Voici un article paru aujourd'hui dans le journal local (le Star Ledger) qui présente l'équipe de Plainfield dans laquelle joue Arnaud:
TEAMING UP FOR HANDBALL
This is not your father's handball game. Team handball is not played off a wall, and there's no small rubber ball involved. Perhaps the only thing team handball shares with that game is part of the name. First of all, team handball is played seven-against-seven, not one-on-one as with traditional handball. Secondly, the sport is played in an open space slightly larger than a basketball court. Confusion about the two sports is common.
"When I heard about it, I didn't want to come out for nothing," said Karl Hatten, 21, a recent Plainfield High School graduate who played football and basketball for the school. When he learned the game doesn't involve slapping a rubber ball against a wall, he gave it a try.
"All the jumping, it gets your adrenaline going," said Jared Cooper, a 17-year-old senior and basketball player at Plainfield High School.
Players dribble and pass an inflated ball the size of a cantaloupe up and down the court in hopes of firing the sphere into a soccer-type net guarded by a goalie. Defensive players help block shots, which must be made from behind the 6-meter line. Shooters have to re lease the ball before landing across that line.
One major plus: the sport is so obscure in America that players with little experience have made the U.S. national team, including a handful of athletes from Plainfield. "When somebody told me I could go to the Olympics -- I didn't look like an Olympian," said Frank Colabella, 35, who was a goalie on the U.S. squad from 1989 to 1991 but never made it to the Olympics. He now coaches a club team loosely associated with Plainfield High School.
elements of sports they already play -- basketball, football and soccer. "The majority of kids today plays those three sports and team handball is a hybrid," Colabella said. The team, called the New Jersey/Plainfield Team Handball Club, has excelled under the coach ing of Colabella and Laszlo Jurak, who coached the national team to the Olympics in 1972, 1976, 1984, 1988, 1992 and 1996.Two members on the current roster are also on the men's national team, two are on the men's junior national team, and one was invited to train with the women's national team. In addition to a shot at the Olympics, team handball keeps athletes in shape. "It keeps me basketball-ready," said Jillian Gordon, 17, on the sideline of a recent practice at the Plainfield High School gym. She is a senior and a center on the basketball team at Plainfield High School. She's the only female who trains with the team. Usually, the teams are not co-ed.
The sport is lightning-quick, with balls thrown toward the goal at speeds of up to 65 mph.
Players do not wear any padding. After one tournament, Cooper had a melon-sized bruise on his thigh from an errant shot, he said. Like soccer, each goal is one point. Scores can run into the 30s. Team handball is a club sport that is not recognized by the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. The Plainfield team is funded by the players, and the school allows them free use of the gym.
Besides the Plainfield team, the only other team in the Garden State is in Flanders. The paucity of teams has attracted numerous European players to the Plainfield team. At a recent practice, men from Hungary, Poland, France, Egypt, Spain and Germany jostled alongside Plainfielders.
Colabella started a team based in Plainfield while working as the athletic trainer at the high school. He now works for the New Brunswick school district, but still runs practices a few times a month. He hopes the fast-paced sport will give other athletes the same chances it gave him.
"What better way to get into the Olympics but to play team handball and let somebody throw balls at my face," Colabella said with a grin.
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