They came in like a handball: UNC hosts national handball championship

The Carolina Team Handball Club is hosting the 2016 College National Championships this weekend. 

Nick Colaianni, a member of the UNC men’s handball team, said UNC had to submit a bid in order to be considered to be the host team. He said when the two schools ahead of UNC were unable to host, UNC was selected to host the championship. 

“We’re very excited about it. It’s definitely not something we’re disappointed about,” he said.

Colaianni said 14 teams will be competing, including James Madison University, Ohio State University and the U.S. Military Academy. 

Nick said the last time UNC hosted the championship was 2013. He said this time, the team has a very good chance of winning.

“It means a lot to a lot of us. We have six seniors on the team right now,” he said. “We’ve played with each other since the beginning of our freshman year.”

Joshua Mcclenney, president of the UNC men’s team, has also been a member since his first year at UNC. 

“It seems like we’ve come full circle," he said. "It’s really exciting with the talent we have that we get to play in front of our home crowd."

Colaianni said handball is not very popular in the U.S., and there aren’t very many schools that have handball. Senior Danielle Eustace, president of the UNC women’s team, is optimistic about the sport’s future.

“It’s definitely a growing sport,” she said.

Eustace said she became involved as a first-year.

“I played soccer my entire life and decided to do something else. So I utilized the opportunity at UNC to learn a completely new sport," she said.

“I was absolutely terrible at it at first, but fell in love with the people involved.”

All three said handball is fast-paced and very physical.

“In my opinion, it’s a combination of a lot of American sports people like to watch,” Eustace said.

“We’re really excited about having the pro-UNC environment and having that work to our advantage in the competition, and hopefully bring back a couple of national championships to Chapel Hill,” Eustace said.

university@dailytarheel.com