The Team Handball Blog has Moved
I am now posting blog entries at the Team Handball News website:
www.teamhandballnews.comMy blog entries can be directly accessed at
http://www.teamhandballnews.com/news.php?cat.8This site will be kept online as an archive until old entries can be moved to the new site. Additionally, I will also use this blogger site if we have an extended outage with the teamhandballnews site.
USA Women’s National Team European Tour
The USA Women’s Team is in the midst of their 3 week European tour. They will be playing club teams in France, Germany, and the Netherlands. I saw 2 of their 3 matches in a local tournament in Issy-le-Moulineaux, just outside of Paris. They defeated an England based team 24-22, lost to Israel, and lost to Paris Select team 25-21.
I've posted a short 4 minute interview that I had with Coach Christian Latulippe at the handballusa Yahoo Group:
http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/handballusa/files/More information is also available at the Women's Team's sites:
Press Release:
http://www.usateamhandballwomen.com/News/May23_06.htmlEuropean Trip Blog:
http://wnteuropetour2006.blogspot.com/
US Team Prepares for Men’s Pan American Championships
Preparation for the Men’s Pan American Championships (MPAC) in Aracaju, Brazil is in full swing for the US Men’s National Team. They recently completed a week of training at the Lakeshore USOC Training Center in Birmingham, Alabama and are now traveling to Brazil for additional training and 2 friendly matches (2 June vs a Brazilian club team and 4 June vs Greenland)
I’ve had some email contact with Asst Coach Chris Cappelmann and he felt that they had had several good practices under the tutelage of new Head Coach Isidoro Martinez. Cap indicated that he felt that if the US can stay healthy and continue to gel as a team they should have a good chance to finish in the top 3 and earn a World Championship berth for Germany 2007. Cap also noted that he very much regretted having to resign from his Asst Coach position due to work commitments as a result of staffing shortages with the Atlanta Fire Department. Dennis Berkholz will be assisting Coach Martinez in Brazil.
The US Team opens pool play against Mexico on 6 June at 1800 Local, 1700 EST.
TEAM ROSTER
David Thompson- Condors
Gary Hines- Condors
Tom Fitzgerald- NYAC (Garden City)
Danny Caparelli- NYAC (Garden City)
Divine Jackson- NYAC (Garden City)
Milan Ciric- NYAC (Garden City)
Mike Hinson- Los Angeles THC
Ryan Hansell- Atlanta Team Handball
John Kelly- Atlanta Team Handball
Troy Steffen- Atlanta Team Handball
Jeff Goss- Atlanta Team Handball
Patrick Oliver- Atlanta Team Handball
Gill Bozeman- Atlanta Team Handball
Mark Ortega- Miami Sharks
Muris Lacarivic- Miami Sharks
Note: The following players were originally on the team, but aren’t making the trip for the reasons indicated
Matt Van Houten (Retired)
Bobby Dunn (Work Commitment)
Radji Mateen (Work Commitment)
Joe Lamour (Injury)
Levi Henderson (Work Commitment)
Guadalajara, Mexico to Host 2011 Pan American Games
Guadalajara, Mexico, was unanimously selected by delegates of the Pan American Sports Organization (PASO) to host the 2011 Pan American Games. As the only city to officially bid, Guadalajara’s selection was virtually guaranteed. San Antonio, Texas, which bid in 2007 had considered bidding, but declined to do so for 2011. While the Pan Am Games is a minor event for many sports, it is a very important for Team Handball as the Gold Medal winner secures the one guaranteed Pan American slot for the Olympics. The 2007 Pan Am Games will be in Rio de Janeiro and this home court advantage, plus Brazil’s recent on-court performances suggest that both their Women’s and Men’s team will be strongly favored to win. Projecting out 5 years is tougher to predict, but suffice to say Mexico will be a more neutral location and taking the Gold in 2011 should be a more wide open competition.
Australia Secures Oceania Ticket for 2007 Men’s World Championships
As expected, Australia has qualified for the 2007 Men’s World Championships by easily defeating both New Zealand (41-14) and the Cook Islands (63-5) in round robin competition in Dural, Australia (near Sidney). http://handballpacificcup.com/results.htm
Stay tuned. We hope to soon have a podcast interview with the Australian Handball Federation reviewing the results of the Pacific Cup and Australia’s prospects for the World Championships.
