One of my best memories from Ecuador was joining a handball team with my cousins. It is one of the things that I miss doing in the USA. My cousins even traveled to Colombia for a tournament representing Ecuador.  I tried to find a team to play on here, but there were none local. Two teams of seven players run and jump to throw a small ball into a goal. It is super popular in Europe, but here in New York, almost no one knows about it.

This made me ask: Why don’t we play handball in New York?

The first problem is that people here think of wall handball, the game you see in the parks where a person hits a small ball against a wall. That is fun, but it is not the same as Team Handball, or European Handball as it is sometimes called in the US.

Also, American sports like football, basketball, and baseball get all the money and attention. It is hard for an underrepresented sport like handball to get noticed. However, organizations like USA Team Handball are working hard to raise awareness in the US. Right here in NY, the New York Team Handball Club (THC) has been advocating for bringing handball to as many New Yorkers as possible. Their mission statement reads:

New York City Team Handball Club is a 501 (c) 3 charitable organization and was founded in 1973 by a few UN employees. Our purpose is to inspire all our members (70+ different countries) to live and breathe the Olympic values of friendship, inclusion, courage, respect and excellence. We are dedicated to the spirit of team handball, the physical and emotional benefits it provides and more importantly connecting people from around the globe in the greatest city on earth.

Even with its lack of awareness, I think handball has a lot of potential. It is a great sport for fitness and teamwork. Some physical education teachers are already playing handball in class. If yours isn’t, tell them you would like to try!