ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, August 4, 1996 TAG: 9608050135
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: ATLANTA
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK STAFF WRITER
THE UNITED STATES wins two games in an Olympics for the first time ever in men's team handball.
Ninth place doesn't sound like much. Gee, the track at Olympic Stadium has only eight lanes.
At the team handball venue in the Georgia World Congress Center, however, the U.S. produced one of the Atlanta Games' most thrilling moments as an also-ran.
At the end of a second, five-minute overtime Friday, pivotman Dave DeGraff whipped a shot over a wall of Algerian players to give the U.S. a 27-26 victory - for ninth place in the 12-nation field.
``It's the biggest thing that's happened in team handball in this country,'' said U.S. coach Richard Olesyk.
For the first time, a U.S. team won two games in an Olympics. The American men beat Kuwait in the preliminary round. The U.S. women finished last, and winless in their their eight-team bracket, falling to Angola 24-23 in their final.
Denmark stopped South Korea 37-33 in overtime Saturday to win the women's gold medal. Sweden and Croatia meet today for the men's gold.
The game, developed in Denmark in the early 1900s as a way to keep soccer players in shape indoors during the cold Scandinavian winters, is a combination of soccer, water polo and basketball.
It's a fast game, very physical, and looks nothing like the off-the-wall handball played solo and in doubles in this country. Team handball has seven players to a side on a carpeted floor that has larger dimensions than a basketball court.
When the Atlanta Games began, the U.S. men's team was ranked 41st in the world in the sport. It was in the Games only as the host team. Men's handball joined the Olympics in 1972 at Munich, and women began playing the following Olympiad in Montreal.
In winning Friday, the U.S. ran a nearly impossible play. How impossible?
``We've practiced that shot a number of times, and it's only worked once before,'' Olesyk said. ``In competition, I've only seen it succeed once in 11 years.''
Brown ran behind a forward wall of teammates, faking a few times, then planted his pivot foot and fired as John Smoltz would when the Braves are in town.
The ball ticked off the hand of Algerian goalie Amar Daoud. You would have thought the medal ceremony was next.
The ninth-place finish matched the U.S. performance at the Los Angeles Games. The American men were 12th, and last, in Seoul and didn't qualify for Barcelona, and have not yet qualified for the Sydney Games in 2000.
The biggest U.S. handball victory until Friday was the gold-medal shocker over Cuba in the 1987 Pan American Games in Indianapolis. This was the Olympics, however.
So, where does team handball go from here in the states?
U.S. handball officials say that younger players must be recruited to the game. In conjunction with the U.S. team's pre-Olympic training base in Atlanta, a Cobb County middle school has started a program.
The U.S. women's team needs new talent. Of the 11 players who say they won't retire from the sport at the national level, only three will be younger than 31 by the next Summer Games.
``It's extremely important that our federation take responsibility for this sport and grow it,'' said Reita Clanton, a former Auburn basketball player who is likely to become the next U.S. women's head coach after serving as an Olympic assistant. ``It needs to be put into the American sports culture.''
LENGTH: Medium: 73 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. South Korea's Oh Seong-Ok gets a leg up on a Denmarkby CNBplayer while scoring a goal during the women's team handball
gold-medal game on Saturday. Denmark won 37-33 in overtime.