As a continuation of yesterday's article, today we dive into the most recent events for beach handball, including the Irish Beach Handball Championship that took place last weekend. We'll explore past and present teams dedicated to improving their skills and participating internationally, and the contribution of the Meath Local Sports Partnership that have included beach handball in their events.
Until June, beach handball in Ireland was played by only one team, Boys in Green. The beach handball enthusiasts organized and funded fully their participation in international tournaments, representing Ireland on their own, with the acceptance of the Olympic Handball Ireland.
Although beach handball is a version of Olympic handball and falls under the jurisdiction of Olympic Handball Ireland, it has not been included in their official development strategies so far.
The Brazucas team recently joined beach handball, as the Irish Beach Handball Championship inspired them to create it and officially participate in the sport with a mixed group of players from various Dublin indoor handball clubs. Besides these, there are no official beach handball teams in the country. Other teams are typically formed temporarily for summer events, primarily for fun, including one team that is not based in the country.
Brass Bros BHC
The first Irish men’s beach handball team, Brass Bros BHC, was founded in 2017 by some members of the indoor men’s national team, most of whom were living abroad, and ended their activity in 2019.
The creation of the team was specifically for fun and international competition, rather than building beach handball in Ireland. Their debut in 2017 at the British Beach Handball Championship marked the beginning of their enjoyment of playing together. In 2018, they participated again in the British Championship and in the prestigious Camelot tournament in the Netherlands. They continued their activity in 2019, joining the Calise Cup in Gaeta, Italy, and securing third place in the British Championship.
A small effort by Olympic Handball Ireland, in collaboration with Chris O'Reilly, one of the founders of the team and who was working for the EHF at the time and still is, brought EHF Lecturer Tamas Neukum to Ireland for an introductory coaching course on Friday evening, August 9, 2019. Unfortunately, since the event was only announced a week beforehand, not many people showed up for different reasons, between them, the lack of promotion in advance of the event and short notice. The introductory coaching course was followed by the 1st Irish Beach Handball Open on August 10, 2019, which featured a few participants from the indoor handball clubs.
Even though Brass Bros BHC was initially formed only for fun and international tournaments, they proudly represented Ireland in a sport where the country previously had no international presence. Despite their participation, there have been no strategies in Ireland for promoting this version of handball actively and strategically.
Sandy Balls
Photo credit: Dublin International
The second Irish team, Sandy Balls, was officially founded in 2022 and ended their activity in 2023. This team was built on the foundation of the Dublin International summer beach handball sessions held before and after COVID-19.
With indoor activities restricted during the pandemic, beach handball became the preferred choice to unite the community and foster enjoyable play. Initially starting in 2019 at the time when Olympic Handball Ireland (OHI) was inactive and Brass Bros were abroad, their sessions featured a mix of players from various indoor handball clubs, inspired coach Tomas Martinonis to create a beach handball team outside the traditional indoor clubs, named Sandy Balls.
The primary goal was community unity, fun, and learning the rules as they played. Their presence on the beach not only sparked excitement but also welcomed other beach visitors into the handball community. It's worth noting that organizing these free sessions demanded considerable time and effort, without support from Olympic Handball Ireland or other clubs.
Despite Tomas's initiative to form teams across all clubs to establish a competitive league, it didn't materialize as hoped due to little assistance or enthusiasm from other clubs and OHI. However, in 2022, OHI initiated the first Irish beach handball championship where Sandy Balls (it was only men’s team), emerged victorious in both the 2022 and 2023 events. In their final year of activity, 2023, they also went abroad to Croatia, participating in the Jarun Cup and Opuzen Open alongside expatriate players.
Tomas prioritized enjoyment and inclusivity over strict professionalism, introducing rule variations to encourage mixed participation and dynamic play. While some tried to teach specific skills, fun remained the primary focus during their extended beach sessions. The idea was to attract people to the sport through enjoyment. However, due to the different perceptions of playing beach handball, instead of uniting the small handball community as originally intended from the very beginning, it became disjointed.
Tomas's conclusion remains that : "My idea was to get people to enjoy beach handball. That's why I had some variations on the rules, like if a woman scored, we counted it as 2 goals if the game was played in the mixed category. This way, guys had more intention to pass to the girls. Also, at least one woman had to play at all times. This way, you bend the rules, but at the same time, you make it more interesting for everyone.
I never intended to make it professional or go abroad like the guys are doing now. It was handball for all, for free. It doesn't matter if it's not done very professionally at the start. If we play handball in public and everyone can do it for free, that's great. But if you tell people straight away that they're doing everything wrong because professionals do it this way or that way, then you will lose people who can't spin or do kempas. If you have someone who can't spin and you tell them to spin, that's not going to happen. Similarly, if someone can't jump and catch the ball simultaneously, and you ask them to do so, they won't be enthusiastic about it. People need to feel comfortable trying new things on their own terms. If you force them, they won't return."
Boys in Green
The third team, Boys in Green, was founded this year, 2024. Ivan Vrnog, organizer of the Sandy Balls international tournaments in 2023 with ample experience in beach handball in Croatia at a time when the country embraced the sport early in the 2000s, and Balazs Bihari are now co-founders of Boys in Green. They chose to form their own team with an emphasis on the professional aspects of the sport for seniors.
They competed in the prestigious Jarun Cup in Croatia in May, the British Beach Handball Championship in June, and the Irish Beach Handball Championship last weekend, securing first place. They will conclude the summer at the Opuzen Open in Croatia from August 15th to 18th.
Brazucas Handball Team
A second beach handball team, created 1 month ago, is the Brazucas, founded in recognition of the large Brazilian community in Ireland, especially among indoor handball players. These players have extensive knowledge of beach handball, a sport widely practised in Brazil.
One of the founders, Felipe Almeida, said: “For a long time, we had the idea of playing together but never took the initiative. Together with Victor Ximenes, we formed a group with all the Brazilians currently playing or who have played handball in Ireland and presented the proposal to them. Everyone loved the idea. We initially set up a team to play in the Irish beach handball championship, but we dream of also participating in international championships because we have a total of 13 players, most of whom excel on the court."
At their inaugural local competition, they finished in 3rd place.
Another team worth mentioning is Niterói Beach Handball. Their story is a little more complex, and we've decided to dedicate a separate article to it, which will be published in the near future.
Since the first Irish Beach Handball Championship was organized in 2022, interest in the competition has declined among the indoor handball clubs, which have been the primary participants of the event. This decline is partly due to the decreasing number of indoor handball players, especially during the summer when many people are out of the country or taking a break from indoor handball. Additionally, the event announcements have not been made well in advance, further contributing to the lack of enthusiasm and participation. Such an event should be announced with ample notice to ensure proper promotion of both the sport and the event, allowing time for planning, participation, and organization. Typically, it is advisable to announce such events at least 3 to 6 months in advance. Announcing with less than 2 months' notice, as was the case here, is insufficient, as was proved the number of participants. For a sport that has not been widely promoted in the country and lacks development strategies, it is crucial to ensure the event reaches a wide audience through various channels to make it known by the population.
Olympic Handball Ireland had hoped that this year's event would attract “handball enthusiasts from across the country,” but this expectation was not met. Given the lack of nationwide promotion, it seems unlikely that interest in the sport will grow without substantial action and commitment from the organization itself. After 50 years, the Irish community still struggles to make the difference between Olympic handball and Gaelic handball, how could beach handball be better known without any promotion?
The insights shared by the EHF Beach Handball chairwoman, Gabriella Horváth, in the interview written in the article Exploring Ireland's Beach Handball Potential, underscore a crucial point: to grow beach handball, must build a community around it. This involves engaging not just with the indoor players—who are 99.99% immigrants and that are not remaining in the handball community for long periods—but also creating curiosity and promoting beach handball to the children around the country. This approach is key to fostering a vibrant and sustainable sport culture.
Despite the beach handball training sessions announced by Olympic Handball Ireland on June 12th, these efforts focused on preparing Dublin clubs for the local championship that happened on the weekend of 27th and 28th July, rather than raising awareness and promoting the sport more broadly. Consequently, these efforts did not result in a nationwide campaign to attract new players or generate public interest in beach handball. Instead, the focus remained limited to a few indoor handball members that happend to be in Dublin. There is needed a more inclusive and widespread effort to promote and develop beach handball and not only to create a social event for the adults for fun.
As mentioned above, the Irish Beach Handball Championship has been supported so far by indoor handball clubs since the sport is not promoted across the country and is unknown to the general population. Last year, the Belfast team, QUB Olympic Handball, was absent from this competition. This year, they managed to gather enough players for only the men's team, as the women's team lacked numbers even for indoor handball. Dublin City Handball, which was absent last year also, returned with both teams even so had fewer players compared to 2022. Dublin International participated only with the men's team, Astra with only the women's team, and Celtic Legends, a team created for international competitions, competed only with the women's team. Additionally, the beach handball teams Boys in Green and Brazucas were present. In total, there were three women's teams and five men's teams.
Astra took 1st place in the women's competition, followed by DCH and Celtic Legends. In the men's competition, Boys in Green secured 1st place, DCH 2nd, Brazucas 3rd, Dublin International 4th, and QUB Olympic Handball 5th.
Irish Beach Handball Championship 2024 (Photo credits: OHI, DCH, Brazucas, and QUB Olympic Handball)
Despite Olympic Handball Ireland describing the event on their official channels as a success, it was essentially a closed handball community event with limited engagement beyond a small circle of friends. The lack of broader marketing and promotion meant that the event did not reach or attract a wider audience. This limited exposure hindered the opportunity to create awareness of the sport and build a larger and more diverse participant base.
Olympic Handball Ireland has continued to collaborate with Meath Local Sports Partnership, where various sports are played on the beach, as indicated by recent online announcements. However, despite hosting its own senior Irish Beach Handball Championship for several years, there appears to be little effort to attract children to the Irish Beach Handball Championship and make it interesting for them too, and not only for the indoor handball seniors.
Given this, how many senior participants from this year's event will return next year, and how are they contributing to the future of the sport in the country? Furthermore, considering a broader perspective, how many participants from 2022 and 2023 returned this year, and how does this aspect affect the sustainability of such a championship?
To answer the above questions, we need to understand how effective the engagement has been in generating long-term interest and excitement for beach handball among children, as they are the foundation of any sport. Events organized by Meath Local Sports Partnership have introduced children to beach handball with Olympic Handball Ireland cooperation. To ensure that children see beach handball as a sport they want to pursue, it is crucial to integrate them into the community and create ongoing events tailored for their continued engagement. However, since its establishment in 2022, the Irish Beach Handball Championship has been exclusively for senior indoor handball players, with no vizible intents to include children. Additionally, the event has suffered from short notice announcements and a lack of overall promotion, which is expected from a marketing perspective to be done.
To ensure the growth and sustainability of beach handball in Ireland, a more significant effort is needed to engage the younger generation. Without attracting and nurturing young talent, the sport risks stagnation and limited participation in the coming years, as has been seen so far. Indoor handball has long faced similar issues by focusing only on senior players. Should beach handball follow the same path, or is it time to shift focus in the right direction, like other developed countries in the sport, and prioritize the younger generation?
Raising questions about the sport’s future and sustainability isn’t about having negative intentions, as some have perceived and influenced others to think. Instead, it is about addressing ongoing issues that have limited the sport to being merely a social gathering for senior indoor handball players, and emphasizing the need for a sustainable plan that includes engaging the younger generation.
The absence of the younger generation for three consecutive years and the short notice of the event highlight the need for a more strategic approach to ensure the sport's and event growth and sustainability.
The only recent actions taken directly towards the beach handball by OHI for beach handball enthusiasts occurred this year. They sent three members to the EHF Beach Handball Finals in Lacanau, France, from June 13 to June 16. One of the founders of Boys in Green, Balazs Bihari, attended the delegate course, while two active indoor handball referees, Teziko Bzhalava and Gela Gvelesiani, attended the referee course. However, without having the sport added to the board's agenda for development and creating proper awareness around the country with clear strategy and teaching others to referee, playing and coaching, how much can these members sent at EHF events can really do for Ireland? Would it just be a way to maintain an Irish presence internationally by sending them to different events and spending money?
What do you think? Should there be better promotion of the sport? How can the Irish Beach Handball Championship genuinely "bring together handball enthusiasts from across the country"? Are the efforts to date sufficient to engage a broader audience and foster long-term growth, or is it time for a new approach?
What is clear is that despite recent efforts on the field, beach handball in Ireland remains underdeveloped and insufficiently promoted. While every good intention deserves recognition, it is crucial to evaluate their effectiveness in achieving long-term success.
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