A roadmap. A huge ambition. Some meticulous planning. And the desire to be the best.

These are the ingredients the United States of America will bring to the table at the 3rd IHF Wheelchair Handball World Championship, when they make their debut in the competition.

But a few months ago, the USA wheelchair handball national team did not even exist. It was just an idea, on paper, with the puzzle pieces still being far away from falling into place.

Fast-forward to September 2024, and the USA are one of the eight teams lining up at the start of the 3rd IHF Wheelchair Handball World Championship, with a huge ambition and a chip on their shoulder, ready to make some noise.

“I got a call from Ebiye Udo-Udoma, my former teammate in the beach handball national team back in November 2023, asking me if I want to take part in a project regarding wheelchair handball. He said: Hey, you know, just wanted to touch base, have you heard of wheelchair handball? And I said, no, I don't know what you're talking about, right?,” says USA’s coach, Ford Dyke.

Dyke first tried indoor handball in 2013, at the Auburn University. He was a national team player until 2020, but also dabbled his toes in the sand, becoming a beach handball player in the USA national team until 2020, when he retired from his playing career.

With a Ph.D. in Kinesiology, Dyke is also an Associate Clinical Professor in the School of Kinesiology at Auburn University and took up the challenge immediately, without knowing what he was really getting himself into. 

“At that moment, I was heading to Hawaii for vacation to go surf and hang out with some friends, and I told him this sounds cool and all, but my mind is elsewhere. He replied that there is a World Championship coming up in a few months. And then he said that I was the only person that he could think of that has adaptive sport, wheelchair-specific experience, as well as team handball experience. And with those two worlds colliding, the feel was like this is an opportunity for the United States to make an impact on this sport,” adds Dyke.

Still, there was no wheelchair handball programme in the United States of America, let alone a team ready to play. In fact, their first friendly matches came in the Dr Hassan Moustafa Sports Hall this September, when they featured against Egypt.

But the process to get there and the team looking competitive, are really a journey in themselves. And they all started with a roadmap.

“January, February, March. (Meetings with the Federation, Zoom calls, conversations, email. Ultimately, our CEO at the time, Martin Branick, he requested from the IHF what we needed to do to submit information to state we were interested. The IHF requested that we fill out a proposal. So, I went to work. I completed a proposal. I added things in, like where do we find our athletes? What level are our athletes at? What type of equipment? Who is our staff?  What's their background? Where are they located? How will we get funding? All these types of questions. So it was a full-length proposal. I submitted it on 1 April,” says the USA coach.

In May, Dyke got another call from Ebiye Udo-Udoma. USA’s application was verified and cleared. The team were in the 3rd IHF Wheelchair Handball World Championship.

“I got a voicemail from Ebiye, saying that we were in. I still have that voicemail. He asked me if I was interested. I said, oh God,” adds Dyke.

And this is how Dyke’s roadmap was created.

“Two days later, I spent about six hours at a coffee shop with my partner. And her and I laid out an entire roadmap. And we worked backwards.  We said, Cairo 2024, backwards. So September all the way to May. Within about 10 days’ time, I had most of my staff assembled. 5 to 7 July, we hosted the first ever wheelchair handball try outs at Auburn University,” says USA’s coach.

In those trials, there were 18 athletes on site. From there, USA had their first 14-players pool. There were other virtual tryouts because of travel restrictions. From 2 to 4 August 2024, the USA had another training camp, with 21 athletes on site. In the end, in the middle of August, the team was selected and preparations started. USA were ready, flew to Egypt, where they are going to play in Group B of the 2024 IHF Wheelchair Handball World Championship, due to meet Brazil, France and Japan, with their debut being against the reigning champions, Brazil.

Some of the players had experience in adaptive sports, like wheelchair rugby, wheelchair American football, wheelchair basketball or wheelchair tennis. And there are also a couple that have some wheelchair handball experience from the high school level.

That should mean that Dyke’s roadmap is complete. He disagrees.

“It's not complete yet because at the end of that roadmap, on September 22nd, it says, return home. There's a comma after that, and it says, with a gold medal. We didn't come here to participate. We came here to win. This is not a situation where we're happy to be here, and the lights are bright, and thanks so much, and we're so excited. Of course we are. But we are coming here and we are serious. And we're ready to make an impact and to elevate this sport to the next level,” concludes Dyke.