The (Minnesota) State of Handball

Welcome to the 2003 handball season. Enclosed with this newsletter are entry forms for the three 2003 MSHA sponsored State Championship Tournaments. Handball has a tremendous amount of work ahead of itself. This is the first full year in which the greatest push to create new handball players will occur. This push for new players will not feel like a push after awhile. It will simply be the way it is. It will be like the pursuit of good health. You are never done. It is a life style. In our particular situation, our pursuit of health will be the promotion of handball on a never ending basis. Our goal is to instill this concept into the minds of all handball players.

In the last MSHA newsletter, we mentioned that the University of Minnesota is looking for volunteer handball instructors to teach handball in Physical Education courses. A few gentlemen stepped forward for this mission. This is important because this will increase the number of individuals that are exposed to handball on a regular basis. As mentioned before, students from a class are much more likely to stick with handball after the semester is over because of the requirement of attending the class. Over the period of fifteen weeks, some individuals will find the sport very appealing.

There may also be some changes in the membership structure at the University of Minnesota Recreation Center. Currently, one must be a student, faculty, staff, or alumnus in order to have a membership at the Rec Center. In the near future, we hope to see their doors more open to the handball playing public. More handball players in the facility would create an atmosphere of handball intensity. This is a feeling that use to exist at the Midway YMCA and the Minneapolis Athletic Club. It is important to revive a feeling that “This is the place to be” if you are a handball player.

Make sure your plans include the United States Handball Association pro stop #6 on April 25-27, 2003 at the University of Minnesota Rec Sports Center. In conjunction with the pro stop will be a multi-division singles tournament open to any USHA or MSHA player (must be a resident of MN to be in the MSHA.) The top MSHA finishers will be recognized and recorded as 2003 finalists. Placement will be determined in accordance with the traditional top-ten process.

Participate in this year’s 2003 State Championship Tournaments and help to restore the shine to the Minnesota state handball community as we build for the future.