2022 End of Season Awards

USA Team Handball is excited to recognize some of the individuals and organizations that made a difference last season by announcing the finalists and winners of the 2021/2022 Season Awards. 

 

USA Team Handball's Board of Directors formed a sub-committee to examine the over 180 nominations received and present recommendations for the entire Board of Directors to review and approve.

 

The sub-committee consisted of the following members. To avoid any conflict of interest, committee members nominated in a category did not participate in the discussion regarding that particular award.

 

Sandra De La Riva Repede (Independent Director)

Marianne Acker (General Membership Director)

Ebiye Udo-Udoma (Athlete Representative)

Martin Branick (USATH Staff)

 

USA Team Handball extends a sincere thank you to the winners, finalists, and the rest of the American handball community for all of their work in growing and developing handball during the 2021/2022 season.

 

USATH Coach of the Year

Winner: Martin Bilello

Excerpt from a nomination:

Leads and grows multiple emerging teams, including Men's Youth USA Beach Handball (in their first world competition), the new SJSU HB team, and Pioneer HS HB team (which just won the NorCal Beach cup) and the US Men's you indoor team.

Finalists: Edina Borsos, JD Orr, Robert Hedin

 

USATH Referee of the Year

Winner: Michelle Mensing

Excerpt from a nomination:

She has worked incredibly hard at multiple events across the country, and trained new referees. She has done this IN ADDITION to being the assistant coach of the women's beach team, and all of her other hard work in growing clubs. She is passionate about refereeing, and has a can-do attitude!

Finalists: Rafael Marques, Chris Kaciban, Cristina Molina Hidalgo

 

USATH Volunteer of the Year

Winner: JD Orr

Excerpt from a nomination:

Did absolutely everything possible to advance Team Handball in Ohio and America at large, [and] led the OSU Team Handball Club to their first-ever Collegiate National Championship final.

Finalists: Joey Williams, Bryan Cothorn, Missy & Alex Browne

 

USATH Men's Indoor Athlete of the Year

Winner: Rene Ingram

Excerpt from a nomination:

He pushed us to a new level all the way from juniors through seniors

Finalists: Andrew Donlin, Sean Starrett, Ian Hüter

 

USATH Women's Indoor Athlete of the Year

Winner: Sophie Fasold

Excerpt from a nomination:

First US National Player to play in the first Bundesliga in Germany. 

Finalists: Eden Nesper, Ariane Clerc, Kathy Darling

 

USATH Men's Beach Athlete of the Year

Winner: Ebiye Udo-Udoma

Excerpt from a nomination:

Ebiye exemplifies many of the good traits of the role model in beach handball. Beyond his skills and experience on beach, he also devoted hours of his time to train the next generations of beach handball players. He's the icon of this up-and-coming sport in the US.

Finalists: Cody Dominik, Andrew Donlin, Nicolas Fawzi

 

USATH Women's Beach Athlete of the Year

Winner: Christine Mansour

Excerpt from a nomination:

World Championship Top Scorer and World Games Best Pivot

Finalists: Missy Browne, Katiann Scherer, Ashley Van Ryn

 

USATH Club of the Year

Winner: San Francisco CalHeat

Excerpt from a nomination:

From spearheading youth development to winning the Elite Division, fielding four teams at Open Nationals, sending a team to Youth Nationals, and representing the US internationally at the Super Globe.

Finalists: Detroit HC, The Ohio State University, West Point Team Handball