Irish Daily Star - Inside Sport
WORLD IN HIS HANDS
Hero Eoin still spreading the handball gospel after travelling the globe playing the sport
EOIN KENNEDY was strolling down a dusty street in the Cuban town of Trinidad one day in 2013 when he heard a familiar sound.
The thud of a ball smacking off a wall, followed by the frantic patter of feet racing, then skidding on the concrete.
A two-time world champion with 32 All-Ireland titles to his name, he couldn’t help but break from his holiday to join in.
Some think of handball here as the poor cousin of the GAA sporting family — a sport that once was a wildly popular outdoor pursuit, before it retreated to i ndoor courts where i t shrunk again.
Across the world, however, the game is as big as ever.
It is played from the USA to Japan, from the Basque Country, where professional players earn big money, to northern Italy and, of course, Cuba.
Castleknock- born Kennedy has circumnavigated the globe picking up medals and memories. Last weekend he was in Maynooth to play his part in the sport’s resurgence here.
He took part in an exhibition game with Limerick footballer Seamus O’Carroll on one of two new outdoor one-wall courts at Maynooth GAA Club.
Afterwards, the 43-year- old reflected on a glittering career that brought him to some random spots.
“Cuba wasn’t a competition, I was just on holidays,” he told the Irish Daily Star.
“I was walking down the road and there was an outdoor three-wall court and there were some kids playing.
Fantastic
“I joined in and soon enough they went off and brought back all the adults to come and play as well. It was good fun.
“It’s mad. You can go to somewhere like Cuba, you’re walking down the road and you see a group of people playing handball. It was fantastic.
“They were playing with tennis balls, mostly. They were handy enough. They obviously played a lot.
“Their rules were slightly different. The version of the game they were playing was the same played in the Basque region of Spain.
“We went over in 2002 to play the Basques and they play with rock hard handballs. We’ve been over a couple of times there.”
The Basque version is one that can earn top players a lot of money.
“It’s a much bigger sport over there than handball would be here,” Kennedy explained.
“It’s on TV every second night, it’s one of the most popular sports there. It would be the equivalent of our football or hurling in terms of popularity.
“It’s professional. The top players would be on a couple of hundred grand a year.”
Would he have fancied a shot at becoming a pro in the Basque Country?
“Their game involves a very hard ball. We played a kind of compromise rules version when we went over,” Kennedy replied.
“So it is different enough that you’d want to be growing up immersed in it.
“It would be like shinty and hurling, that kind of difference. You could play, but to be at the top you’d have to have played their version growing up.”
As for his other travels, Kennedy said: “I remember going to Chicago when I was 14 to play in a tournament. That was my first international trip.
Seriously
“I didn’t win that year, but the following year I went to San Diego and won an Under16 US Championship. That’s when I started to take handball more seriously.
“I was in America countless times, all over the States. It’s a GAA sport here, but in America it’s a standalone sport.
“They have great facilities; they’d have clubs with 20 courts, because racquetball is very popular there too.
“I’ve been to Japan to play. I was in Canada, Spain and Italy too.
“I’ve had a lot of great opportunities to meet people and travel.”
He added: “Japan was great. I played a guy from California, Emmet Peixoto. They brought
the two of us over for a week and they brought us around the country.
“We played in Tokyo and Yokohama and a few other places; a few exhibition games. It was great, an amazing place.
“They were looking to grow the game there and they wanted to bring us over to show the locals how it can be played at a high level.
“We spent a week there and it was brilliant. We played two exhibition games and we did a couple of training sessions with a few different clubs over there.”
Kennedy has high hopes for the sport’s growth in Ireland.
“Those outdoor courts will make the sport visible to people once again,” he said, pointing to the Maynooth GAA Club facilities.
“When handball was an outdoor game back in the 1950s and 60s, it was really popular. But once it went indoors it becomes invisible to people. You’d be driving by courts and you wouldn’t even know they are there.
“I think the outdoor element will help it grow.”