New programme bringing handball to New Zealand schools

Hundreds of New Zealand school students will soon be playing handball as part of their PE classes, thanks to a NZ Handball Federation programme using portable goals from Packaworld International.

The initiative will see the goals supplied to selected schools in Auckland, Christchurch and Dunedin. It will expand on the current programme, which has been successfully running in Wellington.

NZ Handball Federation president Mike Roxburgh said the new goals were purchased with the help of a grant from One Foundation to help grow the sport.

He said the NZ Handball Federation was aiming to have 5,000 registered players within the next five years, but a lack of goals and equipment had limited that growth in the past.

The One Foundation grant covered the cost of new balls, as well as the goals, and they too would be supplied to schools as part of the programme.

“Handball in New Zealand is often played with little more than tape on a wall to mark a goal, or other makeshift arrangements. It’s always good for players to be able to use a real goal and it’s helpful for goalkeepers’ skills too.”
Handball was “massive” in Europe and South America and hotly contested at the Olympics but was still in its growth phase in New Zealand, Mr Roxburgh said.

New Zealand children often grew up in the outdoors and had good base skills for handball because of their upbringing playing sports like rugby, netball, football and basketball.
“Kids that aren’t enjoying other mainstream sports often like handball. It can be played indoors, or outdoors on a field or beach, and there are opportunities for those who excel to compete internationally as part of New Zealand age group and men’s and women’s teams.”

The New Zealand men’s and women’s handball teams travelled to South Korea last year to compete in the Asian Handball Championship for the first time. The New Zealand men’s beach handball team has also been making good progress, travelling to Russia last year for the team’s first ever World Beach Handball Championships.

“We are starting to make an impact internationally and I hope one day we will make it into the Olympics. Funding is always a challenge, but there’s so much potential in this sport,” Mr Roxburgh said.

Packaworld chief executive Peter Roberts said it was fantastic to see the goals playing a part in the growth of handball in New Zealand.

“We’re pleased to see our goals helping to bring handball to New Zealand school children. Many schools lack the storage for heavy metal handball goals, so having high quality inflatable goals that can be packed away easily and transported to tournaments or one-off events is an ideal solution.”

What is handball?

Handball is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each pass a ball using their hands with the aim of throwing it into the goal of the other team. A standard match consists of 30-minutes halves, and the team that scores more goals wins.
Handball is played in more than 180 countries. It is estimated that there are around 30 million registered players in the world and approximately 800,000 teams.

For more information about our portable handball goals visit the Handball Packagoals page of our website>>