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1998 USA Team Handball National Champions!

Here is a brief recap of our performance in Atlanta:

10 Teams started in Division I, divided into two pools. Pool A contained Garden City, West Point, New York City, Atlanta Storm, and Carolina Blue. Pool B contained Ventura Condors, Cracovia Knight Magic, Cal Heat, and Carolina THC. The beginning of the tournament was Pool play with each team playing all others in their Pool.

Our first game was against Cracovia, a team of experienced europeans who we had never beaten. They played us tough and were leading at half but we were able to come from behind and win by one goal in the last minute 22-21. Next we played Cal Heat. The game was close in the first half but the team finally came together in the second half. We played nearly perfect and won 23-9. Against Carolina we were still playing great the first half and took a commanding lead. Our second half was sloppy but we held on to our large lead and won the game 22-8. The last game of Pool play was against Ventura, last year's silver medal team. We played poorly and lost 17-20.

Due to the tie breaker, we ended up in third place in our pool behind Ventura and Cracovia. We played Atlanta in the crossover game. It was a tough game and we trailed most of the way before coming back in the last five minutes to win 17-15. The semi-final was a rematch with the Condors. We played as a team and led most of the game. It was a much better performance than our first match. We won 27-19 which put us into the final against Garden City. West Point played Ventura for the bronze and ended up winning in a shoot out. They are graduating 12 players and should give us some fresh legs in the coming years.

The gold medal game against Garden City was a great game. We were relaxed and enjoyed ourselves throughout the game. Garden City led most of the way but we took the lead near the end and held on to win the Gold! Final score Knight Magic 19 Garden City 18. The tournament showed what we can do as a team, especially when we relax and play together. We had more come from behind wins than I can ever remember. Coming in early for two days of practice paid big dividends. Congratulations to Dave DeGraaf who was the tournament MVP. We missed those of you who couldn't make it and we hope to see you at CISM or next year as we return to defend our title.