UA Hosts Team Handball Competition at Recreation Center

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The University of Alabama’s handball team will compete in and host the men’s west division of the Southeast Team Handball Conference’s competition at UA’s Student Recreation Center on Sunday, Oct. 28.

Team handball is a fast game between two teams of seven players. A team consists of a goalkeeper, circle runner, left wing, right wing, center back, left back and right back. Team handball at the collegiate level is played in two 25-minute halves-each with a five-minute halftime. Overtime periods and shootouts break ties.

Nine schools have men’s teams in the Southeast Team Handball Conference. Middle Georgia, Georgia Southern, Georgia Tech, Georgia State and UA all compete in the men’s west division. The men’s east division consists of The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Furman University, Benedict College and Lander University.

The University’s first game is against Georgia State University at 11:30 a.m. on Sunday. Alabama will also play Middle Georgia College at 2:30 p.m. Georgia Southern University and Middle Georgia College will compete at 12:30 p.m., and Georgia Southern University and Georgia State University will compete at 1:30 p.m.

Alabama (0-2, 0-2 SETHC-West) is led in scoring by U.S. national team member Eric Revord (7 goals per game), Ali Nawwas, a graduate student from Jordan (5 goals per game) and rookie David Foreman (1.5 goals per game). In goal for Alabama is David Thompson, who also is a member of the U.S. national team. Both Thompson and Revord represented the United States at the World Handball Championships in France in January. There are a total of ten new players on Alabama’s roster-many have no previous experience playing team handball.

The SETHC’s season began Oct. 13 at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Middle Georgia (2-0, 2-0 SETHC-West) defeated Alabama 25-20 and Georgia State 21-15. (Middle Georgia Head Coach Jim Parks is an alumnus of The University of Alabama.)

Georgia Tech (2-0, 2-0 SETHC-West) beat Georgia State 17-6 and Alabama 25-11. Georgia Southern (0-0) will open its season in Tuscaloosa.

Middle Georgia’s leading scorers are Darijan Sorensen (6.5 goals per game) and Ben Crexton (4.5 goals per game). Georgia State’s leading scorer is Ryan Hansell (4.5 goals per game).

A full UA roster can be found on the team’s Web site at http://bama.ua.edu/~yeage002/thb/.