From July 12 to 18, fans, players, and communities across the globe united for seven unforgettable days dedicated to the sport’s rich history, vibrant present, and promising future. During the International Handball Week, we focused on all disciplines of the sport, highlighting some fantastic stories throughout the handball world. 

Today, we hear three different perspectives of Puerto Rican handball on the global stage, firmly planted in the sand: Puerto Rico Handball Federation President Dayna Venesa Milete Robles, national team player Antwan Garcia Milete and IHF Beach Handball referee couple Kitsa Escobar and Nathalys Ceballos.

Most recently, Puerto Rico were represented on the sand by their men’s youth team who competed at the 2025 IHF Men’s Youth Beach Handball World Championships in Hammamet, Tunisia.

North Africa was their debut in the men’s event and the Caribbean nation had one of the hardest opening games – against eventual world champions Spain, losing 0-2 (6:26, 12:24). A narrow, shoot-out defeat against Oman 1-2 (8:10, 18:16, SO 8:9) followed but with the pre-event withdrawal of Iran, all three teams qualified through to the main round.

It did not get easier for them in the main round though as they faced three European sides in a row. An improved second set performance could not reverse the result against Germany, as Puerto Rico lost 0-2 (14:26, 12:16) against the team which would finish in second place.

However, against eventual fourth-placed Hungary, they were denied a first set win in the dying moments after leading for most of the 10 minutes, eventually losing 0-2 (24:25, 14:26). In their final main round game, against the defending champions Croatia, a disappointing first set gave way to an inspired second, with the Croatians needing a golden goal to seal their 2-0 (22:10, 19:18) win.

Puerto Rico went on to finish 11th after defeating Kenya 2-0 (22:14, 22:10), losing a close encounter with Uruguay 0-2 (18:20, 20:22) and then seeing off Senegal, 2-0 (18:12, 14:8).

The ranking was their highest-ever in any IHF World Championship, indoor or beach, men’s or women’s, at any age.

The President: Dayna Venesa MILETE ROBLES

Physiotherapy is my profession and I am also a handball coach to a basic level, so I was the team physiotherapist there, but also working as an assistant coach. I was doing everything in Tunisia at the world championships.

Also, I am now President of the Puerto Rico Handball Federation, which I became three months ago after my father, Nestor, had been President for 15 years.

I have always been in the federation, but more in the background. For the past seven years I have been leading their most important projects – a generation project, creating a handball school, and this – beach handball – is my project too.

In addition to my handball work, I have my own business recovery centre in Puerto Rico, I am studying for a doctorate to go alongside my MSc in Education and I am a mother of two kids – one was in the team with me in Tunisia (Antwan Garcia Milete) and the other – my 10-year-old girl, was back in Puerto Rico – so, you can say I am very busy.

As President, my big goal and what I am doing right now, relates to handball programmes in schools, in education. Beach handball is already in elementary and high schools in Puerto Rico, but I want it to come to university as it disappears just before then. That is my goal; to complete that university pathway, but we need support.

On the court, my goal is to get our teams to the next Central American and Caribbean Games in 2026 in the Dominican Republic and to place ourselves in the medal table again, plus, we have also qualified for the Under 17 IHF Men’s World Championship in Morocco later this year so we have very much to do.

Puerto Rico is an island, and I live 10 minutes from the beach. It’s more comfortable for my country in beach handball than indoor handball, plus it is easier for us to get to the Olympic Games or world championships, like we did with the 2022 or 2024 IHF Beach Handball World Championships. 

For my island to be at a world championship, compared with a lot of countries who have big populations, is big, spectacular. It is an honour to get to play with these countries, it's a dream for me.

I'm so proud for our referees Kitsa and Nathalys too because they have worked so hard. They have grown with me. They are my kids too. They referee both indoor and beach and we have been to many games together – me as a delegate and them as referees. They’re young, they’re women and have a lot to do, but they have the character and personality to do that.

When I see them, I see many sacrifices, because one has a young kid; they have to sacrifice work, kids, family and they do a good job for Puerto Rico and for the whole of the Caribbean.

I want to grow the sport on my island, in my federation and with the continental confederation.

We don't have that world championship level of play in Puerto Rico. This is because we don't have games; the young players don't play, they just practice. They play in school and sometimes nationally, but not at the international level, we simply don't have games. With beach handball we practice only three days a week, with no games, but we have to improve that and that is my area. I'm passionate about all handball. 

I played indoor handball for the national team, then I became a coach and eventually became involved with the national team coaching staff. I am an international delegate and have been at the Pan American Games and Central American and Caribbean Beach Games.

We have a lot of work to do. We need people. We need sponsors. We need something because the game is our passion. On my island and in our region – with the Dominican Republic, Dominica, Cuba, for example – we can all do beach handball because we have the habitat: we have beaches.

I don’t think about being a female president, just being a president. In the Puerto Rican Olympic Committee our President is a woman (Sara ROSARIO VÉLEZ). I am young and have only been in the role for three months, but my father – the former President – has been with me. I have to feel this new role and believe I am a President, I am not the coach, not mum, not ‘Dayna’, I am the President, I have my goals for development and I want to get them.

I have a good team with me at the Puerto Rican Handball Federation and we are working hard. We love handball because of the people. We know people all over our country because of handball. We have friends in other countries. We know other cultures. It's a passion for all of us.

The player: Antwan GARCIA MILETE

I've been fortunate to have a handball family. My mother, Dayna, is president right now and my grandfather, Nestor, is the former president.

They never forced me to do sports, or to play handball. They just told me to play every day whatever sport I liked.

And since my whole family plays handball, I was like, ‘I have to play handball as well’. I liked it and ever since then I have played.

I have always been in and around the handball courts, since I was three, almost four, years old. Very young. I play both beach and indoor right now. I play as a centre back, specialist and left back.

Internationally, I started playing three years back, when I was 13 or 14 years old, but I've been playing in my club in Puerto Rico since I was 12.

I remember my first beach handball game. It was an exhibition game in Puerto Rico. When I did my first 360-degree spin-shot it was not that good, but after then, I started trying a lot more and it got better, and the same with the in-flight pass and all of that.

Beach handball is different from indoor handball; it's something we play a lot in Puerto Rico in the summer. It was familiar to indoor and I started playing with friends when we were going to the beach. I never thought I was going to go internationally and play in a world championship.

In Tunisia, we had a tough first game, against Spain. We went up against them – the silver medallists from the European championships – a very good team which only lost two games. Against Oman, we wanted to win, but unfortunately, we couldn't and lost via shoot-out. But, despite this, we got our confidence up. 

The world championship had a lot of ups and downs, but we always try to go game-by-game and try to be 1% better then our last one. We play with the heart. We're not a physical team. We don't have a lot of tall guys, but we have a really good 360-degree spin-shot. We always try to go by that and the more tactical, technical, side.

It's a different feeling playing for your country. You always try to do your best when representing your country. Sometimes, it's not the best representation, but you just acknowledge your country, and you try to do the best for them.

For anyone in Puerto Rico – or anywhere – thinking of playing beach handball I would just tell them it's not a hard sport to start. It's a very good sport. It's not very hard to learn, but it has its techniques.

I have basketball friends who play beach handball, and they were with me playing at the world championship in Tunisia. I said to them about beach handball that they would have a good time, be on the beach and be in different places internationally or even just Puerto Rico.

Everyone should try a new sport and while beach handball is not a very common sport, at least in America, people should just give it a try – you can end up in any part of the world. 

The referees: Kitsa ESCOBAR and Nathalys CEBALLOS

Kitsa ESCOBAR
I was so happy and grateful to be at the world championship and the IHF Beach Handball Global Tour stage in Tunisia. Nathalys called me before and said ‘Kitsa, did you check your email? We got a nomination!’.

It’s very important for us and for our country – we made history. We had refereed in the North American and the Caribbean (NACHC) events and Central American and Caribbean Beach Games in Colombia, but never a world championship.

My family and friends were all proud I was nominated. I have a five-year-old daughter, Kahelis, and she said to me before I went to Tunisia; ‘Mummy, I want to go with you’, but I just said to her ‘Kahelis, you can’t go with me right now, but for the next one, maybe you can come, but you have to feel very proud of your mummy and your auntie Nathalys, because we're making history’.

She was looking at me and then said ‘oh Mum, but that's important, right?’, and I said ‘yes, feel very proud of your auntie and your mummy, because we're going to an event, we're going to referee, and it's the first time’, she was like; ‘okay mum’.

Actually, my best friend made a video of her and Kahelis watching us referee in Tunisia and she was saying; ‘that's mummy, she can run and she’s with Nathalys’. All of our families were watching us.

I discovered handball in elementary school, my first school together with Nathalys, when our physical educator showed us it. Because our fathers knew Nestor, he talked to our parents and said send them (us) to the court. That was around 1998 in Rio Grande. I was eight years old when we started and Nathalys and I went on to play together at the Rio Grande club together in all categories.

I used to play right wing, but in 2014 I got two injuries at that time, and was thinking to retire. When I talked with the coach, he said that he could extend my lifetime as a player, by becoming a goalkeeper. The current goalkeeper at the time had got pregnant and they needed one. 

He said I could help the team and I told him I was going to think about. I mean, I like my face – and I am not crazy.

But the next time I went to practice and saw my teammates playing without a goalkeeper…well, I was there the next day with everything ready as a goalkeeper – I went on to play in the 2015 IHF Women’s World Championship and also at the 2021 edition in Spain, both times with Nathalys. 

After going to Paraguay in 2016, 2017 with my partner, who was a beach handball referee, I said to myself ‘I like this’ – I liked the event, the friendship, the fair play, everything. I was in shock. 

Later on, Nathalys was refereeing already, but indoor. I was only helping referee with the younger categories. But Nathalys’ referee partner Sheila Hiraldo got an offer to play in Europe so she went and Nathalys was then alone. In 2022, we refereed in Puerto Rico at a tournament and that was the first time we whistled together.

We felt very proud when we saw our flag flying at the world championships. We are used to representing the colours of our country as players and it is no different as referees – it is everything. We know that when we are at the airport, we already forget our names, because when everybody sees us, they see Puerto Rico. It's very important how we move, how we talk, how we perform, how we compose ourselves, attitude, everything.

Everything in Tunisia felt like it was a dream. It was the first time we met some of our handball friends in person – but we had already felt connected before.

Being in Tunisia with Dayna, the president and our ‘father’ the former president – he will always be more than a president, he will always be a father, family for us, with his friendship, and his friendship with our fathers and our families. 

In Puerto Rico, handball is competing with basketball, volleyball and baseball. Every girl wants to play volleyball and all the boys want to play basketball or baseball. 

We always say to people that not everybody has to be an athlete. Not everybody can be in the national team – they can be in other areas of sport; referee, timekeeper, delegate, coach, administration. They can see in our sport that there is a lot of opportunity for them. They can have the same opportunities that we have had.

Nathalys CEBALLOS

I love handball: refereeing, training, playing, coaching. Everything.

I discovered the sport back in 1998 at my school – in Puerto Rico everybody plays handball at elementary, primary school. I saw the sport and thought it was new and I wanted to try it. I liked – and still like – the speed of the game, the contact, everything.

I started playing indoor handball for the Puerto Rico women’s national team when I was 16 years old and played at five Central American Games, five Pan American Games and two world championships. I played with Kitsa before she retired, but I still play, as centre back and captain of the national team. 

In 2010 I started whistling indoor handball in the younger age categories and then, when I was 20, I moved into the Puerto Rico men’s national league. That was the beginning. 

But whistling beach handball was thanks to Kitsa. In 2022 her previous whistling partner told her she could not whistle anymore and Kitsa asked me if I wanted to whistle with her. She’s like my sister; we have played together for the club and national teams for so long. I didn’t have a choice.

The 2022 Central American and Caribbean Beach Games in Colombia were great. We really enjoyed the games, enjoyed the place, enjoyed everything. Beach handball is so different and I really liked it.

In Tunisia we wanted to watch every game of the championships when we were not whistling so we went on the first bus to the arena and came back on the last bus. We are still learning a lot day-by-day and appreciate all the support we have had.

We have never had any problems as female referees. In fact, in Puerto Rico, if you go to a handball match, you're going to see the referee is a woman, on the table the timekeeper is a woman, the delegate is a woman. Our Olympic Committee and handball federation presidents are both women – lots of women are working to promote handball in Puerto Rico.

Both Kitsa and I want more people refereeing in our national competitions – for example, our national beach handball circuit started in June and continues until the first week of August in both adults and younger age categories – we want to inspire and motivate people to have a career in refereeing, in handball.