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Team Handball: The Coolest Sport You’ve Never Seen

"It’s water polo without the water; soccer, but you can use your hands; lacrosse, but you don’t use the sticks," said Fitzgerald, a member of the U.S. Olympic men’s handball team. "The easiest thing for me to do is give people a video and tell them to ask me questions later."

Team handball is an entirely different sport than the handball most Americans are familiar with. As Fitzgerald explained, it’s a hybrid version of soccer, water polo and lacrosse — 11-man teams try to throw the ball into a guarded goal — with a bit of basketball thrown in — players must dribble the ball every few steps as they bring it down the court.

With plenty of action and lots of goals, the sport is one of most popular in Europe and would seem like a natural hit with the Generation-X crowd in this country. Instead, it has lived up to its catch phrase: "The coolest sport you’ve never seen."

"It hasn’t gotten the attention it deserves," said Toni Jameson, who was named to the women’s Olympic team Tuesday. "When people are able to see the games on a wider level, they’ll fall in love with it like everyone else."

Dennis Berkholtz, who played team handball in the 1972 Munich Games and coached the men’s team at the Montreal Olympics in ’76, was instrumental in bringing the handball program to Atlanta two years ago.

The players now train in the city, work in the city and try to bring their sport to a wider audience through school programs and other appearances. Several big-name sponsors are lending financial support, and a local mall encouraged shoppers to "adopt an athlete" for $35. The ceremony to announce the men and women teams was held before several hundred people at the Planet Hollywood restaurant in downtown Atlanta.

"Everybody thinks we play with a little black ball up against a wall," Berkholtz said. "This is a big chance for us to get started, but it means nothing if we don’t follow up on it. The last two years have been a lot of fun, a lot work, but our work really starts after the Games."

Berkholtz realizes that team handball has an identity problem that’s not likely to be cured by some "Miracle on the Court," a la the hockey team at the 1980 Olympics. The men’s team will have trouble winning even one game in Atlanta, he said, while the outlook is somewhat brighter for a women’s squad comprised of eight players with previous Olympic experience.

"Most of the athletes we think can play handball at the highest level think they can play professional basketball," Berkholtz said. "Can we get the better athletes? Never. But we can get those second-tier athletes, especially those at smaller schools. We have to develop it at the collegiate level first."

The handball players are a throwback to a different era: true amateurs who hold down a regular job while pursuing their athletic careers.

"Obviously, we don’t do this for the money or the coverage, because there is none," said Fitzgerald, who works at an Atlanta accounting firm. "We do this because we love the sport."