Make a tea or grab an orange juice cause long post is coming. But keep reading, the boys I talk about are worth it!
I always talk about how much I love beach volleyball, how many tournaments I've seen so far or how fast my heart beats for the teams I support. This blog isn't only about beach madness, it's also about my craziness about other sports. Well, saying other sports could be way too much. Frankly speaking, there're only two disciplines I can watch and never get bored, what's more - only two which bring really joy to my life. The first one you know, the second one is... handball.
So dear kids, let me tell you a short story after which you'll see the world from completely different perspective. Just kidding, you'll just realize how crazy and beautiful handball is. And I. Not beautiful just crazy.
Generally everything started shortly after Bogdan Wenta (hope you know this guy, if not - google him!) had become a head coach of the national team. His charisma and the way the way he spoke to the boys just bought me, totally. I've been following every game of those boys since then and the hunger for seeing more has been growing till today, event by event. When the national season ended I kept digging and looking for more. I bet you know that feeling when you're so damn into something that you cannot imagine yourself doing something else. Handball became my addiction like the biggest drug.
It was (correct me if I'm wrong) season 2006/2007 when Wenta had taken SC Magdeburg under his wings. I had followed him then so thanks to the transfer I also started to follow SCM. What's more, Karol Bielecki, Bartek Jurecki or Grzesiek Tkaczyk- main players of the national team- also represented German club. Bundesliga became that one, main thing I watched all the time so I had an opportunity of seeing national team just cut into pieces. They were threw all around Germany, like Sławek Szmal in Rhein-Neckar Lowen or Marcin Lijewski in Flensburg so...they were just for the asking! Follwing the league had become my habbit and then the big times in the history of Polish handball happened.
Handball was said, and I think still kinda is, to be male sport but do/did I look like I care about this? Not really, that's why World Championships in 2007 which took place in Germany, were like a pure blessing for me. Being glued to the TV set like bristlenoses are to the fish tank was the most normal thing a teenage girl could have done, right? I soaked every second of that sick game. When on the January 22, 2007 we beat Germany and won the first place in the group the real madness was going on here! Boys advanced to the next level of the Cup, we had some troubles with France and won 28:27 with Russia. Not to mention amazing semifinal with Denmark! It was crazy rad! I still have goosebumps when I think about what happened on the January. Unfortunately, we lost in the final 24:29 to Germany but the pride I had was unmeasurable. Thanks to that tournament I was able to look at those boys from completely different point of view. Each of them was an inseparable factor of the team. Spirit they had, faith and support they shared between them was so damn visible that you could wear a glasses just to not get blind from it.
(Poland - Germany; pool-game)
(Poland-Russia; pool-game)
(Poland-Germany; final)
The Silver Boys made it to the Olympics in Beijing. We won the qualification tournament in Wrocław on the June 1st, 2008 so I took it as a birthday gift (I had bday 6 days later) and hoped for big things to happen that summer. The day the Olympic Games started was the day I also traveled to Croatia for holidays. I'm saying this not because I wanna tell you that Hrvatska is such a great place for vacation but to say that... that I took my TV set and set-top box just to watch my boys competing there in case they would not broadcast games of Poland in that beautiful country or my flat wouldn't have TV...
Ending up on the 5th place broke my heart and soul a bit. Losing 30:32 to Iceland was like a knife just into the middle of my chest. I remember exactly that after this game for the first and the last time I said I would not watch handball any more. Yup, I just hadn't seen the game in two days then. Just a year after the Olympic Games in China, we managed to win the bronze medal in Croatia. I could write a lot about that tournament but the last minutes of the game between Poland and Norway say everything.
I've make a shortcut about only three years, about only the beginning of history that has been being written since over a decade. I'm not doing this just to proudly show you my memory skills of remembering details of the games but I want you to change your attitude toward handball or make you fall in love in this sport just as I did years ago. I'm totally aware that many of you don't appreciate what those men do on the court, you don't see those fighters the way they should be seen.
I may sound brutal but I know the truth. I meet new people every day and I see their faces when they hear 'handball'. Spending some time on the court showed me how complicated&simply in one or how brutal but beautiful that game is. Hours in the gym and then many more in front of the TV or much muuuch more in the sport halls are the hours at which that group of badasses just bought me. By they way they play, the way they talk to fans or journalists, they way the act on the court just convinced me that my heart should beat stronger for them and for handball. I skipped many parts of the journey, especially the ones I cried a lot or when Bogdan Wenta stopped being a coach of the national team.
For over that decade I've seen hundreds of games and I've never regretted the time I spent in the trains, buses, cars. You know why? Because I know they will never let me down. Even if the result of the game isn't as we all want it to be I know&feel they did their best and literally left their hearts, health on the court. They made me cry many times and not every tear was the tear of happiness but this post can't be about tears. It has to be about passion. I'm not afraid or ashamed to say out loud that I love those boys, I'm kinda embarrassed (but still crazy proud) to admit that I was able to skip family ceremonies like weddings, birthday parties, anniversaries just to be in the hall 800 km from the place I live and support the team. I'm not mentioning the school or work days I just took off, because of the game dude. I know it's wildly terrible and maybe a bit sick but if I had been learning Serbian for 4 years just to talk to one person, why not to go to Hamburg to see my boys fighting like the biggest badasses on the planet? I just know they deserve it. One athlete once said that Polish national handball team is a bunch of total butchers and gladiators because they make their living by using their bodies on the court with an absolute awareness of getting injured. I couldn't say more. You simply need to have balls to play that sport! Now try to tell me they're not the he-mans and tough cookies... See? It's impossible!
It's not all about sport as you may think. They are just great guys with big hearts, I can't recall the time any of them said no when it came to the charity action, taking a picture with kids and fans, giving an autograph on a picture or... singing up a diploma as a birthday gift. Honestly, I think it's just a mentality they have. Eh... I'd spend hours if I wanted to write everything what I should have post here but I assume you're getting bored so... Maybe next time fellas!
Long story short. It was just an introduction to the things that are coming to appear here on the blog. I was thinking about it for a long time, I wasn't sure about writing a word how it started etc but frankly speaking, I have a dream of handball more appreciated, so the people who play it. Many of you are from the countries like US, where that sport isn't played and that's why I want you to get to it closer. Nobody said it would be easy but I like challenges and you'll have become the supporters of my boys till the August 5th. I can do it.
PS : Thank you all for all those nice comments, tweets and e-mails about the last two or three posts. I do appreciate your words and all love you sent me. I didn't even know there are people in Qatar,
New Zealand or Japan that read my blog. Thank you once again.
Xx
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