COLLEGE STATION -- USA Team Handball (USATH) is holding its first open U18 Player Identification Camp in Texas this month to find young athletes to compete on its junior national team in international competitions; for some, making the junior national team may be the road to the Olympics in London or Chicago.

The tryout, to be held March 30-31 at A&M Consolidated High School, is open to all student athletes. Patric Coggin, Southwest Regional Director of USATH, will take participants through drills and scrimmages to determine which athletes will be invited to regional camps and the U18 and U23 program.

“We not only need people who want to compete for the rings, but we also need people who will help our entire handball community to become competitive on the world stage,” Coggin said.
Team Handball, not to be confused with Wall Handball, is played in 159 nations by 39 million people. Called "ripe for an American invasion" by TIME magazine, many people link elements of basketball, soccer and lacrosse to the sport. It is fast, physical and exciting.

Two teams, composed of six players and one goalie each, face off on a 20 meter by 40 meter court. Players manually dribble, pass and shoot a ball into what looks like an indoor soccer goal. Youth handballs are 50 centimeters in circumference; easily gripped in one hand, it is built comparably to a soccer ball. Although about 40 feet longer than a basketball court, a handball court is similar in appearance: half circles on both ends of the court mark the "goal area," a zone that extends six meters in front of the 6'7" tall and 10' wide goal. Court players are not allowed to literally step foot in this area, which results in NBA-style leaps over the line to shoot while in the air. Successful scoring attempts result in a single point. Defensive play is aggressive, however, and allows person-to-person body contact to prevent the offense from shooting. Final scores in this action-packed game are often in the 30s. A regulation game is played in two 30-minute halves with one team timeout per half.

Similar athlete identification events are being held all over the United States, including one March 29 in Woodland Hills, CA. Brian Finley, USATH’s West Regional Director based in California, said participants of such events have a unique chance to join the Olympic movement.
“These types of tryouts and identification events are unusual in American sport,” said Finley. “It is rare to attend a tryout for a sport you have never played and have a realistic chance to make a national team and play in international events … I can’t imagine another opportunity like this coming along anytime soon.”

Interested student athletes are encouraged to attend. For more information or to sign up, please e-mail coggin@usateamhandball.org

USA TEAM HANDBALL U18 PLAYER IDENTIFICATION CAMP
Girls: 4 p.m. on Thursday, March 30
Boys: 4 p.m. on Friday, March 31
A&M Consolidated High School, College Station, TX