By Jackson Olsen

February 18, 2009 | Six students will represent Utah State University this week at the National Collegiate Handball Tournament held in Minneapolis, Minn.

The students, Zach Bateman, Brady Adams, Jackson Olsen, Kimball Burton, Josh Sharpe, and Krista Allen, are all members of the USU Handball Team, a product of the class offered by the HPER department.

"This is exciting," said Allen, a sophomore majoring in Exercise Science and the lone female of the group. "We’ve never been able to compete at such a high level. This is our chance to compete nationally and show how good the USU program actually is."

According to Ron Bachman, the team’s assistant coach, the USU Handball Club received an invitation from the United States Handball Association in mid-December to send a small group of qualified players. This was the first time since the class was established in 2001 that USU has been invited to participate in the national tournament.

Without a number set by tournament regulations, Bachman was faced with the dilemma of determining which students would attend. Bachman said that a campus-wide tournament was held at the HPER building during the month of January to decide which students would compete at the national level.

"We have several good players that take the class or that are veterans of the class. We just had to put everyone in a bracket tournament and let the best man win," Bachman said.

The team has competed at a number of tournaments, but never nationally. At the statewide tournament held annually in Salt Lake City, USU students have brought home first, second and third place trophies in both singles and doubles over the years. Bateman, a senior majoring in finance, won his division at last year’s state singles tournament.

"This is a great opportunity for us, but there’s no question that the competition is going to be tough," Bateman said. "I just hope we have a respectable performance. I don’t expect to win the [tournament], but I think we can turn some heads."

Over 200 male athletes will be competing at the tournament, while 50 female athletes will vie for the national championship. Bachman is very optimistic about Allen’s chance to do well in the tournament.

"I’ve never seen a girl play as good as Krista," said Bachman. "She’s so committed and dedicated. She practices hard every day. In fact, she ends up beating up on the boys in the class. There’s only a few who can beat her."

Allen, who only began playing the sport a year ago, already has a first place finishes at the state tournament in singles and a second place finish in doubles.

The team leaves for Minneapolis Wednesday morning and will immediately begin tournament play that evening. The tournament will conclude with the championship matches being played Sunday morning.

"Champions or no champions, I’m proud of our players for being invited to such a prominent handball tournament," Bachman said. "I know they’ll do well."

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