams participating in the USA Team Handball National Cup only one team is primarily American with an average age under 30 and that team is Army (West Point). Perennially, the top collegiate program these athletes who’ve only been playing handball 1-4 years and an average age of ~21 have yet to win a match in the competition, but they undoubtedly are learning a great deal from the experience.

The Negative Aspects

  • Deceiving the world handball community: All of the publicity surrounding these developments are announced like it’s a European club signing an athlete. The reality is that these athletes are essentially flying to the U.S. for a couple of weekends to play handball for teams that are only sort of connected to the location in their team name. LA has a supporting cast of athletes who do live in LA, but many of the top players don’t live anywhere near there. I think the situation is even more stark with NYAC as I’m not sure if any of the athletes on the NYAC 1st team live in New York City. Further, this is a competition structure unlike anything in Europe as it is essentially recreational handball played in nondescript gyms with the only spectators being friends, family and players from the other teams. This is handball in the United States for the last 50 years.
  • Punishing clubs trying to do develop the “right way”: The result of this handball arms race is that it’s challenging for clubs to effectively compete with just local talent. No, in order to compete for a title a club will almost always need to add players at key positions. This has been going on for years… it’s just gotten more pronounced lately. And, while one might argue that the same thing happens with pro clubs in Europe bringing in foreign talent to bolster the roster that point neglects the reality is that those are professional clubs and when those clubs bring in talent… the talent moves to that city to practice with the team. Another complication is that bringing in talent like that for big tournaments can even have a reverse “West Point” effect in that up and coming players lose playing time and valuable learning opportunities to the more experienced temporary members of the club.
  • Significant lost opportunity costs: People can spend their time and money on whatever they want to. And, this includes roster additions to win a competition. I don’t know what arrangments have been made to secure the sevices of these players, but I’m guessing it might be just as simple at travel and lodging costs. That might not seem like much, but when you’re talking multiple flights from Europe and lodging those costs start to add up. With handball in America facing many challenges one doesn’t have to think very hard to come up with alternative ways those funds could be spent to develop the sport in the U.S. But, again that’s the choice of the clubs and to LA THC’s credit they donated $1,000 to a new club at the University of Georgia. In my opinion, that’s the best thing so far to come out of this venture and I hope more such donations are on the horizon, hopefully to some new collegiate clubs in the LA area.

Just Marketing Buzz?

As someone who’s been around the block a few times both in the business and handball world, I’ll be the first one to tell you that marketing is very important. You can have the very best product or plan, but if you can’t sell it… that’s a problem. However, the reverse can also be true with the marketing way out in front of a loosely defined concept. And, in the age of the internet with content creators and influencers creating “marketing buzz” can even morph into the primary objective. Can even be interpreted as the primary metric of success. I don’t think that’s entirely what’s happening here, but it’s a significant component.

Or… Something more Tangible?

Marketing buzz is often over-valued, but it can be the first step towards achieving something more tangible. Beyond the buzz, the primary tangible objectives appear to be winning the USA Team Handball National Cup, the North American Club Championships and to go to the Super Globe. This super charged LA THC team should be able to easy accomplish these objectives. Going to the Super Globe is “something” to shoot for, but it also is the most maligned handball tournament in the world. At this year’s edition I was puzzled by the dismal attendance for a match between Magdeburg and Veszprem why it was so paltry and Handball influencer, Rasmus Boysen provided a succint explanation.

No Upward Wrexham Path in the U.S.

Some social media posts have made references to “elevating handball” in the U.S. This is pretty vague and can be interpreted in a number of ways. I think a lot of Europeans envsion a plucky amateur club spending money to climb into the professional ranks like FC Wrexham has famously done and how handball clubs like Hamburg‘s rebirth in Germany or more recently Hoj Elite in Denmark have done.

Unfortunately, that’s not how things work in the U.S. For one thing there are no professional hanball clubs to compete against and even if there were U.S. sports don’t have promotion and relegation. LA THC, NYAC or any other club are not going to continue to grow and eventually become professional entities like the LA Lakers or the New York Knicks. About the best LA THC and other clubs could hope for is some entity like Pro Handball USA actually establishing a semi-pro league and then getting invited to join it. Maybe that will happen some day, but I don’t think it will happen anytime soon.

Other Elevation Options

It goes without saying that there are also other ways to “elevate” a club besides turning pseudo-professional. The GoFundMe that was established for LA THC identifies it’s mission as “to provide athletes of all ages—youth, juniors, men, and women—a place to learn, play, and improve their handball skills.” This sounds pretty good to me and it has raised over a $100,000. However, it would be super interesting to see a breakdown of how that $100K has been spent and what portion of it has gone towards travel and lodging for retired handball professionals (i.e. “men”) and what portion has gone towards youth, juniors and women. Why, I’ve even proposed to Lewis Howes that he shift the focus from his personal Olympic Dreams to a women’s program focus as it could truly be a game changer. Done right LA THC could even field around half of our 2028 Women’s Olympic Team.

The Necessary Hype Vehicle to Enable the Grudge Work of Development?

One last possibility for consideration is that the Men’s club team is simply the hype vehicle to enable real development. One can always post videos of kids running around throwing handballs, but that just doesn’t get anyone excited. Whereas bringing in former pros to win a title is easier to hype up and sell. And, then once the hype has been sold, the real behind the scenes grudge work that develops handball can take place in earnest. I guess I would be down with that.

I, for one, certainly don’t buy the hype, but some people (particularly in Europe) will and maybe some Americans will as well. Even Americans who are unfamiliar with handball. Maybe… No one has been able to really crack that code yet. Many have tried… All have failed. But, as with all such adventures I will continue to watch with interest.

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Commentary: Lewis Howes’ “Chase your Dreams” Project is Unrealistic, but I’ve got a Reboot Suggestion for him…

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(In my re-imagined “Chase your Dreams” project, Lewis Howes uses his platform to find new crossover women athletes and then chronicles their efforts to make the 2028 Olympic Team)

Social media influencer and podcaster, Lewis Howes, has lately been providing some great publicity for handball in the U.S. He first started chronicling his effort to jumpstart his handball career to make the 2028 USA Men’s Olympic Handball team. There’s a YouTube docuseries and he was interviewed on the EHF “The Spin” podcast. Now he’s the new owner and President of the Los Angeles Team Handball Club and has raised (as of this posting) over $75,000 on GoFundMe to support his and LA’s Olympic Handball Dreams.

I’ve mostly been amused by this quixotic quest. Unrealistic, but mostly harmless and great publicity for our sport. I’m also pleased to see that his personal quest has now been expanded to include support to other athletes seeking to make the 28 Olympic Team.

An Unrealistic Quixotic Quest

So why do I assess this quest to be quixotic? Unrealistic with a very low likelihood of success?

First, let’s take a closer look at his athletic resume. A resume that is solid, but one that has been amplified considerably by very effective marketing. Lewis Howes is an NCAA Football record holder, was an NCAA All American in both football and track & field and played professional football. Those are all true statements, and I think some people immediately paint a picture of a D1 career at some prominent college followed by a promising NFL career cut short by injury. Not quite… Lewis Howes did play football in college, but he mostly played at the Division 3 level, the 4th and lowest level of college football. Athletes receive no scholarships and everyone plays simply for the love of the game. And, while he did play professionally after college it was with the Tennessee Valley Vipers of the AF2, which was actually a minor league under the now defunct Arena Football League.

While this context makes the resume less impressive it would also be very wrong to dismiss these achievements. In particular, it would seem that Howes was at least a D2 level athlete competing against D3 competition. In fact, one little noted aspect of his athletic resume was his 2001 Freshman season at D2 Southwest Minnesota St where he saw very limited playing time. I’m guessing he received a partial scholarship to attend college there and, for one reason or another, it didn’t work out. And, with the transfer rules at the time athletes either had to sit out a year or drop to a lower division which he did with a transfer to D3 Principia College in Ohio. His football record of 17 receptions for 418 yards in a game still stands and is a monster game at any level. Incidentally, this game wasn’t a blowout. In fact, his team lost 42-35. He played two years at Principia and then two years at Capital College, a more established and competitive D3 program. It’s hard to really know, but I suspect he was the type of player that in today’s simpler transfer framework could have received offers to transfer to a D2 or even a lower level D1 program. 418 receiving yards in a game?… There are coaches that would definitely take a look see at an athlete that did that.

And while Arena Football is a long, long way from the NFL, if you’ve ever attended a game in person you’ll quickly realize that it’s for real, competitive football. There were quite a few good college football players who didn’t make the NFL so it was still pretty tough to make an Arena Football roster. And, for a D3 athlete to make it against athletes from bigger schools is a significant achievement.

USA Team Handball: A Long History of Decent Athletes Giving Handball a Try

So, what I’m saying here? All, I’m saying is like many others before him, Lewis Howes is a decent American athlete who decided to give handball a try after running out of options in his primary sport. This reality has been true for EVERY SINGLE STATESIDE AMERICAN ATHLETE since the sport was introduced in this country. Yes, 100%… every athlete born and raised in the U.S. has only started to seriously play handball after their other sporting careers have played out. This happens at different points. Post college, post high school, heck, even in high school, now. But it’s what’s happened… EVERY SINGLE TIME.

There is no shame in that and, as far as I’m concerned, the more the merrier. But, we want to get those ahtletes at age 22… not age 42. And, while Howes has played handball before for the U.S. National Team he did so during one of the weaker eras in our history. An era where there was no residency program and only limited utilization of our dual citizen athlete pool. The teams of that era were so weak… there was plenty of room for a good athlete like Howes with very limited handball experience to make a U.S. roster. I’m pretty sure that if Howes, in his 20s had participated in a residency program like the one I participated in the 1990s that he would have had a very good chance of making the 1996 Olympic team. He wouldn’t have been a “lock” to make it, but he would competed well for one of the coveted roster spots.

Making the 2028 Olympic Team?

I don’t know for sure, but I think Howes’ previous experience with the National team is clouding his perception of what he’s capable of achieving. He was one of the better athletes and overall the technical handball skills of those U.S. teams he played were fairly low. I suspect that he assessed (correctly, in my opinion) that if he truly focused on his development as a handball player in a quality training atmosphere that he would eventually be one of the best players, maybe even the best player on the team.

Alas, this is not a weaker era for the U.S. Men’s National Team and Lewis Howes is now 42 years old. Our current Men’s National Team would clobber the teams he played for by around 20 goals. In terms of raw athletic talent the athletes on the current roster are similar to the raw talent he had in his 20s. Maybe, his 20 something athletic prowess is slightly better in some areas, but, for sure, no one on the team would be totally outclassed athletically. In terms of technical handball skills… every single athlete on the team has him beat by a considerable margin. And, this goes pretty far down on the depth chart.

And, he’s 42 years old. I saw him play for the California Eagles at the NACHC Club Championships in Las Vegas this summer. He’s a decent 42 year old player, but nothing special. And, against quicker, younger, elite competition that knows how to play handball he’s going to struggle. Multiple times I saw him get beat 1v1. Side to side movement declines significantly as one ages… I know this from personal experience. There’s no shame in that… It happens to everyone.

A “Mostly” Harmlesss Quest, but…Some Cause for Concern

The commonly quoted axiom that almost always applies to handball in the U.S. is that “Any publicity is good publicity.” Whether it’s Jake Cutler or Pat McAffee talking nonsense about how their boys who’ve never played the sport can win an Olympic gold medal it gets people talking about the sport of handball and by default introducing the sport to more people in this country.

Howes’ positive messages regarding his love of handball are great and he’s gotten people, most of whom know next to nothing about the the sport to donate money. That’s awesome! Kind of amazing, when you think about it.

But, at the same time he has said a few things in interviews that I strongly disagree with and give me some concern. In this clip from his interview on “The Spin” he talks about how his leadership could help bring a team of stateside and overseas Americans together. Having observed the U.S. team and chatted with players and coaches for the past 6 years I would assess this as a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist. Even more troubling were some comments he made on a podcast with NYC’s Bini Moustafa during the pandemic where he highlighted how he first made the U.S. National Team via his networking skills. Does he think he can do it again with a modified, but similar campaign? That USA Team Handball can be persuaded to leave one roster spot for an aging, but still decent athlete that can provide leadership, marketing and exposure for the sport.

I’d like to think that the current USA Team Handball Coaching/Management team would stand firmly in the way of such a possibility. That roster decisions will simply be a matter that will be decided by athlete merit, but with everything that has taken place in the past year… I’ve got my doubts.

Yes, I was shaking my head and sighing as I typed the last sentence. Let’s move on to some real positive aspects of this effort and a proposed reboot that could really make a difference.

Suppporting the Dreams of Other Athletes and a Suggested Pivot to Focus on Women’s Athlete Development

While folks might be skeptical of a 42 year old athlete chasing their dreams everyone should get behind an effort that seeks to do the same for other athletes. As oulined in the GoFundMe page the club’s mission is to “provide athletes of all ages—youth, juniors, men, and women—a place to learn, play, and improve their handball skills.” And, the money being raised will be use to provide facilities, coaching, equipment and travel. I’m not very excited about paying for athlete travel costs, but I’m certainly down with the aim to restore Los Angeles as a premier hub for handball excellence. The Olympics are coming to town in 3 years. It just makes sense and we should already be doing something like this.

However, while I believe all athletes are worthy of help… I’ll make a pitch here for this effort to strongly consider a pivot to focus on the dreams of women athletes. The reason for this is simply pragmatic. During the 2024 Olympics I wrote a candid commentary on just how very unlikely it was for a male newcomer to the sport to make our 2028 Olympic team and, in turn, how very feasible it was for a female newcomer to make the 2028 Olympic team. The difference is night and day and the women’s national team situation is dire. We are currently on a path to very uncompetitive, very embarassing results in 3 years. Help is needed… yesterday.

And, I’ll tell you something… If Lewis Howes was Linda Howes, a 42 year old female athlete with a similar pedigree… I’d still be skeptical about her Chase Your Dreams project, but I wouldn’t write it off. The current talent level on the U.S. Women’s National Team is such that a great athlete, even at age 42, with proper training could very quickly find a roster spot.

But, LA THC and Lewis Howes don’t have to go after women in their 40s and 30s. They could scour the LA basin for top athletes in their early 20s. Howes could use his social media platforms (10M across IG, X and Facebook) to get the word out. And, the message, “of train to be an Handball Olympian with me in LA” would not be a car salesmanlike “what am I not being told here?” situation. No, it would be 100% legit. He could even shift his docuseries to focus on these new women athletes. From their first practice in LA, to their training in Europe, to their first national team appearance and on to the Olympic Games. Maybe even use his marketing acumen to turn a youtube show into a reality show on a major platform for a broader audience.

I don’t think LA has even fielded a Women’s team for several years, but with the right focus and resources, I think they could win a National Title as early as next spring. Heck, the core of the 2028 Olympic Team could eventually come from an LA based program. This may not be the personal dream Lewis Howes envisioned, but it’s still a rewarding one.

From personal experience, I saw my own Olympic dreams fall short, but I took some solace in being a part of another athlete’s (Dave DeGraaf, 96 Olympian) journey to reach their dreams. And, that was just a supporting role for one athlete. Lewis Howes is not going to be an Olympian, but he could be the catalyst directly responsible for fielding a large chunk of our Women’s Olympic Team… He really could and, if he did so, it would truly be “Greatness.”

Lewis Howes Cheering on the USA Team Handball Women at the 2028 LA Olympics