THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, June 21, 1994 TAG: 9406210477
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY FRED KIRSCH, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: 940621 LENGTH: Long
``Team handball?''
{REST} Hey, Thornberry said the same thing several years ago when one of his professors at West Point suggested he take up the game.
``Team handball?'' says Thornberry, shaking his head. ``I thought he was talking about a bunch of guys hitting a little black ball off a wall.''
He was talking about a game that has been described as ``water polo without the water'' and ``sort of like basketball, soccer and lacrosse all rolled into one.''
About a game for guys just like Thornberry - 6-foot-6, 220 pounds, 6 percent body fat, 35-inch vertical jump, a slingshot for an arm.
Turned out the prof knew what he was talking about.
Earlier this month, the 21-year-old West Point grad from Suffolk left for Atlanta hoping to earn a spot on the U.S. Olympic team handball squad.
Team handball is not only the most misnamed game ever invented. It's also the best game Americans have never heard of.
``It's on TV for about 20 seconds every Olympic year,'' says Thornberry.
Though an Olympic sport since 1976, team handball, which was invented in Europe, is still only played by six colleges and maybe a dozen ``clubs'' around the country.
The game is played on a court slightly larger than a basketball court. There is a soccer-type goal at each end and seven players on a team, including the goalie. The game is divided into 25-minute halves. Teams average about 20 to 25 goals a game.
The ball is advanced by passing and dribbling with the object being to hurl a shot at upwards of 60 miles an hour into the goal, then high-five your teammates.
``When you stop your dribble,'' says Thornberry, who is forever explaining the game to people, ``you're allowed three steps before you shoot. Just like the NBA superstars get.
``The game's really got everything. Speed. Body contact. Great passing. Lots of scoring. I loved it the first time I played.''
When Thornberry, who was a basketball standout at Nansemond Suffolk Academy, was a plebe, his dream was to make the hoop team as a walk-on.
``I had an afternoon class and when I got to the gym, practice had started,'' he says. ``The coach told me if I was late, I had a bad attitude and might as well forget it. So I was a walk-off before I was a walk-on.''
A week later, Thornberry, a dean's list student, was trying to master team handball.
And learn the rules.
``You could say the first year I played `sparingly' '' he says. ``We were the best college team in the country.
``They used me as kind of a wide-body. I'd set screens to get other players shots. I scored a few goals.''
By the time he was a junior, Thornberry was rifling in about seven goals a game (that's like hitting for 25 in basketball) and earning a reputation as a guy you didn't want to trade elbows with.
``I still didn't have aspirations about being an Olympian or anything,'' he says. ``I felt I was just really learning the game. I didn't think I was that caliber.''
That changed last summer when he was invited to play in the U.S. Olympic Festival, a proving ground for would-be Olympians.
Thornberry, who played for the South, found himself going up against many team handball standouts from the '84 and '88 Olympics.
In one game, he found himself going against Darrick Heath, considered the ``Michael Jordan of the sport.''
Like many of the best team handball players, the 6-foot-4 Heath, who has a 43-inch vertical leap and 4.4 speed in the 40-yard dash, comes from a basketball background. Heath makes about $70,000 a year playing in a pro league in Europe.
Thornberry ``held him to something like 8 or 9 goals.''
``Which,'' Thornberry says with a smile, ``would be like holding Michael to 40.
``I thought, `If I can hold my own with these guys, maybe I should start getting serious about this sport.' ''
Thornberry returned for his senior year at West Point determined to take his game up another level. A rigorous weight training program reduced his body weight and added ``about five miles an hour to my shot'' which had goalies everywhere backing up.
Five times last year, he scored nine goals in a game.
It lead to an invitation to compete for a spot on the 16-man Olympic team. The U.S. men's team has never won an Olympic medal.
``I think I've got a pretty good chance,'' says Thornberry, one of 25 players trying out in Atlanta.
``But I need to improve my ball handling and get a lot more accurate on my shot. I might have good size and speed, but these guys from the '84 and '88 teams know the game inside and out. They make it look easy.''
If he makes the squad, Thornberry will spend the next two years playing in the U.S. and Europe getting seasoning.
``Just to make the team would be a thrill,'' he says. ``After that, maybe I could play in Europe if I'm good enough. I wish there were a league here.''
But it doesn't look like America is quite ready for the USTHL - United States Team Handball League. At least not yet.
``Right now,'' he says. ``I'd just like to help to make people in America more aware of what a great game this is.''
If he does, maybe one of these days people won't look at Michael Thornberry when he tells them what he plays and ask ``Team Handball?''
by CNB