HSV Hamburg's thrilling overtime victory over Rhein Neckar Lowen in the final of the Lufthansa Final Four was the highlight of a jam-packed five days in Germany and Denmark this past week.

USA Team Handball Chairman Dieter Esch, board members Ralf Uhding and Jeff Utz (also president of Salt Lake Handball Club), new Chief Marketing Officer Greg Myers, and I participated in three days of matches and five days of meetings. Hamburg, the host of the Final Four, prevailed on the backs of performances from international stars including Pascal Hens, Igor Vori, the Lijewski brothers and goalkeeper Johannes Bitter.  Bitter and Hens are expected to join the German National team in the Battle of Chicago  on July 17, where they will confront the Lijewskis (along with RNL's Karol Bielecki and Slawomir Szmal) of Poland. 

We spent several hours off the court with members of HSV Hamburg's administration, mapping out plans for Germany's reigning Cup champions to lend technical, sponsorship and other support to Chicago's growing handball programs. 

I caught up with VfL Gummersbach's Jorg Lutzelberger, a defensive specialist who drew the daunting assignment of shutting down RNL's 6-foot-8 Bielecki in a 5-1 defensive scheme.  Lutzenfelder was the MVP of the Big Apple Tournament in New York in January and can't wait to come back in 2011. 

At SportFive's gleaming offices in Hamburg, we discussed television (Poland, Germany, Middle East and USA), sponsorship, ticket sales for the Germany-Poland match in July.  All systems are go! We met with representatives from other partner clubs including Lemgo, Berlin Fuchse and Dusseldorf.  We hope to see substantive progress with all club partnerships, including the first American player(s) signing with them. 

Sponsorship conversations included companies like Toyota, Lufthansa and the Burda Media group. 

We spent Monday and Tuesday in Denmark.  USATH board member Heins Kart Pedersen met us in Bjerringbro where we toured Grundfos and met with Global Marketing Chief Kim Klaustrup.  We are optimistic that Grundfos will continue its support of USATH through at least 2013. Bjerringbro is a town of 7,000 people - with more than 4,000 of them working for Grundfos.  We met with representatives from Bjerringbro-Silkeborg, the regular season Danish champions (with a mark of 25-1!).  We agreed on a partnership in principle to pair Bjerringbro-Silkeborg with the Salt Lake Handball Club.  We also toured the youth club, community handball center and Gymnasium (a college-prep high school) and in all cases found parties extremely willing and motivated to host American exchange students.  Bjerringbro, by the way, has 50 handball teams! 

On Tuesday, we huddled with hummel, a company with nearly 90 years invested in handball and soccer.  We're lobbying hummel to become the USA's exclusive apparel and equipment sponsor, and expect an answer in the coming days.  Their hospitality was superb and their range of product exciting.  Keep your fingers crossed. 

Finally, on Tuesday night, we attended the benefit match for HSV Hamburg and German National Team player Oleg Velyky, who lost his battle with cancer earlier this year.  Hamburg played the German National Team, preceded by an "old-timer's team" against a local Oberliga club, SG Hamburg Nord.  In an incredibly touching evening, the game raised more than $250,000 for Velyky's wife and son, who were in attendance and serenaded by a two-minute long standing ovation following the games. The veterans' team included Stefan Kretschmar, Ljubomir Vranjes, Lemgo GM Volker Zerbe, USATH board member Ralf Uhding and guest players including the world's 5^th-ranked heavyweight boxer, Alexander Dimitrenko (29-1 as a boxer, but 0-for-3 from seven meters in this game!).