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all Team Handball News Your independent news and commentary outlet for the Olympic sport of Team HandballMenu Home About Bios Team Handball News Podcasts Commentaries on Handball in the U.S. Team Handball FAQ Contribute Contact Mainstream Media Articles on Team Handball Handball Education Handball Odds Handball Web Streaming USATH News College Handball USA Collegiate Club Polls Post navigation ← Older posts USA Handball Talk (Episode 18): Oh, America Posted on May 8, 2024 by John Ryan http://media.blubrry.com/team_handball_news/teamhandballnews.com/wp-content/uploads/mp3/018_USA_Handball_Talk.mp3 Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 39:11 — 30.6MB) Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Blubrry | RSS JD and John discuss the USA Men’s opening match vs Mexico at the NORCA Championships, handball streaming and the USA National Championships which actually had more Canadians than Americans participating in it. Here’s a summary with links to some of the items we discussed: 2024 Men’s NORCA Competition website: Link Competition Schedule: Link Results: Link January 2008 commentary on the 2008 European Championships (The last and perhaps only time the EHF charged for streaming): Link Streaming platforms USA Team Handball’s Joymo streaming platform: Link ($4.99 this past weekend) Typical High School streaming service: Link ($79.99/year or $11.99/month; also available per event) ehfTV: Link (Free) HBL-TV: Link (39.99 Euros/season) USA National Championship Results: Link John’s commentary on more Canadians than Americans playing at the recent USA National Championships: Link Social media post on San Francisco CalHeat’s 2nd team which had more Americans and younger athletes than the typical USA club team: Link Watch on YouTube or listen/download the mp3 file at the top of the page If you have any suggestions for future topics that you would like us to consider please let us know on social media. Don’t miss an episode: Subscribe on YouTube: Link (Earliest Availability) Subscribe to the podcast in iTunes: Link Follow the Team Handball News podcast on Spotify: Link Or use this RSS Feed to sign up for the podcast in your favorite podcast aggregator: Link And, be sure to check out the podcast archive with interviews and great handball discussion going all the way back to 2006: Link Posted in Podcast , USATH News USA Handball National Championship Review (Part 1): Low American Participation- Does it Matter? Posted on May 6, 2024 by John Ryan The USA Team Handball National Championships took place this past weekend in Spokane, Washington. I didn’t attend, but still have a few thoughts regarding this competition. In part 1, I take a look at the demographics of the participating teams . Overview A total of 20 teams participated this past weekend at the U.S. National Handball Championships .There were 6 men’s team in Divsion 1; 9 men’s teams in Division 2 and 5 women’s teams taking part. Thee California Eagles won the Men’s D1 title. The Prairie Selects from Canada won the Men’s D2 title and the NYC Team Handball Club took home the Women’s title. All the results can be accessed here: Link Methodology To create a demographics snapshot I reviewed the rosters that were available for viewing online in USA Team Handball’s Sport 80 platform: Link (Note: this link will probably disappear shortly after the tournament is completed). I then reviewed the names on the rosters, using a mixture of personal knowledge and an assessment” as to whether the name was likely that of an American citizen. Of course, anyone familiar with what a melting pot the U.S. is, knows that such an assessment is going to have errors. To counteract such errors if a club had 10 foreign looking” names I figured that at least 2 or 3 of them might be deceptive and factured that into the totals. So, while this data has precise numbers they most certainly aren’t. Still for the purposes of this snapshot look these numbers are probably not too far off. For the 2024 College National Championships held in April I used an average of 12 athletes/team and feedback from players and coaches as to whether any participating students didn’t have U.S. citizenship. Again, not perfect data, but useful. Demographics Snapshot Here’s an overview of the nationality for both the men’s and women’s athletes at this year’s championships: With two Canadian women’s teams and five Canadian men’s teams participating in Division 2 I also thought it woud be interesting to assess Canadian participation. As suspected, there were likely more Canadians than Americans participating at the U.S. National Championships. This assumes the Canadian teams were mostly Canadians. Not to mention the fact that based on social media posts I think Boston might have had more Canadians than Americans playing for them. Low American Citizenship Participation Optically, this data should raise a few eyebrows. The athletes at the U.S. Men’s Handball Championship are only around 20-25% American citizens. The Women’s Championship had only around 5-10%. More Canadians than Americans participating in a U.S. Championship. Really? How can that be? Well, it’s just the reality of handball in the U.S. And, it’s nothing new. It’s pretty much been this way for the last 20 years or so. I did some similar analysis back in 2019: USA Club Programs Part 1: Understanding the USA Club Structure and At-Large Men’s Clubs: Link Part 2: Collegiate Men’s Clubs: Our Most American Competition with Opportunities for Growth: Link Part 3: USA Women At-Large and Collegiate Clubs: Link Part 4: Why there are so Few Clubs and Why the Rosters Mostly Consist of Expats: Link If one looks back at the 2019 data you’ll find similar percentages for the Championships that year, albeit a bit higher in terms of American participating. As both the data for the 2019 and 2024 championships are snapshots one shouldn’t see either year as definitive. And, for sure, this year is a bit quirky with the Championships again being held in the harder to get to location of Spokane, Washington and another entity (the US Handball Union) organizing most of the tournaments this year. It would be super interesting to see this data tracked year to year, but anecdotally with some authority I’ll just say that the U.S. Open Club Handball Championships could be pretty much described as an expat handball festival with some Americans sprinkled in for good measure. That’s not necessarily a bad thing… or a good thing. But, that is what it is. For old timers this reality is somewhat hard to stomach. This is because our national championships in the 80s and 90s were essentially the reverse: Mostly American citizens with some expats sprinkled in for good measure. At this year’s championships I think only San Francisco CalHeat’s 2nd team and, possibly the Wolves (based out of Denver) had teams where the majority of the athletes were American citizens. If you took all the male U.S. citizens (~40) that particpated and put them all together you could probably form a total of 3 teams. And, I don’t even think we could have fielded a single U.S. women’s team. Further, if one wants to separate out naturalized American citizens and Americans that grew up in other countries the numbers would be even worse. Low American Participation: Does it Matter? Should anything be done about it? But, do these low American participation rates actually matter? The answer to that question depends on your perspective. Intrinsically, I think everyone, even expats, would really like to see more Americans playing. That said I’ve seen a number of different reactions to include: Action is needed to address the problem : A handful of people would like to see regulations to increase American participation. This could include the elimination of foreign clubs participating and limiting the number of foreign athletes on rosters. Simply not a problem : Some people get annoyed with the mere thought of binning” athletes by their nationality It’s devisive and it...