FOURTH TIME'S A CHARM

Back in the spring of 2001 when a the freshmen tandem of Jason Woody and Colin Fergus put a handball team together named Balamer Llama Flavored Pez and went 0-5 in the regular season, I thought to myself this would be the next Kirby generation. A team of people out just to have fun without caring an ounze about winning at all. In fact, the Kirby teams seemed to enjoy their losing streak. Well, I was proven wrong this year, when they turned their first two seasons (collectively 0-9) 180 degrees to go 4-0 and win the championship. It helped that they outgrew some of the players they originally started with and picked up the three remaining Dawgs from last year's championship team and Mike Aaron, all-star stud handball player. Colin has always been a great keeper and he finally got some defense and some goal support to help him win those close games. And they played smart. They played the entire first half of the championship game with only 5 players against Teke's 6. But they slowed the game down and dribbled the ball around and only took shots that were wide open. And then Teke would get the ball back, run down the court and fire up a hasty, ill-conceived shot that Colin would save and start the process all over. They slowed the game down so much in their semi-final game against Pi Kapp that they only won 3-2 in overtime. And with all due respect to the rest of the players in this league and on the team, Colin made this team. I've seen a lot of people who play soccer goalie try to make the transition to handball goalie and most find it difficult. Being quick is still an asset, but it's really a different ball game and it's rare to find somebody who knows what they are doing back there. And it's not just me saying this, other teams in the league know this. Team Euro was talking about trying to pick Woody and him up if they didn't get a team together. And they could have used him. Their goalie by committee finally failed them in their semi-final game against Teke. When you lose 10-9 in overtime, it's hard to blame your offense. Another point of note is that this year had the possible first ever overtime UMBC intramural handball game. And the second ever overtime UMBC intramural handball game. The semi-finals were darn exciting. Teke won their game against Team Euro on a breakaway after Greg Gilleland and his gimpy knee won a jump ball over Tom Hamlett in Teke's defensive zone. The Mighty Thunder Thighs won their game over Pi Kapp with Mike drawing the defense up high enough to lob the ball to Tim Ballor at the top of the box for a wide open shot. It was kinda cool to see an actual half court offense at work. The final game looked to be a blowout, but Teke started coming back once James Sheppard started lasering the ball from about 5 feet behind the box with a decent screen. He got two goals that exact same way in the last three minutes and between him and John Riley, they scored four in the last 5:09. Luckily for the Thunder Thighs, they had already built up enough of a lead so that their lone goal in the last 9 minutes was enough to keep a two-goal lead to the end. And luckily for Teke, there were a few very good free agents looking for a team to play on or else they might not have even had a team, let alone a championship caliber squad. Congrats to everybody, especially Woody and Colin who can finally graduate now that they won a mens handball championship. And a quick shout-out is in order for Persia, who managed to tie Pi Kapp and only lose by one goal apiece to the Thunder Thighs and Team Euro. Sometimes the ball just doesn't bounce your way.

Mighty Thunder Thighs, Spring 2004 Mens Team European Handball Champions

A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN

Well, almost. Two years ago, there were only two teams and Team (under the name Good With Balls) just barely won that one. Last year there were three teams and we were actually able to run a round robin tournament, which these guys eventually won. But we were back down to only two teams again this year. I don't understand why it's not more popular, as fun of a sport as it is. Maybe it's because it takes place at the very beginning of the semester. Well, anyway, congrats to Team for taking the third Coed Team European Handball championship in a row now and thanks to Tri Le and his Inches for making the tournament actually take place. Hopefully I'll see a few more teams next year. So somebody;s going to need to step up and take charge when Woody leaves. Please. :)

Team, Spring 2004 Coed Team European Handball Champions

February 24, 2004 - It's go time for Team European Handball's second season. The schedule is online below and all games will be played tomorrow, Wednesday 2/25. And now that that has been determined, I guess I can tell you who is going to win. But first let me say that Persia got a bad break. They went 0-3-1 and lost two of those three games by only one goal. And those games were against the #1 and #2 teams in the league. They were only maybe one or two more players away from having a 3-1 record. And they didn't get to play SAE either.
     But now onto the matter of telling you who will win this season. First of all, Pi Kapp is pretty good, but I don't know if they have enough people who can score to hang with the other three teams. Pat is usually pretty solid, but if he can't get open, he can't usually get a good enough shot. Team Euro is probably the deepest team, but they don't have a scary scoring threat. And either Evil Dustin or Tom, whoever they decide to play, will be goaltending his 3rd handball game ever, and they're going to have a tough time with the caliber of players they'll be facing. However, I do think they are the best all around team with Keith, Justin (both of them), Danny, Mike and Kyle. But that doesn't necessarily mean they'll win the championship. Teke had the best free agent pickups of the off-season with John Riley, Jim Willitt, and James. They were struggling just to have a team at first and accidentally got themselves into the playoffs with a serious chance of going all the way. If they show up. Wolf is a pretty good keeper too, and very smart with the ball. I think the best play I saw him make all year was the one where he didn't touch it at all. One of his players passed it to him from the side (against his will) and he shielded the ball until it rolled out of the goal box on the other side to one of his players. It's important to know the game sometimes. That having been said, I think the team with the best shot is the #1 seeded Mighty Thunder Thighs. At least they will be as long as they have Mike Aaron and Colin. Mike will probably be able to score at least 4 or 5 goals all on his own during the course of a game and Colin rarely lets in more than 4 goals. And that's not counting everybody else on their team.They picked up Brian, Tim and George from the championship team last year, and there's Woody. He's as athletic as he is clumsy-looking. You can't really sleep on anybody on their squad, or you at least can't give any of them an open shot. But you'll need to put two and sometimes three people on Mike to make sure he doesn't score. Their patience on offense is what separates them from Team Euro and Teke. You won't find anybody on the Thunder Thighs taking ill-advised contested shots from 10 feet behind the crease. And perhaps I tipped my hat to their strategy, but you're still going to have to shoot it by Colin anyway, and that's not easy. It's easy to try to find a weakness and say you need to shoot low or bounce it or lob it, etc. But it's been four games and his only weakness has been to wide open uncontested shots from the top of the box when they were down a man to Team Euro. Good luck with that everybody. I guess we'll find out tomorrow.

February 12, 2004 - Enough of this day at a time stuff. We have completed what we hope to be the finalized European handball schedules. Because we worked hard to squeeze in six games for everybody, we will have to play the two semi-final mens games and the mens championship game on the same day, Wednesday 2/25. In addition to this, if any games need to be cancelled for any reason, we will probably not be able to make them up. The top four teams will make the playoffs. If you wish to see how we rank the top four teams, click on the "rankings" link on the left of the screen. Alright, sounds good. I'll see you guys tomorrow or next week sometime.