As USA Team Handball (USATH) are slowly, but meticulously preparing for the Olympic Games Los Angeles 2028, the focus on youth grows even stronger, with a clear eye on developing two competitive teams for the handball tournaments in the major event.

The focus is both on the senior teams and the youth teams, with the task at hand being to find hidden gems that can contribute in the future.

For the latter category, one of the best teams in the United States, San Francisco CalHeat, who took part in the IHF Men’s Super Globe last October, have started developing handball at young ages in the California area, creating the Youth California Cup in 2016.

“We decided in 2016 to get together and start developing handball at the young ages in our area, because being the local club, if we were not going to do it, who else would? Also having the Olympic Games in Los Angeles in 2028 was a clear target to shoot for when recruiting at the Middle and High School levels back then,” says Martin Bilello, the Director of Youth Development and a board member of the San Francisco CalHeat Team Handball Club, who has almost single-handedly been responsible for the huge surge of youth handball in the Northern California region over the past few years.

The purpose of the tournament is to grow the league even bigger, bringing more teams, players and families into the sport, underlining the benefits of playing handball and taking part in an entertaining sport. 

“The Youth California Cup helps not only in forming the future USATH athletes, but also in developing referees and future coaches and fans. This is the way handball has been developed all over the world, and we thought it was time the US got to work on true grassroots efforts.

“We are working towards helping other communities across the country to start programmes like ours so we can spread the love for handball all over the USA,” adds Billelo.

In 2021, the Youth California Cup was divided into three competitions, for middle school boys, middle school girls and for high school, with a total of 113 participants featuring throughout the games.

In the middle school categories, the Bret Harte Broncos secured the gold medal in each category, winning the finals against the Castillero Cobras, while in the high school category, the Cali Kings Handball were the winners after sweeping their opponents and securing four wins out of four games.

It was the second win for the Bret Harte Broncos after the one in 2018, while Cali Kings secured their second title in a row in the high school competition.

“The expectations are high for the 2022/23 season, because we had nearly 150 participants before the COVID-19 pandemic. We are slowly getting back into form and we really want to improve.

“California will be sending two teams to the USATH Youth National Championships this coming April in North Carolina, and have started with beach handball development as well,” concludes Billelo.

Photos: San Francisco CalHeat