USA Team Handball is wrapping up their final practices for their match against Canada Sunday, September 2, 2018.
The matches will be held in the Beard Eaves Memorial Coliseum at 3 p.m. for the women’s game and 5 p.m. for the men’s. Doors to the Coliseum will open at 2 p.m., and local food vendors and Aubie will be present.
Admission is free, and attendees are encouraged to bring cans of food or non-perishable items to donate to the East Alabama Food Bank.
Both matches are Pan-American Game qualifiers. The United States and Canada will play one match in the United States and another in Canada on Sept. 5. The overall winner of the series will advance to the Pan-American Games.
“The winner goes on to Lima, Peru (the Pan-American Games)," said Kristen Roberts, administrator of outreach programs. “The winner of the Pan-American games in Lima qualifies for the Olympics. They get a spot in Tokyo 2020.”
Several other teams that place high enough at the Pan-American Games are selected for the Olympic tournament where they compete again to qualify for the Olympics, Roberts said.
The matches on Sept. 2 are being played in Auburn because Auburn is home to the USA Team Handball residency program, Roberts said.
Women’s Team
These matches and the sport as a whole are important to the athletes because it gives them the opportunity to continue to compete at a high level. Many of the athletes on both the men’s and women’s teams did not begin their athletic career playing handball, most athletes played another sport, Roberts said.
Sarah Gascon, captain of the women’s USA Team Handball, learned about the sport when she was trying out for the USA Volleyball team. She didn’t join the handball team right away, she first played volleyball and baseball at the Olympic level while she completed her college degree.
Then she reached a break in her athletic career and reached out to the handball team. After a week-long tryout, Gascon made the team and was invited to join their residency program.
“Once I started playing it, I can’t see myself doing anything else,” Gascon said. “I have a passion for it and the Olympic movement. It’s something I’ve always seen myself doing.
When the handball residency program came to Auburn in 2015, Gascon moved with it to continue training and playing at the Olympic level.
Since then she and the team have been training on their own and come together for training camps several times a year. To prepare for the matches against Canada, the team held tryouts in mid-July to decide who would be invited to training camp in August and September.
The roster for this weekend’s match was announced earlier this week.
“We’re working extremely hard,” Gascon said. “We’re staying focused. We’re trying to fundraise as much as we can. We’re just trying to represent Auburn, Opelika, the School of Kinesiology, our families, our friends and of course our great country.”
Get Involved
USA Team Handball isn’t just about practicing and bettering themselves at the sport, they want to reach out to the entire community to get everyone involved and active.
Students and community members that want to try their hand at the sport can join the handball club team at Auburn or the Auburn Opelika Handball Club.
“We started the Auburn Opelika Handball Club this year,” Roberts said. “It’s geared toward elementary and middle school students. Since Kinesiology, one of our majors is physical education, we are very passionate about physical education and motor and learning development especially with youth.”
The team and staffers have also traveled to schools and other organizations throughout Lee County to educate young community members about the sport.
After each visit they provide the school or organization with equipment, such as a goal and balls, so the children can continue to practice what they learned. They want everyone to enjoy the sport and fall in love with it just like they did through watching and participating in the game, Roberts said.
“This is our USA national team, just like soccer just like basketball,” Roberts said. “These are your team USA handball. It’s a really big deal. The more you watch the sport the more you appreciate it.”
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Elizabeth, senior in journalism and political science, is the community editor for The Plainsman
