Part One

Bring Andebol TV

to the USA

Campeonata Alacara - ’25-’26

12 Division One Men's Teams

The Andebol I leagues, consisting of 12 men’s teams, called Campeonata Alacara, and 10 women’s teams, called Campeonata Nacional La Feminina. Everyone of these games, both men and women, are broadcast live and on demand on Andebol TV, with one camera coverage, a graphic scoreboard for the game clock and scores and no announcers. AHA proposes to take a feed from Andebol TV directly from the production truck on site for the game, perhaps add a second camera and pregame/wraparound segments, along with an American play-by-play announcer well versed in the lineups and pronunciations of the assembled teams and players. The games would be offered on a “Game-of-the-Week” basis, rotating to each of the locations throughout the country, with each game offering a glimpse at the city in which the games is played through interviews, roll-in segments and drone shots, hopefully creating a sense of “handball tourism”. The advantage of the Portugal league is the proximity each team has to the others, with no team more than a two hour drive from another, the exception being the Maderia Island teams, which require a boat or plane ride. In the Porto area alone, 8 of the 12 men’s Andebol I teams are within a 45 minute drive from each other so coverage costs, particularly with Portugal’s cost of living, are minimal.

Campeonata Alacara - ’25-’26

10 Division One Women's Teams

Javier Garcia Cuesta is one of the most noted players and coaches in handball history, having played professionally for various first division Spanish handball clubs as well as the 1972 Spanish Olympic team.  He then went on to an illustrious coaching career, becoming only person in the history of the game to be the head coach of national teams on four different continents, beginning as the head man for the USA Women’s team in 1980, followed by the 1984 USA Men’s Olympic coach, the Spanish men’s national and Olympic team coach, the Portuguese men’s national team coach, the Egyptian men’s national team coach and the Brazilian men’s national team coach. In 2024, he published a book called 50 Years in the Sport, which includes a plethora of strategic and tactical information about the game, as well as his personal history. AHA Creative Services Director Mark Wright had planned to meet with Javier in Gijon, Spain, in October, 2025, to continue Zoom discussions around creating the Academy.  Sadly, the meeting was not to be.  Javier, already in poor health, fell at home and passed away in September.  It is now our hope to persuade the heirs of Señor Garcia Cuesta estate to attach his name to a handball academy we intend to establish in Porto by which American citizens (and citizens of the world) can learn to play, coach and referee the game. We would hope as well to use the material laid out in his book as the basis for the development of content for the Academy,  and contacts he was willing to share to help establish a faculty.

Part Two

Create the

Javier Garcia Cuesta Handball Academy

The mission of the Javier Cuesta Garcia Academia de Handebol would be to provide training in all practical aspects of the game of handball. The curriculum for the academy would be developed with two delivery portals in mind, in-person and on-line training. Much of the pure content will be the same but each portal has its own advantages to which developers must pay heed. Content will be developed first with Señor Garcia Cuesta (assuming an agreement is reached), then broken into a learning design that supports both delivery portals. A main learning designer will work with Señor Garcia Cuesta first and other developers might be brought in at a later time to develop material for testing with both players and audiences. Considering the source of the material and the location of production, it would be wise to consider the creation of Spanish and Portuguese versions as well. The intent is to create with the Academia’s arena not only a first class competitive field of play but as well a TV and video production studio for live streaming and highly effective digital training.