Tag Archives: USA women’s national handball team

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U.S. Women’s National Team: What’s Next? (Part 4): Assessing the Borsos Era: Poor Results, but Mostly not her Fault

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This is part of a series of commentaries that address the future of handball in the U.S.  In Part 1, I summarized the U.S. Women’s National Team poor results of the past 4 years. In Part 2, I addressed the need for USA Team Handball leadership to consider proactive steps to broaden the talent pool. In Part 3, I highlighted an Out of the Box possibility.

The USA recently parted ways with Women’s National Team Head Coach, Edina Borsos and immediately launched a search for what appears to be a short term assignment coaching the National Team at the upcoming North American & Caribbean Handball Championships, 6-13 April in Mexico City.

A Dismal (but not Surprising) Record; Does that Alone Justify Firing?

In terms of wins and losses the firing is certainly justifiable. In major competitions the U.S. Women compiled an 0-0-8 record. Yes, the Borsos era ended with the U.S. Women failing to win a single match in major competitions. I also don’t think a single match was won in friendly international matches, but perhaps there’s a win out there against some lower level club team. (Results of friendly matches were often never reported… a whole other issue I won’t delve into here.)

How can one possibly argue against sacking a coach with such a dismal record? Well, here goes: The USA women haven’t played a single match in the past four years where they were the better team on paper. In most cases they didn’t even have a decent chance for an upset. If you know anything about the sport of handball it’s very self-evident: The talent to effectively compete has simply not been available. It’s not even worthy of debate.

Go ahead, put Thorir Hergeirsson in charge of the U.S. Women if you want. Maybe he could have X’d and O’d a victory over Canada or Mexico at some point in the last four years, but I doubt it. Given the talent available the results are not surprising. And, unless there are some new dual citizen upgrades to the U.S. roster I suspect that we will very likely continue our losing streak in April.

If one defines “coaching” as taking the athletes you have available, forming them into a team and getting said team to perform to the best of its capabilities… then, in my opinion, Coach Borsos actually did a pretty decent job.

If, however, one expands the coaching role to include efforts to identify, evaluate, recruit and develop talent… then one might argue that it is indeed time for a coaching change.

Identifying, Evaluating, Recruiting and Developing Handball Athletes: How the U.S. is Different

Before I address the question as to how coaching applies to identifying, evaluating, recruiting and developing handball athletes it’s important to highlight how what might apply for a typical handball nation doesn’t quite fit for the U.S. and vice versa.

For a nation where handball is popular, the job in this regard, for the national team staff is much simpler. For the most part they don’t have to identify or find talent. That talent is readily available and their job is primarily one of evaluation or figuring out who has national team potential. Recruiting is also very limited. Occasionally, there may be some athlete who doesn’t want to play for the national team or perhaps some foreign national that needs to be persuaded to play for his adopted country, but it’s not commonplace. And, with a strong club system in place individual skill development is less neccessary so development focuses more on teaching athletes how to progress in a national team environment.

For a nation like the U.S. where handball is virtually unknown, however, recruiting is a more intensive effort. Primarily, this is because there are no real pipelines in place. And, because of this the U.S. has to identify, evaluate, recruit and develop athletes for alternative sources. For the U.S. the three primary cohorts are:

  • Dual Citizens: This cohort consists of American citizens that have lived most of their lives in nations where handball is popular. These athletes have to be found and then persuaded to play for the U.S. After they’ve been found and committed to play for the U.S., the U.S. then evaluates and develops these athletes much the way a European nation would.
  • Americans already playing handball in the U.S.: There aren’t a lot of Americans playing handball in the U.S., but there are some. These athletes can be evaluated much the way a European nation does, except that the talent pool is so small, it’s actually possible to evaluate every single handball athlete. Additionally, as the handball development is typically rudimentary it’s important to assess potential talent and to take into account that the age/skill level could be dramatically different from what one would expect in a handball nation.
  • Americans who have never played handball: This is perhaps the strangest cohort to someone from a handball nation. Needless to say… they are not doing this in Denmark and Germany. But, for many years this was the primary source for American handball athletes. And, to state the obvious… identifying, recruiting, evaluating and developing athletes like this requires a unique skillset. One that a typical handball coach, may or may not have.

Who’s in Charge of Finding and Developing Talent? And, do we have the Resources to Make it Happen?

So, I’ll now go back to my earlier statement: “If, however, one expands the coaching role to include efforts to identify, evaluate, recruit and develop talent… then one might argue that it is indeed time for a coaching change.” And, I’ll try to answer that statement as best as I can. And, it truly is, “best as I can” because I don’t think it’s ever been clearly defined who’s in charge of what. Or, as I wrote back in Oct, 2023, I think the lack of new talent is more of a “management” issue than it is a “coaching” issue.

Going back to the ancient history of when I played for the national team in the 1990s U.S. National Team coaches, especially the European ones, played little to no role in the finding and recruitment of athletes. They conducted tryouts and evaluated athletes for further development, but other members of the USA Team Handball staff did the legwork to bring those athletes in. Over time, particularly as resources dwindled, coaches became more engaged in recruiting efforts. They pretty much had to because if they didn’t do the recruiting they might not even have any athletes to coach.

More recently, USA Team Handball actually had a High Performance Manager, Krista Austin, on staff from 2021-23. Logically, recruiting was part of her job jar, but it’s not entirely clear what expectations were and how recruiting responsibilities were split with the coaching staff. And, when funding diminished in 2023 she left the organization and was never replaced.

Back to the Question at Hand: Does the Firing Make Sense?

I digress, so back to the question at hand. Assuming that coaching wasn’t the primary issue and that Coach Borsos is essentially being fired for failing to successfully identify, recruit, evaluate and develop new talent… One could make a very solid case that she has clearly failed in these areas. USA rosters have included teenagers that weren’t quite ready and aging veterans that should have been pushed out by new talents several years ago. Instead there have been very few new talents. And, none of them have been head turning, gifted athletes. With that lack of success, both in terms of results and recruitment, why not give someone else a try?

Well, here are a few reasons why one might say the firing wasn’t justified on recruiting grounds:

  • Did her job description clearly articulate recruiting responsibilities?
  • Is there some sort of documentation with recruiting performance expectations?
  • Was she given the resources to be a successful recruiter?

I don’t know for a fact… but, I’m guessing the answer to each of those questions is “no.” Perhaps during her tenure under three different CEOs there were some discussions pertaining to identifying, recruiting, evaluating and developing new talent. I sure hope there was. It seems there might have been.

Fledging efforts to expand the talent pool were conducted. U.S. based training camps were conducted. We even had a D2 basketball player with very little handball training play significant minutes at a NORCA Championship. But, this sort of thing was surely pretty new to Coach Borsos and being based in Europe made those sort of efforts challenging.

Ideally, discussions related to talent pool expansion should have taken place prior to hiring. And, requirements related to this skill set should have been articulated in the job announcement. Looking back, I suspect that those in charge observed the success Coach Hedin was having with the U.S. Men and decided it could be replicated… without understanding that the U.S. Women were not gifted the same dual citizen talent pool. And, that the ability to recruit new athletes might be the most important skill required for a U.S. Women’s Nationa Team coach.

Sometimes a Change is Needed

So to review:

  • Coach Borsos didn’t win a single match in major competitions… but, the U.S. was clearly the weaker team in every single match they played.
  • Coach Borsos had very little success in terms of recruiting new athletes… but, it’s unlikely she was hired to perform that challenging job and wasn’t given much in terms of resources to be a successful recruiter.

Or, to put in other terms:

  • Coach Borsos was very unsuccessful… but, it was mostly due to circumstances beyond her control.

In many ways it’s not really fair and not her fault. In my opinion, she was simply hired for a coaching situation that did not match her skillset. This was true the day she was hired and it’s still true four years later.

And, what is that coaching situation? Well, as I’ve alluded to, it’s the stark reality that our current talent pool of national team athletes is very thin and not very talented. If we want to field a competitive team at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles new talents are needed. The current talent pool will not get us there.

It’s still very unclear how the U.S. will tackle this challenge, but it will likely require some significant changes in how we manage and coach our U.S. Women’s National Team. And, if that’s the case we should indeed look to hire a coach to match that new coaching situtation.

But… do we know what that coaching situation will be? Do we have a plan for our Women’s National Team? Assuming the answers to those questions are “no” shouldn’t the U.S. first figure out what we want to do/can do?… And, then hire a coach to meet that need? I sure think so and will argue that case in a follow on commentary

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Could I Become an Olympian on the USA Women’s National Handball Team?

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This commentary is regarding the U.S. Women’s National team. For information regarding newcomer prospects for the U.S. Men’s National Team (which are dramatically different) check out this commentary.

Olympic Dreams Fueled by Possibilities

I’m sure there are hundreds, if not thousands of athletes watching the Paris Olympics, seeing handball for the first time and thinking, “What an awesome game! I would be great at this sport. Where can I play?”

And, as America’s #1 handball fan, I can tell you that such revelations are music to my ears. There’s nothing I like better than new athletes and fans following in my footsteps. And, no doubt, some of those athletes are probably thinking even grander thoughts, “Hey, the U.S. didn’t even qualify. Hardly anybody probably plays it in the U.S. Maybe I could be an Olympian. How would I go about becoming an Olympic handball player?

For over 25 years the prospects for any American handball player to become an Olympian haven’t been very good. The U.S. last qualified for an Olympics in 1996 as the host nation. And, since then we’ve never really even come close to securing a berth in qualfication events. But, now with Los Angeles hosting the 2028 Olympics that’s about to change. As Charles Barkley would say, it’s Guaranteed that we’re fielding a team. Out there, many are probably thinking… Somebody’s got to make that team. Why not me?

Unique, Uncharted Circurmstances Means it’s Definitely Possible

First things first. Let me be clear. The following is my opinion and certainly not an official USA Team Handball position. That said, I’ve got a pretty good track record of assessing handball in this country. For what it’s worth, here’s my answer to your question…

Due to a very, very small talent pool consisting of around 150 athletes with modest athletic ability there’s a decent chance you could make the 2028 U.S. Olympic Women’s Handball Team. How good are you chances? That will depends on several variables to include how good of an athlete you are, how motivated you are and what, if anything, USA Team Handball eventually does to identify, recruit and train prospective national team athletes.

Let me explain further. When I say around “150 athletes” I am not referring to our national team talent pool. No… I’m talking about 150 female athletes with American citizenship currently playing handball at any level, anywhere in the world.

Our national team athletes for the past few years have mostly been comprised of of athletes trained at our last residency program at Auburn (which closed in 2018) and dual citizen athletes who compete in Europe. With the U.S. Men we’ve been blessed with a golden generation of talent that has essentially gifted us with the most competitive team we’ve had since the 1980s.

With the U.S. Women we have been less fortunate. While hard working and great representatives of our nation collectively the raw athletic talent is similar to what one might see on an NCAA Div 3 basketball team. Not surprisingly the results have been disappointing. We have not won a match since the 2019 PANAM Games. We’re 0-0-12 in official competition and those 12 losses are not to European sides, but to peer competition in our hemisphere. If our current team were to play the teams competing at the 2024 Olympics we would be 30+ goal underdogs in every match.

  • Demographics assessment from 2019 (It’s actually gotten worse)
    • Overall Women Demographics: Link
    • National Team Demographics: Link
  • And, an important side note: Our #1 GK, Sophie Fasold, is a clear exception. She plays in Germany’s top league and is, arguably, the best GK in U.S. history.

The Variables

So with that as context let’s take a look at some of the variables that will determine an athlete’s prospects for making the 2028 U.S. Women’s National Handball Team:

  • The raw talent of the athlete
  • The starting age of the athlete and amount of time the athlete has to train
  • The training environment the athlete will have
  • The commitment level of the athlete
  • The quality of the athletes also seeking to make the team

Here’s a closer look at each variable

The Raw Talent of the Athlete

With the current raw talent on the U.S. National Team roughly equivalent to an NCAA D3 basketball team an athlete that has played D1 or D2 sports in college should have an advantage against current players. This was even demonstrated at the 2023 North American & Caribbean Championships when a D2 basketball player, Katie Timmerman played significant minutes despite only a couple of training camps to learn the sport. Logically, in most cases a D1 athlete would even have better chances to make an impact.

I could also get into a lengthy discussion regarding the merits of different sports in terms of transitioning to handball. Athletes have come from many different sports, but the most common sport historically has been basketball. And, even athletes from other sports often have high school basketball in their resume.

The Starting Age of the Athlete and the Amount of Time that Athlete has to Train

Normally, I would argue that any athlete over 23 years of age is probably outside the desired range to start a training program. And, generally the younger the better. Given, however, the current cirumstances of a very small talent pool and a 4 year window, I could see a great athlete even in their 30s being a candidate. Obviously not ideal, but we’re talking a very unique situation.

The Training Environment the Athlete Would Have

For many years the U.S. had Residency Programs that were dedicated full time to developing new handball athletes. However, the U.S. hasn’t had a Residency Program since 2018 and as far as I know there are no plans to start one anytime soon.

This leaves a newcomer with very limited options. They could join a stateside club, but they typically just practice once a week and play in a few tournaments on the weekend. One could learn the basics and get their feet wet, but not much more. And, then they could also attend the periodic national team camps that are held. I’m sure any European reading this is just shaking their head in bewilderment, “Athletes who’ve never played before attending a National Team camp?.. That’s crazy.” But, that’s where we are currently at.

The other alternative would be to train with a handball club overseas, most likely in Europe. A handful of stateside based athletes have indeed done this. It’s not easy and it can be challenging to find a quality club with a good system willing to train a relative newcomer. But, again, given the state of the current program it would be your best option. Additionally, I suspect that a higher level athlete with potential would get some help from the national team staff in making such a move.

The Commitment Level of the Athlete

Having great raw talent is a significant advantage, but it’s not everything. An average athlete with modest talent, but knows how to play handball also has an advantage. Sometimes raw talent trumps handball skills, but often the reverse is true. With the necessary commitment to learn the sport, however, it’s only a matter of time before the contest changes from who knows how to play… to who’s the better athlete.

The huge unknown here, however, isn’t necessarily the “attitude” of the athlete. Commitment is a 2 way street. The athlete commits to work hard and get better. And, USA Team Handball commits to provide that athlete with the tools and opportunities to get better. Unfortunately, right now as an organization USA can’t provide athletes very much in return for their commitment. In fact, national team athletes are actually paying thousands of dollars out of their own pocket to represent their nation. And, not surprisingly… quite a few athletes don’t want to commit to that.

The Quality of the Athletes also Seeking to Make the Team

For the most part I’ve framed this discussion as what would it take for a decent athlete to develop into a handball player that given the current talent pool could make the U.S. National Team. That’s a fairly straightforward comparison.

But, what’s really hard to assess is the number and quality of new athletes that might take steps to earn a roster spot. Right now there’s not much in place to entice a relative newcomer to make such an effort. That translates to fewer athletes competing for slots and lower quality athletes making the team. If a more structured program is put in place more and better quality athletes will start showing up.

The Great Unknown: What Steps will USA Team Handball Take… and When Will they Take them

You might have noticed that one variable I listed was:

  • What, if anything, USA Team Handball eventually does to identify, recruit and train prospective national team athletes

Right now USA Team Handball’s recruitment is very limited. Emails are sent out to college coaches and open tryouts are held, but there’s really no training program in place. I have a hard time believing that won’t change at some point, but I don’t know what it will entail or when it will be implemented.

And, this results in the strange cirumstances that while I can say with a high degree of confidence that total newcomers to handball are likely to make our 2028 Olympic Team I don’t know exactly how they’re going to do it.