The Second Northeast League Tournament - New England Freeze getting closer to qualifying for the US Nationals
West Point, NY - December, 2009 - by M. Schwalbe
The second Northeast Handball League tournament brought us to The US Military Academy in West Point, NY. Army, a former national bronze medalist and many times the collegiate champion of the US, had had a bad start in the league and lost all three games in the first tournament ranking 4rth in the league. The New England Freeze, on the other hand, surprised everyone with a strong experienced team in the first tournament. With 2 wins against Army and NYAC, the Freeze ranked second going into the 2nd tournament. Based on the level of play at the former tournament, everyone's expectations for the tournament were no less than ‘spectacular'.
The first game for NEF was against NYAC. Once again, the Freeze started strong and got a fast 6 goal lead. After that, the New England coach started to rotate bench players, giving everyone a chance to get more game experience. Unfortunately, that backfired. A combination of hasty plays in offense and some communication problems in defense allowed NYAC to catch up, reducing New England's lea...[read more]
The New England Freeze makes a strong showing at the kick-off tournament of the the Northeast League
New York, NY - November, 2009 - by M. Schwalbe
The newly organized Northeast Team Handball League in the US will be divided into two Divisions. In Division A, the four competing teams are New York Team Handball Club, Army Black, New York Athletic Club and New England Freeze. The teams will play in four tournaments. The top two teams will proceed to the US Team Handball Nationals as the representatives of the Northeast region.
On Saturday, November 14, 2009, the league started with a tournament in New York City. New England showed up with a 19-player-strong team (2 goalies and 17 field players). Despite the difficultly in managing such a large group, the coaches managed to field a competitive team in each game.
The first game of the tournament was between NEF and NYCTH. The first half reflected the strong preparations of New England for the league. However, some of the shots were still not placed well enough, and too many balls were saved by the goalkeeper of NY, who was doing a great job in the goal. The first half ended with a 17:10 lead for NY. In the seco...[read more]
NE Freeze Men's team places 5th at the Tar Heel Invitational Tournament
Chapel Hill, NC - October, 2009 - by N. Shaar
After a 14-hour drive from Boston the New England team arrived in Chapel Hill, NC, at 2:30am on Saturday. With a total of only 9 players, including a field player as a goal keeper, everything seemed to indicate that the team was far from being ready for any competition, let alone something as intense as handball. If you know about the history of Boston, though, you would know that the Bostonian team was ready to brave any tedious obstacles, even the 3 games of 30min halves scheduled for the next day. Army Gold was kind enough to offer their second goal keeper for assistance, though.
In their first game, the Freeze took on the Tar Heels, a group of young players who are new to handball. The game was fairly easy for New England, who won the game 32-10.
After a break of 1 hour, the NE Freeze faced Army black. The Freeze led the score for most of the game finishing the first half by a 4-goal lead. However, Army, with their larger bench and fitter players, went on a streak of fast breaks that put them in the lead towards...[read more]