Last week, our handball community learnt that Barry Siff, USA Team Handball CEO since April 2019, will be stepping down. This news came as a surprise for many in the United States (and abroad probably) and it is fair to ask ourselves what’s in store for the future.<\/p>\n
After years, or one could say even decades, under the leadership of Mike Cavanaugh (Cavanaugh<\/em> served three stints as ED\/CEO of USA Team Handball from 1986-1997, 1999-2005 and 2014-2019)<\/em>, our national federation was blessed with new blood and energy to reinvigorate our sport and bring it to a more than deserved new level. Instantly, Barry brought a lot of enthusiasm and hopes to the community. His mindset, desire for inclusiveness and strong wish to further expose our sport to the media helped us get additional traction and exposure. Team Handball slowly started to be broadcasted outside of the usual Summer Olympics window. A big sponsor came on board (Verizon). A legend of our sport, Staffan Olsson, joined the organization. The IHF, contemplating, rewarded the US with wild cards for the junior (2019) and adult world championships (2025, 2027). The national teams, both women and men, were given some much needed additional pushes to accomplish their goals. But many questions remained unanswered.<\/p>\n Our club scene, in particular, is still left stranded. For years, clubs have been one of the main financial fuels of the federation. They’re still 100% self-funded, some are even on a ‘survival’ mode while a few clubs have vanished in the last couple of years. The number of teams at the US Club Nationals is also on the decline (36 teams in 2017, 32 in 2018 and 28 in 2019), true it’s not necessarily a reflection of our club development, but still it’s a fact. Coaching and referee education is nowhere to be seen. Youth development, and especially competition, is nearly in-existent. It is quite surprising for a country like ours to not have a youth competition going on. Staffan Olsson’s appointment came also with a lot of questions. During his brief time serving as a High-Performance Director, many could surely agree that he could have held a coaching clinic or two in the US. He did so many of those back in Europe. Obviously, his role came with a lot of challenges, but it came also at a cost. All in all, Barry left a legacy during his short time as a CEO, but he left also our community with a moral obligation to step up and develop the sport in the US starting from the club scene.<\/p>\n Whoever comes on board to lead USA Team Handball will be met with high expectations and demands. Besides the energy, enthusiasm and experience needed to navigate a complex organization, with numerous committees and councils, the ideal successor will require some knowledge of the sport, or at least knowledge of a team sport, to make the right choices and bring this entire community to new heights. We are in need of more qualified coaches, educators, referees, delegates and a pipeline of youth and junior players to feed our adult teams. We need more handball hubs besides New York City, Boston, Chicago and San Francisco (Calheat). In the long run, at least 50% of the US national team players should have had a US handball education and they can then be sent to Europe to further advance their skills. But is there such a profile in our organization? That’s the 1 million dollar question.<\/p>\n Only the future will tell, but we all hope that USA Team Handball will make the right decision, the one that will not only benefit the national teams and the IHF, but also help the clubs and local athletes to prosper. We will follow this closely. Let us know how we, clubs, can help. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Last week, our handball community learnt that Barry Siff, USA Team Handball CEO since April 2019, will be stepping down. This news came as a surprise for many in the United States (and abroad probably) and it is fair to ask ourselves what’s in store for the future. After years, or one could say even […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6250,"featured_media":7891,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[22,33,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-carrousel","category-web-links"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.calheat.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/D420609-scaled-1.jpg?fit=2560%2C1704&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7INHg-23k","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":9095,"url":"https:\/\/www.calheat.com\/index.php\/verizon-prime-sponsor-of-calheat-at-the-2023-ihf-super-globe","url_meta":{"origin":7894,"position":0},"title":"Verizon Prime Sponsor of CalHeat at the 2023 IHF Super Globe","author":"admin","date":"October 26, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"The telecommunications giant, Verizon, joins San Francisco CalHeat on its journey to the 2023 IHF Super Globe in Dammam, Saudi Arabia (November 6-12). Deeply immersed on the US sporting scene, Verizon will be our team\u2019s prime sponsor during this prestigious international handball event. \u201cIt is an incredible honor to stand\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog"","block_context":{"text":"Blog","link":"https:\/\/www.calheat.com\/index.php\/category\/blog"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.calheat.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Untitled-1080-x-608-px-6.png?fit=1080%2C608&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.calheat.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Untitled-1080-x-608-px-6.png?fit=1080%2C608&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.calheat.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Untitled-1080-x-608-px-6.png?fit=1080%2C608&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.calheat.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Untitled-1080-x-608-px-6.png?fit=1080%2C608&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.calheat.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Untitled-1080-x-608-px-6.png?fit=1080%2C608&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5840,"url":"https:\/\/www.calheat.com\/index.php\/sf-calheat-and-hummel-usa-change-the-bay-area-through-team-handball","url_meta":{"origin":7894,"position":1},"title":"SF CalHeat and Hummel USA change the Bay Area through Team Handball","author":"Michelle Mensing","date":"September 1, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"SF CalHeat is beyond excited to announce that Hummel USA will be the official equipment and sports apparel sponsor for the SF CalHeat Youth Team Handball Program (SFYTH). Over the course of the next two years SFYTH and Hummel will be working together to spread the knowledge of the sport\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog"","block_context":{"text":"Blog","link":"https:\/\/www.calheat.com\/index.php\/category\/blog"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.calheat.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/HummelAnnouncement.jpg?fit=600%2C399&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.calheat.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/HummelAnnouncement.jpg?fit=600%2C399&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.calheat.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/HummelAnnouncement.jpg?fit=600%2C399&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3055,"url":"https:\/\/www.calheat.com\/index.php\/how-good-really-is-the-u-s-at-beach-handball","url_meta":{"origin":7894,"position":2},"title":"How Good Really Is The U.S. At Beach Handball?","author":"Martin Bilello","date":"September 8, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Our friends John Ryan and Ebiye Udo-Udoma meet on a new edition of Team Handball News Podcast to discuss really how good the U.S. is at Beach Handball and the future of the sport. The interview covers Ebiye\u2019s journey from regular handball to the beach version and how the U.S.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog"","block_context":{"text":"Blog","link":"https:\/\/www.calheat.com\/index.php\/category\/blog"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3023,"url":"https:\/\/www.calheat.com\/index.php\/team-handball-tryouts-scheduled-for-usa-mens-and-womens-team","url_meta":{"origin":7894,"position":3},"title":"Team Handball Tryouts Scheduled for USA Men’s and Women’s Team","author":"Martin Bilello","date":"August 16, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"USATH is informing of the upcoming tryouts for the National Teams: Tryouts are conducted at the famous Beard-Eaves Memorial Coliseum on the campus at Auburn University. The Men\u2019s National Team has a scheduled tryout on October 15th, 2016. The Women\u2019s National Team has scheduled tryouts for October 29th-30th and December\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog"","block_context":{"text":"Blog","link":"https:\/\/www.calheat.com\/index.php\/category\/blog"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3393,"url":"https:\/\/www.calheat.com\/index.php\/youth-team-handball-development-in-chicago","url_meta":{"origin":7894,"position":4},"title":"Youth Team Handball Development in Chicago","author":"Martin Bilello","date":"November 10, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"On the new edition of his podcast, John Ryan talks with Craig Rot about his effort for developing Team Handball in the Midwest: For the past 7 years Craig Rot has been at the forefront of youth development in the U.S., first in Minnesota and now in the Chicago area.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog"","block_context":{"text":"Blog","link":"https:\/\/www.calheat.com\/index.php\/category\/blog"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.calheat.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/USA-Alberta2.jpg?fit=600%2C400&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.calheat.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/USA-Alberta2.jpg?fit=600%2C400&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.calheat.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/USA-Alberta2.jpg?fit=600%2C400&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3008,"url":"https:\/\/www.calheat.com\/index.php\/calling-all-u-s-athletes-handball-needs-you","url_meta":{"origin":7894,"position":5},"title":"Calling all U.S. athletes: Handball needs you","author":"Martin Bilello","date":"August 10, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Martin Rogers from\u00a0USA TODAY Sports makes the calling we keep doing every year. This is a public service announcement aimed at any college basketball player, soccer goalkeeper, lacrosse player, football recruit (skill positions preferred), water polo junkie, wrestler or women\u2019s softball exponent. 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