Mariusz Wartalowicz understands that the only way the United States handball team is ever going to succeed on a national level, more youth have to start playing the sport.
That is why he is spending three days at New Albany High School this week, watching students in Jason Orr’s physical education class participate in team handball. While Wartalowicz has his eye out for potential talent, the main purpose for being at New Albany is to encourage students to play the sport and to give them pointers on the proper way to play team handball.
“Hopefully, there is enough interest so next year it could maybe become a club sport and play other schools in the area,” said Wartalowicz, who is based in Chicago and is the technical director for USA Team Handball.
Orr said he loves the sport and played in a team sports class at Anderson University before teaching it while in graduate school at the University of Louisville.
Orr said while he was a PE teacher at Hazelwood, he introduced team handball to students and said “they really loved it.”
“The kids took it and ran with it,” he said. “This time of year we usually do floor hockey, but Team USA Handball was interested in coming down this year.”
The sport may not be as well known in the states as football and basketball, but it includes all of the same skills necessary to play those sports — running, jumping, body contact and team work.
“One of the problems we have had is name recognition,” Wartalowicz said. “This is an easy game to pick up but a difficult one to master. They have adapted hand ball for their PE class, but it can be taken to another level.”
Students — mainly freshmen and sophomores — have been playing since mid-January during PE at New Albany and league standings have been kept. Orr said a tournament will be held next month where teams will perform in front of the school’s freshmen and sophomore classes.
Wartalowicz said few schools play team handball on such a large scale as New Albany. He also said he is implementing a grass-roots movement for the sport to encourage people at an early age to play. This is vital after the United States failed to place a team in the 2008 Olympics in team handball, which has been a part of the Olympics since 1936 and is the second most popular sport in the world behind only soccer.
Wartalowicz will be presenting strategies and techniques from the sport and conducting a free after school team handball clinic for NAHS students today and tomorrow. He will be scouting for potential players to play in a tournament in Colorado Springs where all Olympians train. He will also be looking to see if there are any potential students who might be considered to play in an exhibition game at U of L to help instill an excitement for the game at the secondary level.
Wartalowicz oversees the technical part of the operation for USA Team Handball including selecting the national team and coaches.
“The grass-roots effort has been neglected for a long time,” he said. “We were competitive [national level] until 2000. Our leadership realizes we can’t allow this to happen again. We want to introduce younger kids to the sport so they can hopefully take it to the next level.”
Floyd County
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USA Team Handball director spending time promoting sport at NAHS
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