USATH Chairman continues meetings in Europe

USA Team Handball Chairman Dieter Esch spent the past week across the Atlantic collaborating with important members of the international handball community, and will continue meetings through next week.

Esch began his week by meeting with Zoran Gobac, Vice President of the Croatian Handball Federation and manager of RK Zagreb.

Esch and Gobac announced a partnership between RK Zagreb and the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Zagreb is 18-time champion of Croatia, two-time European Champion, and features some of the best players in the world in Ivano Balic, the Valcic brothers (Tonci and Josip) and the leading scorer from the 2009 World Championships, Kiril Lazarov. Pittsburgh boasts the United States' largest population of Croatians, so the pairing was a natural choice. USATH is working with Alex Hinsey and the University of Pittsburgh Handball club to build up handball in western Pennsylvania.

In Basel, Switzerland, Esch had dinner with Dr. Hassan Moustafa, the president of the International Handball Federation, and spent a day at the IHF lobbying on behalf of the new North American and Caribbean Federation, which will be voted upon at the IHF Extraordinary Congress in Rome, Italy, from April 23-25. He also proposed that the IHF recognize the Florida Cup as a Challenge Trophy event for Caribbean handball countries.

USATH's chairman also met with handball bloggers, players and engaged couple Jen Haubrich and Jordan Fithian over breakfast before heading to Germany next week. On tap are meetings with Gerd Butzeck, the president of the G-14, which represents the 14 most powerful handball teams in the world; followed by meetings with clubs of the Bundesliga, and the president of the Swedish Handball Federation.

See USATH Chairman Esch on the IHF website here.