(Pictures and Story by USHandball.org)
Plans are being made for 2020 National Four-Wall Singles and Doubles events in Fall.
From USHA President LeaAnn Martin:
We have some breaking news to share with you. Over the weekend, the USHA Executive and Budget Committees met to discuss options and plans in lieu of the current coronavirus pandemic.
The University of Minnesota, the site of our 2020 Four-Wall Nationals, will be closed through June. In addition, travel restrictions and concerns for everyone’s health has now necessitated the postponement of our Four-Wall Nationals scheduled for June 10-14. We still endeavor to have this event because we do want to crown our 2020 national champions.
As you know, the National Masters Singles and Doubles Championships were postponed. We’ll be working with the Masters Singles host in Nashville to host the National Singles and the Masters doubles host in Schaumburg to host the National Doubles. The USHA National singles and doubles events are now planned for the Fall of 2020 and would bring handball players two great events to train for, as soon as that’s possible.
In the past, the USHA board has discussed splitting the Four-Wall Nationals into separate singles and doubles events. That concept had been proposed before and we were prepared to do that if, due to lack of courts, no host site was able to hold the combined event. Because of the pandemic, the time has come to implement the split. This is for several reasons. First, it will be nearly impossible to find a site to host the large combined event this coming fall. Universities are not able to have events during the academic year due to high student use (and funding) of campus recreational spaces. Other non-university facilities are not able to host because of limited courts, local support, and other administrative issues. Where does that leave us? Again, our goal is to be able to crown 2020 national champions. We will be looking at options, but realistically, the singles and doubles will be separate events, whatever we are able to have will be in the fall, and we may need to combine with another smaller event.