Handball is not the best-known sport in Belgium, but some Belgians and their expat friends have found their way to the United Brussels Handball Club (UBHC), the only handball club in Brussels.
At the beginning of June, the club’s Under 14 team played their most important match of the season – the final of the Belgian championship! The Under 14’s have gone from strength to strength this year, winning their league, the regional finals and the Wallonian championship. While the team from Achilles Bocholt in Flanders claimed the title in the national finals, the players from Brussels can now also call themselves Belgian vice-champions.
Coach Lukáš Kunc (right) and assistant coach Clément Piermay (left)
Dominik Daniel (centre) and teammates in Prague
At the last practice before the championship match, coach Lukáš Kunc put his players through the final preparations. Kunc said:
“This was an excellent season and our team put in a huge amount of effort and deservedly reached the Belgian final. I am very pleased with the improvement of my players and their performance both in matches and especially during training sessions. It was a great pleasure for me to work with them and I am already looking forward to continuing our work next season.”
Dominik Daniel (14) has been playing handball for 6 years. Asked why handball is his favourite sport, he said:
“I started playing it when I was 8 years old because my best friends were involved in it, which made it a nice and fun experience from the start. Over the years, our coach’s help and our team’s dedication to hard training helped us build an incredible team. This sense of friendship and achievement, especially as we delivered outstanding results, made the sport even more special to me. Even when I faced challenges, like a knee injury this season, my ability to recover and to help my team succeed only strengthened my love for the handball and United Brussels HC. I would also like to add that this year our team took part in the Prague Handball Cup (PHC) for the first time. PHC is the largest international youth indoor handball tournament, which regularly takes place during the Easter holidays in Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic. Around 120 international teams competed in our age category, and it was a unique experience for our team. We all are looking forward to participating again next year.”
Dominik Daniel in action against Tubize
U14 players in action
The United Brussels Handball Club was created in 2011 by merging two Brussels-based clubs, the Amicale Handball Club of Schaerbeek and the Mouloudia of Brussels. The club’s activities are still centred around sports halls in the Schaerbeek and Evere areas of Brussels. The United Brussels Handball Club has around 240 members, of which about half are under 18. The members represent more than 20 nationalities, from Europe and beyond. The club’s vibrant international community welcomes boys and girls from all over Brussels to experience the fast and challenging sport of handball.
In Belgium, handball is organised by the Royal Belgian Handball Union, which has a French-speaking and Dutch-speaking wing. Leagues are organised for adults (men and women) and junior players. There are official matches for Under 12-, 14-, 16- and 18-year-olds, both for girls and boys. In the younger age categories, the teams can also be mixed. At the national finals taking place in June each year, the best teams from the two leagues meet and a winner is crowned.
Handball is a popular sport in many countries in Europe, including France, Germany, Spain, Czechia, and the Scandinavian countries. As a result, the United Brussels Handball Club draws many players and supporters from the expat community in Brussels. Through the joys and demands of team sports, children and adults form friendships across cultures and nationalities.
For more information about handball in Brussels and Belgium, you can visit: https://www.facebook.com/UBHC.Officiel/ and https://www.handballbelgium.be/
