On Friday May 11 2001 the historical trip commenced: The first official handball games of a Houston Team Handball club! At 7pm a small bunch of guys (and our President Dede) set off in our rented van:

A few posings for the photographer and off we went:

The Campus of St. Mark's School was spacious and the organizer Mihai Oprea was kind enough to let us sleep for free in the comfy wrestling gym:

That way, we were all together and had much more fun than in a Hotel.

Thanks to Mihai, the games were fantastically organized (see schedule) and we not only had a lot of fun, learned a lot, but also were more successful than we would have ever imagined for our first games:

Game 1: SM Gold 21 vs Chicago Waldorf 10
Game 2: SM Lions 25 vs Chicago Thunder 8
Game 3: SM Blue 10 vs Chicago Waldorf 10
Game 4: SM Lions 17 vs Houston THB 11
Game 5: SM Gold 14 vs SM Blue 9
Game 6: Chicago Thunder 13 vs Houston THB 16

Exhibition Games: SM Gold 14 vs Chicago Thunder 16
                             SM Blue 12 vs Chicago Thunder 15
                             SM Lions 21 vs Houston THB 17

Middle School Finals: SM Gold 27 vs SM Blue 18

Champions: ST. MARK'S GOLD

High School Finals: SM Lions 34 vs Houston THB 16

Major awards:

Most Valuable Goalie (MVG):  Jeff Dickason, St. Mark's Lions

Most Valuable Player (MVP):  Matthew Tranchin, St. Mark's Lions

Scoring leaders: 

1. Matt Tranchin, SM 23 goals
2. Stephen Swisher, Chicago Thunder 17 goals
3. Paul Trejo, SM 15 goals
4. Aicam Zouhair, Houston THB 14 goals

First Tournament Team: 

Jeff Dickason (SM) - goalie
Paul Trejo (SM) - Pivot
Stephen Swisher (CHICAGO) - Left Backcourt
Aicam Zouhair (HOUSTON) - Right Backcourt
Matt Tranchin (SM) - Center Back
Samuel Mongonia (HOUSTON) - Left Wing
Avi Varma (SM) - Right Wing

And this is the successful team:

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