Cadets, grads participate with USA Team Handball
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Firsties Jason Borchik (left) and Thomas Giordano go through a defensive drill during a USA Team Handball practice during their trip to Germany.
A youthful USA Team Handball squad traveled to Lubeck, Germany, May 31- June 8 for the Three-Nation’s Handball Tournament.
The USA national team came away with a record of 3-2 in five games as three cadets, two recent U.S. Military Academy graduates and the West Point men’s team handball coach participated in the tournament.
Firsties Jason Borchik, Thomas Giordano and Preston Pham took part in the tournament while former team members, 2nd Lts. Keith Fine and John Harmeling, both members of the Army World Class Athlete Program, also participated in the nine-day trip.
New Army Men’s Team Handball coach Maj. Adam Hodges was invited to be an assistant coach for USA Team Handball head coach Boban Zizovic. Also selected to participate in the tournament was 2008-09 Army team captain 2nd Lt. Brian Walsh, but an injury sustained during the 2009 U.S. Team Handball Open Nationals in May kept him from playing.
The province of Schleswig-Holstein, the heart of handball country where Lubeck is located, has more than 2,000 professional and local club teams in the vicinity.
The hope of USA Team Handball was to travel to a prominent handball location and build a base of international experience for some of the USA’s rising stars in American Handball.
The Three-Nation’s Handball Tournament is a stepping stone to the Pan-American Division I Team Handball Championships in Puerto Rico in November.
The Pan-American tournament is the next qualifying step for the senior men’s national team for a place in the 2012 Olympic Games in London.
During the tournament, Team USA defeated a Bundesliga level four team from Neustadt, Germany; the Irish national team; and a local all-star team from the city of Ratekau.
Team USA lost to the Luxembourg national team and to Bad Schwartau, a second level Bundesliga team, which is the equivalent of an AAA baseball team in professional baseball.
Hodges said the cadets exhibited the utmost professionalism in their conduct and a high-degree of technical proficiency on the handball court.
Borchik started all five games for Team USA at the circle position, which is roughly the equivalent to the center position in basketball, and scored 11 goals, registered four blocked shots and added one steal.
Giordano, who started four games and split time between the right and left back positions, scored eight goals and notched one steal. Pham, who primarily played left wing, contributed four goals and a steal.
Borchik, Giordano and Pham will form the backbone of the 10 returning firsties for Army’s Team Handball Black squad, a team that is currently the three-time defending Men’s Collegiate National Champions. Hodges saw the trip as an invaluable experience for himself as a coach and, more importantly, a benefit to the three returning cadets.
“I am disappointed that I have to wait the summer to have my team back (on the court) to get started on (the 2009-10) season,” Hodges said. “The game is played at such a technically high level in Germany, it was almost like watching a different game. Our team will reap enormous benefits from me and my players having this experience.”