On the eve of our most patriotic weekend, it was exciting to announce this week our candidates for the U17 National Team Selection Camp in Colorado Springs.  A total of 48 boys and girls, ranging from 13 to 19 will convene in Colorado Springs on August 2nd and scrap for slots on National teams that will represent the USA in Brazil from September 8-12.  Four more girls are still to be named.

This selection culminates a process that started immediately last fall when USA Team Handball assumed the reins of this sport.  How do we identify young players, get them hooked on handball at a sufficiently young age that they will be experienced veterans by the time they reach their athletic peak and send them off to Olympics to compete?  Morgan Thorkelsdottir's mom found us.  Our second youngest female, Morgan has already represented Iceland internationally at the U15 level, but was born in Atlanta and is likely coming home soon to the USA to live permanently.  She'll bring international composure, handball experience and height to our program.  She's at the Partille Cup as we speak. Sophie Fasold is similar - she's been living and playing in Germany but has spent a significant portion of her childhood in Texas.  Chicago's Yana Lysenko recently moved here from Russia and comes highly recommended by Chicago Inter's Felx Murokh, who has coached that club to two national championships.  And then there's the yeoman's work of Kathy Rex.  The 1988 Olympian has created a program in Colorado Springs with dozens of boys and girls playing at elementary, middle and high school levels.  The Landsharks have competed in College Nationals as part of College Select, scrimmaged Air Force and Denver Team Handball, and are headlining the California State Games competition in two weeks.  In short, they'll go anywhere to play anyone.  Some of them will head to Brazil with us in September - and I expect that some of them will take the court for the USA during 2011 and 2015 Olympic qualifying!

On the boys' side, we are seeing the first fruits of concerted efforts to assemble youth teams at Nationals in May.  Polish Folklore, Victorious Secret and Minnesota Team Handball all placed players in the Boys' selection camp.  Thanks to the players, parents and coaches who have chosen to pursue handball, even though they're also on track for college scholarships in soccer, basketball or other sports.  We also welcome Devin Holman, Victor Davila and Thomas Duringon - all of whom have high-level international experience at the youth level, but want to wear the red-white-and-blue.  We're thrilled to have several alumni of Cobb Cup, Rock Handball and various Atlanta youth programs thought to be dead.  Robert Mayfield, Chris Cappelmann and Darrick Heath are among several prominent Atlantans helping us get those programs back on track.  Marko Brezic helped us identify two young players from Utah.  Steffen Rupp is sending us Carlos Rosas from Casa Familiar's club team in San Ysidro, California.  Evan Sundermann in Dallas has been working out with Dee Miller for months now, long before she launched DFW Team Handball officially this week. We're indebted to Landsharks in Colorado Springs, which placed six players on the initial 24-player roster; and four more who have been invited even though we've exhausted our dorm space at the Olympic Training Center.  Our goal is truly "national" teams.  This camp is step one in the right direction.

Finally, in both genders, you'll notice a few overage players.  We've invited some players who just missed the age cutoff to provide experience and size for our U17 players as we train.  Expect to see us train our kids against older competition frequently - it's a key aspect of accelerating development - and great experience for the Junior National Team prospects as well.

I hope you sense our excitement.  We wish all participants the best of luck.  Watch this space for more updates.  Have a safe and happy holiday weekend!