The USA referee pairing of Lars Jedermann Jorgensen and Christian Posch are one of 16 referee couples at the IHF Junior Men’s World Championship in Brazil.
With the tournament acting as a developmental competition for players born in and around 1994/95, the next generation of international players get to experience and learn about the global playing experience both on and off the court.
But Brazil 2015, like all other IHF junior and youth tournaments, is not just limited to players gaining crucial experience - IHF delegates, table officials, volunteers, competition managers and a whole of others get to cut their teeth at an international tournament.
One of those other groups is referees, and both Jorgensen and Posch are gaining further experience in their refereeing careers having taking charge of five games at Brazil 2015 including the 15/16 Placement Match between Norway and Russia.
Posch, who was born in Vienna, Austria, moved to the United States in 2011 and Jorgensen, born in Kolding, Denmark moved there in 2008 - both moved for work purposes and had handball as the common language when they arrived.
“I had played handball and refereed for a long time in Europe and one of my ways into the community in the United States was through handball,” explained Christian.
“It’s a rather small community, so when I first got to San Francisco I reached out to the local handball team which consisted of mainly 80/90% expats at the time, mainly from Europe.”
Lars, who moved to the United States with his job at Danish freight-forwarding and international logistics company, had a similar experience.
“I first moved to Houston, Texas and like Chris, I wanted to continue with the sport I had been involved with back home,” he said.
“The community was not that big in Texas when I arrived, but I met a few people and slowly got more active.
“There was one club there already (Houston Firehawks) and a year later two Danish guys and I founded another club - the Houston Vikings - and tried to get more Americans into it.”
Teaching a so-called ‘foreign’ sport to Americans gradually brought both the referees together, as both went to the 2012 USA Team Handball Club National Championships, held at the University of Minnesota in May of that year.
“I got called up for the nationals because they were low on referees and they somehow heard I was playing and refing in San Francisco,” explained Chris, who works in medical and biological research, specialising in skin cancer research.
“They heard I was a recognised referee in Austria and said that they could always use referees, so we got my references from Austria and I went.”
“I was there officially,” said Lars about the Minnesota championships. “Shortly after arriving in the United States, in November 2008, I was trying to find something and I reached out to Martin Gjeding and Mads Hansen (IHF referees) to see if there was anyone I could contact.
“Eventually I made contact with the USA Handball Federation and Tugomir Anusic, their Chief of Refereeing asked me to take a spot on their national referee committee.
“In 2011 I then went to whistle at the IHF Trophy in Mexico,” continues Lars. “My partner was a guy from California, but he did not meet the age requirements to pursue an international referee pathway under IHF and I was told if I wanted to do anything with my career I would have to find another partner.
“At the time it was difficult to find players and even more difficult to find referees in the USA - then, out of nowhere, Chris popped up. I found out about him halfway through the Minnesota tournament and we had one game together and it went well.”
The pairing seemed a perfect fit and their progression through to the international arena started with Pan American Championship for Youth and Juniors in Mar del Plata, ARG, with was part of the global referee training program of the IHF (GRTP). There they gained their continental badges.
“Our next tournament was a continental final in Guatemala for the IHF Trophy in 2013,” said Lars, who started refereeing after giving up competitive sport at 19 years old when he sustained a groin injury.
The couple then whistled at the Intercontinental IHF trophy in Monterey, Mexico before gaining a place on the second IHF Global Referee Training Programme in March 2014 held in Buenos Aires. At the Pan American Youth Championships in 2014 they received their IHF refereeing badge - but more was to come as when they arrived home in the USA, they had an invite waiting for them; for the IHF Women’s Youth World Championships to be held in FYRO Macedonia.
“We were lucky,” said Chris about the invite. “We had the perfect preparation for our first World Championship as we had the Men’s Seniors Pan American Championship in Uruguay just before - it was a very nice opportunity to train and get some more games in our legs before.”
Having met as fans of the sport, less than two years later, the unlikely couple, whose paths had crossed with that common love took charge of a World Championship game for the first time - the match was Angola vs. Japan.
“We had always thought about representing the US at a World Championship but we didn’t fully believe it could happen to us,” said Lars. “But then it became real - it was a really cool experience, we came in as the new “exotic” guys, but were very nicely welcomed by the entire group; we had a fantastic three weeks.”
“All we had heard from people was that you get all these pieces of wonderful adidas gear and get fully equipped,” jokes Chris, “the most common question we got was; ‘you guys are from the United States - do you even have handball over there?”
Well they do have handball in the USA, even if it is called ‘Team Handball’, and with the game developing steadily, Lars and Christian find themselves as ambassadors for the country, but like any ambassador, a responsibility comes with it.
“We do have a responsibility and we are very aware of that,” says Chris. “I am very happy that people in the United States recognise that and are not like ‘oh here are the two IHF referees and now they want to teach us how it is done.’
“It’s not like that at all; everyone appreciates it and supports us very much. We post a lot of referee information on social media and with the support of the US Team Handball Federation we have put together a loose programme where we help to develop referees and kids who are interested in the sport.”
“They put them together with us and we referee or we sit together with them and give them advice and feedback after they have refereed.”
With Christian and Lars mentors themselves now, they fondly remembers their time growing up and making the transition from players to referees. Both are supported even further by the former IHF referee and today United States Team Handball chief referee Tugomir Anusic and Salvio Sedrez, among many other supporters form the Pan American Team Handball Federation.
“I started refereeing way back in 1998 when I was about 17 years old,” said Christian. “I was playing still but in my spare time did a bit of reffing which brought me some pocket money but most of all - I thought it was fun.”
“At the time I started studying at University and had less and less time to train - we were training 7-8 times a week so it was hard to keep going like that.
“I thought maybe I should invest more time in reffing, plus it mean I could stay with the sport - not get injured and not have to train every day on court with the guys. My teammates actually appreciated me discussing refereeing with them but when I first started whistling my major problem was thinking too much as a player.”
“My first game as a couple was in Store Andst, and it was a fun experience,” says Lars. “It always came very natural to me to be leading in games.”
So, how do they balance their working life with their professional life?
“It is vacation time every time we do a tournament,” says Lars. “You have to make sacrifices and have an understanding employer - luckily my company are very interested in sport and it helped that they had Claus Bo Larsen - a FIFA referee working for them. Altogether this made it a bit easier for me and it was familiar situation for the company.
“You have to ask for favours, but it’s important for me that the rest of my work colleagues know what is going on as I spend a lot of time out of the office, they need to know why I get special treatment.”
“I have just moved to Boston and I told my boss I come with this little asterisk (*),” jokes Christian. “That asterisk is handball - I told them I need to go to tournaments and they accepted.”
Brazil 2015 has seen the trialling of a number of new handball rules which will continue at the IHF Men’s Youth World Championships in Russia next week and the group of referees in Uberaba and Uberlandia were the first in the world to enforce them - including the first-ever blue card, shown in the Preliminary Group match between France and Algeria.
“The rule modifications have been super-exciting,” says Christian. “To be amongst the first to try something entirely new and see them in action, these little adjustments; it was nice to be at the front row of it.”
“We always welcome new initiatives that can make it more interesting for spectators, especially coming from a country where the sport is not that popular,” enthused Lars.
“We need to think about how we can penetrate different markets, we are good in Europe but we need to adapt to the local sports in North America - it’s the right way.
“The blue card, for example, is easy to understand for spectators so anything that makes it easier for them, for TV and for the media is a good idea.”
So what can handball learn from American sports and what can Americans get from handball?
“The blue card is visual,” continues Lars, “in the NFL (American Football), once you have a foul the referee throws a yellow penalty flag onto the field - it is clear something wrong is going on.
“The blue card stops the difficulties and confusion sometimes caused if there is a report or not a report - it can be unclear with the table, officials, coaches and those watching.
“The blue card is a good initiative for sure.”
Whilst the rule additions and changes are exciting, back in the USA Chris and Lars are very well aware of the difficulty in any growing sport in a country - getting the numbers of people involved.
“American kids are generally better athletes than Europeans,” says Lars. “They have a great interest in the sport once they see it but with no real history and tradition it is hard to keep up with it.
“We are trying to find players first and foremost,” he continued. “But we are always looking for officials. We hope to get other sports’ officials involved with USA Handball in the future - technology in handball is going to have a huge impact for us in the future and it is the right thing to look towards the North American sports for what they are doing.
“For example, we would love to get NFL referees to come to our technical meetings. I am a Houston Texans fan and Chris is a San Francisco 49ers fan - you cannot escape sports in the United States - Saturday is College Football, Sunday is NFL. I used to watch the Super Bowl in Denmark but the way they make the entertainment in their sports is really good.”
Part of the process of increasing the popularity of the sport in the United States is as simple as just differentiating it with another sport of the same name.
“Handball in America is also a game played against a wall - traced back to a Gaelic (Irish) game - so we call the handball we know, ‘Team Handball’,” said Christian, who used to play centre back in Austria for UHLZ Perchtoldsdorf and West Wien.
“I get asked in America ‘what is team handball’ a lot,” he continued. “The easiest explanation we’ve come up with is water polo without water,” interjects Lars.
“But it’s a wonderful conversation starter,” says Chris again. “I have a quick video on my phone, it’s there all the time and when you show it to people they ‘say wow, it’s so cool, then they ask where to play it.”