With a mother who represented the United States of America at the Los Angeles 1984 Olympic Games and a father who was an alternate for the USA at the Seoul 1988 Olympic Games, Ty Reed was simply destined to play handball.

Yet until 2014, when he was named to the player pool of the USA men’s senior national team, Reed was close to a totally different career. In fact, Reed was a wide receiver for one of the most successful programmes in the American football college championship (NCAAF), the Alabama Crimson Tide.

But after finishing his studies, he headed directly to handball, following into his parents’ footsteps, becoming one of the mainstays in the USA men’s senior national team, where he was part of the squad that clinched the first-ever win at the IHF Men’s World Championship in 2023.

“As far as the physicality of the two sports, they are quite the same, but when you see what happens on the court or on the pitch, they are very different. One cannot forget the competitive spirit of American football. This is what I carried over from that sport and I am still using this to this day in handball,” says Reed.

The 30-year-old American player, who mainly features as a right wing, was once in SG Flensburg-Handewitt’s roster, but right now he plies his trade for the California Eagles, the winners of the 2024 North American and Caribbean Senior Club Championship, which made their debut at the IHF Men’s Club World Championship in the current edition.

The Eagles, which are currently coached by Argentinian Gonzalo Carou, had a fantastic start in the match against Khaleej Club, leading by three goals, 12:9, after 18 minutes, but the superior experience of the Saudi side was decisive, as Khaleej eventually took a 48:25 win.

Yet this loss does not deter Reed or the Eagles, who are looking clearly to the future, on a better path to development for the American handball, which has been better and better in the past years.

“It has been great to finally be here and play in this competition, despite the loss. We had quite a long travel day, we settled, but I am just happy to be here and take this excellent experience in. There is a lot to work on, but I think we need to do that and become better and better,” adds Reed.

The Eagles will now have another challenge on Saturday, when they meet the reigning champions of the competition, SC Magdeburg, which did not lose at the IHF Men’s Club World Championship since 2021, winning the last three titles, one of the best teams in Europe and the world in the last years.

Nevertheless, the American side will be ready for the challenge and try to improve in the last matches of the competition, the Placement Matches, when they try to avoid the last place. In fact, it would be the third time when a team from the USA avoid finishing last, after the San Francisco CalHeat ended up 10th out of 12 teams in the previous edition and New York City THC finished 9th in 2019, but lost all the matches played.

But back to the ambitions of the USA national team, a side that will be under the spotlight in less than four years, when they will be hosts at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games, Reed says he is confident that the American team are going to make the best of the experience.

At the 2023 IHF Men’s World Championship, when Reed scored three goals in five matches, the USA secured their first two wins in the world handball flagship competition, against Belgium and Morocco, finishing on 20th place, and making it into the main round for the first time.

In January 2025, USA will head once again to the IHF Men’s World Championship, but are facing a stronger challenge, when they meet co-hosts Norway, Portugal and Brazil in Group E of the 2025 IHF Men’s World Championship.

“I have been with this team, this programme, over the last 10 years and I think the growth has been organic, we have been working a lot together, we had a lot of challenges, there are a lot of moving parts involved, but we have been doing a lot of work, gradually improving over the last five or six years. It is inspiring to see this growth,” adds Reed.

But what about a place in the team at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games for the player who scored two goals in the Eagles’ debut at the IHF Men’s Club World Championship?

“Man, that would be a dream, because my mother represented the USA at Los Angeles, in 1984, so that would be amazing, to be back in the city where she was back then. But I am getting older and older, so who knows,” laughs Reed.