What a great trip I had to Chicago this weekend. I got to see lots of old friends (like Steve Pastorino, Nico and Coz), see some team handball, work a terrific soccer game with people I like and eat food I can’t get here in the desert. Oh, and I met Willie the Northwestern Wildcat (above). But, boy, am I tired.
Sick of team handball yet? Check out this goal from Chicago’s Jolanta Kunickite in the women’s gold medal game of the 2009 USA Team Handball Club National Championships. She was the tournament’s leading scorer - not surprising, given all the ways she can score.
Finally! Highlights from the men’s gold medal match at the 2009 USA Team Handball Club National Championships two weeks ago in Elgin, Ill. Handball is fun. I’ll put highlights of the women’s final up as soon as I get them compiled.
Yes, Team Handball is lots of fun. The Club National Championships yesterday in Elgin, Ill. were a blast (even though New York’s overtime victory over Houston in the men’s final made me miss my original flight home). When the archived games are put online at teamusa.org, I’ll let you know.
There’s not much of a lucrative future in being a handball announcer (in this country, at least), but, having done fairly well with the first three games that I’ve done, I might be in line to do more obscure Olympic sports in the future (maybe even at the Games themselves). We’ll see.
BTW, there was a good article in Sunday’s New York Times about the sport trying to grab a foothold (or, more properly, a handhold) in this country. Give it a tumble if you want to find out more about this really cool game.
Mr. Team Handball is back again this weekend. I’ll be calling the men’s and women’s gold medal matches of USA Team Handball’s Club National Championships this Sunday live on teamusa.org from Elgin, Ill.
If you’ve never seen it before, team handball is a fun, fast sport that combines skills of basketball, indoor soccer and water polo and usually features as many as 50 goals in a game. The players in this tournament will be from the best of the nation’s club teams and it should be a fun event.
If you can’t make it out to Elgin for the event this weekend, catch the webcast at this link starting at 1:45pm ET on Sunday.
Team handball is really fun.
Army beat Air Force, 29-26 Saturday afternoon in Colorado Springs. Tense game, in doubt until the end.
Broadcast was….rudimentary, let’s say. But a lot of fun. And over too quickly. Kudos to my partner, Laura Ryan and to all the USOC folks who helped pull it off. Hope we get to do it again soon.
Before we go home tomorrow, we’re going to check out Boulder and maybe have lunch at the ESPNZone downtown. More on the weekend when I get home. Video clips possible late in the week!
I’ll be off the grid most of the weekend (except maybe for Facebook and Twitter updates) as I’m off to Colorado.
Don’t forget - Saturday at 5:30pm ET, college team handball between Army and Air Force on teamusa.org.
Okay, details on Saturday’s expedition into uncharted broadcasting waters as I call Team Handball for the first time:
Give it a tumble if you would and let me know how we did. It’s supposed to be a simple (one-camera) broadcast, so don’t expect a lot of bells and whistles.
So on the same day that I declined an opportunity to broadcast one sport this summer (wasn’t an easy decision, but the right one), I received the chance to call another one - one I’ve never done before.
I’m going to be doing a Team Handball match between Army - the defending national college champions - and Air Force in Colorado Springs, Colorado on April 11.
I don’t know that it’ll be the same as it is in Europe, from where the video below comes, but it looks like a fun sport.
So now I have two weeks to learn all I can about Team Handball. Righteous.
