Team handball an unknown game in the United States

Before Peter Ueberroth resigned last year as U.S. Olympic Committee chairman, he stood in a crowded Orlando hotel ballroom, venting about a variety of topics, when he suddenly ripped American team handball players.

“We’ve done really (dang) little,” he said. “We’ve had it sitting in our hands and haven’t done anything about it. … People still think team handball is a little, tiny, rubber ball hitting against the wall.”

Nearly 50 kids in a USA Team Handball youth national team selection camp this week at Rampart High School want to change that perception, intent on advancing a quirky sport far more popular in Europe and South America.

The U.S. failed to qualify for the past three Olympics, and its men’s and women’s teams never have won an Olympic medal in the high-intensity game that blends the strategy of soccer, nonstop action of basketball and technique of water polo.

Lewis-Palmer High School senior Chris Hesser sees potential in team handball because “we have tons of kids who play basketball, and they could play this sport. They just don’t know about it.”

Added former Finnish star Mike Maunula, “It’s fast-paced, high-scoring, physical, very tactical, the fast breaks are cool, kind of like when you’re on a breakaway in basketball. … I think Americans, if they catch on this sport, they’ll be a force.”