Cetinje Handball

I love Men's Handball, called Team Handball in the United States to distinguish it from the game we play with hands only against a backboard.

The Cetinje Handball Team

Team Handball is like across of Waterpolo and Soccer, but on land, with your hands. It is played on a court about 10 feet longer and 5 feet wider than a basketball court. In fact, it plays (superficially) like Basketball. The differences are:

• No dribbling
• Three steps before you must pass or shot
• Contact is allowed (to a point - like Soccer)

I would like to live for a while in a city with team handball, it looks fun to watch. In fact I did watch it at Beijing Olympics. In fact (get this) I saw Iceland play Egypt in Beijing 2008. That Olympics is where Iceland won only its fourth summer olympic medal, this in Handball in Beijing. It was a blast to see that team. AND, I was wearing my Iceland Futbool jersey - so it was cool! (Yes, I had an Icelandic National Team Futbool jersey - don't ask me why.)

HC Lovcen Cetinje is the team from Cetinje Montenegro - the old capital (more on that in the next post). I think most handball is played from about September to April - with finals in May. That makes sense because it is an indoor sport and played in places with winters (Germany, Switzerland, Sweden and Norway among others). Anyway I would love to watch for a while and root for a team. Luckily they are all over Europe - except Britain and possibly Intaly.

I was reminded of handball when a Norwegian player came out last year, the first pro Handball player to do so.

You may (or may not) remember one of the handball players from Norway was an earlier Mascot of the Month. Kristian Kjelling. He is now a happily married man but I don't think the husband and wife have kids. Anyway, here he is from his prime, giving his best "Blue Steel Smolder".