My younger son does A LOT of sport at school (unlike his sister). Throughout the winter, games lessons mean rugby, but they also have PE lessons. PE varies a bit – they do gymnastics and various other sports. This year, they started playing handball.
I don’t know much about handball at all. It’s an indoor team game, which has similarities to netball and basketball, although they shoot into a goal rather than a net.
My son is one of these kids who is generally good at sport. Running, kicking, throwing, catching, he just seems to have it sussed. He can adapt easily to most sports. Before I knew it, my son had been selected for the handball team. Admittedly, the handball team bore more than a passing resemblance to the rugby A team.
So in addition to rugby training, they had handball training one lunchtime a week.
They were training for a handball tournament.
They won the district tournament, against other schools in town. Then it was on to the county tournament.
His school has its own sports Twitter account, which I like to stalk when my son is playing in a rugby tournament. I knew he’d won the district handball tournament before he told me, thanks to the Twitter account. I spent the day stalking it for news of the county tournament, but they didn’t upload it.
When my son got into the car, I asked how the tournament went.
He made the sort of non-committal grunting sound that teenagers are so good at.
‘So you’re not through to the regional final, then?’
Another grunt. And then a big grin as he pulled out the medal. It was gold. He wasn’t being a grumpy, noncommittal teenager after all, he was just having a little joke.
They won the county tournament in style. Apparently they did so well that they’d already won it before they even got to the final. And, even better for my son, he had scored a goal. He’s an awesome goalscorer in football, but doesn’t score many tries in rugby, so to score in the handball tournament was a really big achievement for him.
Now it’s on to the regional finals. And, if they win that, the national finals!
I’m so proud and excited for my son and his team.
Needless to say, I wanted to include a photo of the medal with this post. I haven’t seen the medal since he showed it me in the car. Goodness knows what he’s done with it!
April 21, 2017
Oh gosh, well done to him! I’ve heard of handball but I have no idea what it is. How brilliant to be doing so well at a sport he’s only just started playing.
Nat.x
April 22, 2017
Thanks very much! He’s obviously got a bit of an aptitude for it – along with the rest of the team! 🙂 x
April 21, 2017
Well done your son and his team! I have heard of handball but have never heard of it played in schools x
April 22, 2017
Thanks very much! There’s probably not many schools play it, but there must be enough of them to make up this national tournament! x
May 1, 2017
Wow that’s good going for only recently starting it. Sounds like they’ve obviously got an interested coach come in. Exciting times getting to the regional stages.
Thanks for linking up to #SchoolDays
May 3, 2017
Thanks very much! Their coach is just one of their regular PE teachers, but their PE teachers are amazing and seem to really go above and beyond for the kids and it shows in all their sporting success.