Nostalgia and a little Deja Vu – Team handball news
30 years ago I was a member of the American national team that participated in the 1993 World Championships in Sweden. This week, Team USA returns to Sweden for the 2023 World Championships and I can’t help but feel nostalgic along with a little deja vu. Deja vu, in the sense that while handball has changed and evolved in many ways, the US is simply back to where we were 30 years ago.
A seminal experience
Anyone who knows me or has followed this website is well aware that I have a great passion for the sport of handball. Where does that passion come from? Well, a lot of that can be attributed to my participation in the 1993 World Cup. I was already passionate about the sport, but getting the opportunity to represent my country and play against the best handball athletes on a world stage had a supercharge effect. Moreover, my participation was unexpected. I had actually been cut from 1 of 4 Olympic Festival teams (an annual event used in part to evaluate prospects) a year and a half earlier. I thought my career was over, and instead I started on defense and played about as well as my limited skills and talent would allow. And now the USA is returning to a world championship in Sweden 30 years later. How could I not be nostalgic?
Familiar faces
Here are some names from my experience from 1993 and the role they will now have at the 2023 WC.
- USA head coach, Robert Hedin: Yes, as you can see from the old Swedish newspaper clip, Coach Hedin played against the USA in our unforgettable 32-16 loss to the Swedes at the Scandinavium in Gothenburg. How forgettable? Coach Hedin had literally forgotten that he had even played against the USA in 1993 when I first mentioned it to him during an interview. He remembered playing against the USA at the 1996 Olympics, but had completely forgotten about this classic. Obviously not a defining moment for him. (2018 interview shortly after he was hired: Link)
- USA assistant coach, Darrick Heath: Heath, is one of the best running backs of all time for the USA and was also on the 93 USA Team. So the American coaching staff is coming back to Sweden 30 years later, but this time Hedin and Heath will be working together on the same team.
- The head coach of the Netherlands, Stefan Olsson: Olsson was short that USA Team Handball High Performance Manager and is now the coach of the Netherlands. I think he has also forgotten the USA game 30 years ago. If he remembers, he didn’t play well and I think I played a part in that. (Even if that’s not true… that’s how I want to remember it.)
Familiar voices
How long has Paul Bray commented on handball? 30 years ago he was the voice of EuroSport, bashing the USA team with “barging, give up the far post” and other British colloquialisms that sounded quite funny to our American ears.
Familiar backgrounds
Striking to me are some athletes on the lists with similar backgrounds:
- Darrick Heath (1993) / Gary Hines (2023): Much like Gary Hines was the “jump out of the gym” crowd favorite at the warm-up tournament in Trondheim, Darrick Heath was the crowd favorite back in 1993. It’s not often you can actually hear a crowd gasp, but that’s exactly what happened in Gothenburg the first time Darrick fired a jump shot from a 9 meter throw. Seriously, in that very narrow skill of a 9 meter jump shot behind a wall, Darrick may very well be the greatest of all time.
And here’s a side note about Gary that makes me feel a little younger. Way back in 2004 I played my last competitive games at the US National Championships with Gary on the Condors club team. As long as he keeps winning the fight against Father Time, I get to watch Team USA and keep saying, “Yeah, I played with him.”
- John Keller (1993) / Ty Reed (2023): They play a different position (right back for Keller; right wing for Reed), but they both played for NCAA Division 1 soccer teams (North Carolina for Keller; Alabama for Reed).
- John Ryan (1993) / Drew Donlin (2023): Both Circle Runners; Both Air Force Academy Graduates; Both captains and while Drew is in the Space Force and I was in the Air Force, I was working on space acquisition before Donald Trump made it cool. The similarities pretty much end there. While I was a useful defensive specialist, no one picked me out of the lineup to play in Liga ASOBAL for a couple of years.
Similar teams and Deja Vu?
I’m writing this with a question mark because we’re talking about different eras and I’m pretty sure this USA team won’t finish dead last without wins like we did in 1993. That said, I like to think that if we had played with an expanded field of 32 teams (instead of a field of 16 teams) we would not have finished 32nd.
We were a team that played hard and showed some potential. Darrick Heath parlayed his performance into a professional career. Several of my teammates went on to play and became Olympians 3 years later. The USA continued to improve and started playing closer games against the top teams. Why does Coach Hedin remember his match against the USA at the 96 Olympics? Three years after thrashing us by 16 goals, they had to sweat out a four-goal victory in Atlanta.
The jury is still out on this team in 2023, but the warm-up tournament in Trondheim suggests that we will see a team that will at times be way out of their league (lost 27-12 to Norway in the 1st half) and at times quite competitive ( loss with 16-14 against Norway in the second half). Much like the American team was back in 1993. (Our two halves against Sweden in 1993: Link)
And maybe just like in 1993, we could see some players turn heads. It won’t shock me at all if Abou Fofana and/or Ian Huter with the big exposure the World Cup brings get some offers from bigger clubs.
It’s also pretty clear to me that we’re going to be looking at the core of our Olympic team in 2028. There are some players on the roster that will likely age, but the bulk of this roster is in their early to mid-20s. Why, I see as many as 10 athletes on the current roster suiting up in Los Angeles in 2028. And unlike our ’93 team, they will have 5 years instead of 3 to develop as a team. So while this 2023 team is in a similar spot to the 1993 team, they have much more potential.
I think Abou Fofana said it best when asked on Instagram, “What should Americans watch out for when watching this team?”
All I can say is… I wholeheartedly agree with his assessment
But while there are some similarities between these two teams, there is a huge difference that would have been unimaginable to me and my teammates 30 years ago. And it’s a list made up mostly of Americans who grew up in another country. I will explain why in part 2 this is nothing to worry about… if we take full advantage of this good fortune to really focus on efforts to develop the handball state.
Some links to check out