Elgin holds court on national handball tournament
Cindy Walker got hooked on team handball while watching the Summer Olympics last August.
The St. Louis woman even traveled to Denmark in October to watch a tournament.
On Friday morning, Walker's handball fix was a little bit closer to home and easier on the wallet as she soaked up first-day action at Judson University in Elgin, site of the USA Team Handball national club championships.
"I'm a handball nut," she said, taking a break from shooting some 200-plus photos during a women's morning match. "There's so much action. The strategy isn't always obvious, but there is strategy in the madness."
If all goes well, USA Team Handball officials hope to make Judson the site of their club tournament next year.
Team handball is an official Summer Olympic event and the group hopes the U.S. team will make the games in 2012 for the first time since 1996.
The Elgin Area Convention and Visitors Bureau hopes the 27 teams and more than 540 athletes, along with their families, will spend about $300,000 for hotel rooms, transportation and meals.
Games continue today at Judson, Elgin Community College and The Centre of Elgin. The championship is 12:45 p.m. Sunday for women's teams and 2:30 p.m. for men's teams.
Tickets are $5 for each venue or $30 for an all-weekend pass. For details, visit usateamhandball.org or call (801) 463-2000.
The sport consists of six players and a goalie on a side on an indoor court about 40 feet longer than a basketball court. Players dribble, pass and shoot the ball at a goalie protecting a 6-foot-tall by 10-foot-wide net. Scores are usually in the 30s.
Friday's games had an international feel to them.
Teams spoke to each other in several languages, such as Polish and Spanish. The New York City Team Handball Club had players born in more than a dozen different countries, according to the admission program.
Irena Vilotic drove from Ohio to watch her husband, Bojan, compete as a member of the Houston Firehawks.
"There's no violence," she said. "You have to play as a team. You can't play by yourself. He's a really good player."
But not good enough this morning, as the Firehawks lost to the Chicago-based Polish Folklore, 34-14.