LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — You've surely heard of football — be it pigskin or soccer — but do you know what handball is? If you've closely followed the Olympics, you might.
"Physical, fast, high-paced, a lot of scoring, balls moving at 80+ miles per hour, bodies hitting each other," U.S. Handball Union first-year executive director Michael King described it. "It’s pinball combined with some rugby combined with some basketball. It’s everything you want.”
The Olympic sport is very popular in countries across the globe, especially in Europe. However, it's still growing in the United States. In fact, of 27 million people who regularly play handball worldwide, only 900 of them are in the States.
The U.S. Handball Union has long tried to change that and the season-ending national championships are the organization's annual headliner. And where better to hold a big event than the Entertainment Capital of the World?
From June 6-9, the senior amateur championship tournament returned to Las Vegas for the first time in two decades. In the Pavilion conference room in the Westgate Casino Resort, 18 teams of about 200 men and women representing 16 cities internationally played not for money, but for the love of the game.
“We run tournaments throughout the country over the year," King said. "This is the culmination of over 300 matches over the course of the season. This is our big year-end event where we crown national champions.”
Europe would end up having the upper hand as the men's first division championship match came between two Norwegian teams. But what makes the sport and this tournament unique is that there are athletes from all walks of life on the same court.
“We got athletes out here that are anywhere between 16 or mid-50s," U.S. Handball Union board member JD Orr said of the age gap between some players. "We got a lot of different countries and nationalities involved. On most of the teams here, there are probably three or four different languages per team, comprised of five or six different nationalities so it’s a real cultural melting pot."
The U.S. handball national championships used to be held in more remote cities. But when Michael King and company took over the operation, they wanted to make Vegas the home to the championship this year and every year going forward.
“It’s a massive global sport so it made sense for us to have it in a worldwide destination," King said. "We actually have two teams behind me from Norway that are playing for the championship in our first division and that’s really our goal. To expose the rest of the world to American destinations and America to handball from around the world because it’s a massive multi-million dollar industry that’s an Olympic sport played competitively in tens of countries and we’re trying to grow it here.”
When the national championships return to Vegas next year, King expects there to be twice or thrice as many teams competing. His goal is 150.
If you want to learn more about handball or find out how to start playing for a club, visit handballus.org.
