Team handball gains popularity in U.S.
By Diane Lantto
■ The North Wind
Northern Michigan U.
Twelve players leap and run across a large court
They check each other and
9 sometimes roll to the floor as
1 they try to bomb a cantaloupe
sized ball past a goalie in a mini
soccer-style net.
A fast-paced court game with
elements of basketball, softball,
- volleyball and water polo, team
handball ranks as the second
most popular team sport world
wide, according to the U S . Team
Handball Federation.
“It’s a good sport for people
. with no niche,” said Mary Phyl
Dwight, Northern Michigan I’.'s team handball coach
The former Olympic team member was involved in a
number of the sports team handball is based on. includ
ing basketball But at 5 feet, 7 inches tall, she said she
didn’t have the speed and aggressiveness to make up
for her lack of height
However, she found her court skills and strong soft ball
throwing arm made her a good team handball player
The sport is just beginning to take off m the I’nited
States despite its popularity in other countries The
International Handball Federation has 4.2 million
members in 88 countries.
Twenty-five men and women practice together as
NMD’s handball club, but compete separately against
teams from across the country
NMU’s club members have been nurturing the sport
at the grass roots level the Marquette area public
schools are the only ones in the United States Dwight
knows of that have permanent, team handball mark
ings on gym floors
The average final score
m team handball is m the
low 21 Is Most of the action
occurs near a six-meter
semicircle surrounding
the goal.
Only the goalie may
stand inside the circle
while m possession of the
SPECIAL TO U
ball, but players do have air rights lake acrobats, they
leap into the air over the circle to shoot the ball, which
must be released before they land
Players can dribble the ball across the court, but it's
essentially a fast passing game with a zone defense
"There are no tune outs, and the referee rarely hnn
dies the ball,” Dwight said "There’s no room to argue
with the referee, because the game would goon without
you ”
Baseball
Continued from page 22
the summer.
Some coaches, including Brock, also
said they have a problem playing when
the student body is gone for the sum
mer. "1 don’t think you should have any
kind of college athletics while school is
not m session,” Block said. “It just
doesn’t make much sense.”
Finally, some coaches and adminis
trators are not convinced the extended
season would create additional rev
enue, as the proposal intends. The addi
tional travel and boarding costs would
outweigh the turnstile gains, they say.
"1 think it would price a lot of schools
right out of baseball," Brock said.
But Baseball America Editor Allan
Simpson said an extended college sea
son would allow pro scouts more time
to look at players.
He said the extended season is the
next logical step for college baseball
“There are real limitations with 60
games,” he said. “Baseball is now the
No. 3 college sport. If it ever wants to
make realistic gains and gain accep
tance nationwide, it is going to have to
be played in the summer."
NCAA
Continued from page 22
But Schultz believes with some work
this contract is a blessing to the NCAA,
and not just from a money standpoint
“We plan to challenge the membership g
to come up with creative ways to dis- |
tribute these funds,” he said. “We want a
to eliminate the comment about the I
$400,000 free throw.”
Hopefully he means it, and won’t let
the “big” schools bully the NCAA into let
ting them reap all the rewards, using the
argument that they've kept college ath
letics running with their names.
Reward schools who make it into the
64-team tournament, but place a cap on
the amount of money to be divided up
between tournament teams, he said
The rest of the money generated
should be distributed on an equal level
to the rest of the NCAA institutions,
except for those schools on probation.
Install bonus programs for schools
who graduate their athletes on a high
ratio based on real figures
If the NCAA does this or something
similar, they will need only ankle boots
instead of hip boots to clean up Because
whenever money is involved, there
always will be some mess to clean up.
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