Aggie handballer takes divison II national top spot
Last year at the U.S. Handball Association National Collegiate Championships, then-USU junior Becky Drebin was allowed to play in the championship match on a Saturday night rather than on the following Sunday.
USU handball coach Herm Olsen said, “In two past events, the other team has accommodated us and agreed to play the championship match on Saturday night. It was really very, very kind of them to accommodate our schedule, and in both of those cases, we won the national championship.”
This year was different, however. Drebin is now president of the handball club. She was placed in a more advanced division and went to work, defeating three straight opponents. After Drebin defeated her opponent from the University of Florida in a semifinal match for her divisional playoff, she attempted to contact her opponent in the championship in order to request a Saturday Night match, but her opponent could not be found.
“The teammate that we’d talked to said that she’d gone off to do stuff with her family that day,” Drebin said. “He wasn’t willing to contact her or go get her. I was hoping I would play that night, but she was gone. It didn’t work
out.”
Rather than play for a national championship in handball on a Sunday, Drebin opted to forfeit, allowing Charlotte Mark of the University of Texas to take the title by default.
Drebin said it is because of religious reasons that she opts to not play sports on Sunday. She said the experience of refusing to change those beliefs in the face of losing out on a championship is an experience she’s never had before. She also said she doesn’t regret her decision.
“As important as nationals might be, it’s not nearly as important as sticking with what I’ve said I’m going to do and not do,” she said. “It’s just the first time that it’s every really been an issue, so it’s the first time that I’ve been able to say that I stood up for what I think is right. It’s frustrating, but kind of fulfilling at the same time.”
Her teammate and runner-up in the second division bracket, Kimberly Butcher, says she supported Drebin’s decision to not play and doesn’t harbor any hard feelings for potentially hurting the team.
“That’s what her standards are, to not play on Sunday,” Butcher said, “and she stuck to it. You don’t lower your own standards for certain things. You just keep them for yourself.”
Drebin says that support is extremely valuable to her.
“It’s really important to me to know that the team stands behind me,” she said. “As the president of the club, it’s good to know that people support me. But president or not, knowing that the team supports their players is good to see.”
Drebin said that support carried over to her teammates as well. USU fielded a team of eight men and three women for the handball championships that took place on Feb. 23 in Tempe, Ariz. Olsen said the Aggies had a strong showing from both the men and the women.
“We had one young lady win the national championship in her division,” Olsen said, referring to Shayla Sadderwhite, who won a division II title. “Nationally we took third place. This is over some schools that are much larger than us. Some schools had more than 25 players there. The Irish team sent 33 kids to play in this tournament. We really had a great tournament.”
One potential weakness of the USU handball club is its youth and inexperience. Drebin was the only Aggie to compete in division I. All other Aggies competed in division II. Sadderwhite and Butcher competed for a division II title against each other in an all-Aggie championship and Ryan Campbell advanced to the quarterfinals of his division.
Olsen said he was impressed with how USU handled the competition.
“You could see dramatic improvement in many of their games as they played in this tournament, and it’s the very first tournament some of them have played in,” he said. “Butterflies, yes. Anxiety, yes. Determination, yes. Utah State can be proud of the way they presented themselves on and off the court. They were great.”
– la.hem@aggiemail.usu.edu