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USHA Junior Nationals
1/26/2010 1:25:29 PM

 

Ryan Mullan from Carrickmore took part in the biggest Junior handball tournament over the Christmas holidays which took place in Chicago. The USHA Junior nationals bring the best players from Ireland and America together with competitions from U-11 right through to U-19. In the past winners of the nationals have proceeded to become the biggest names in the sport including Paul Brady, Robert McCarthy and Eoin Kennedy to name a few.

 
Ryan doubled up with Johnny woods to take the Boys U-13 doubles title. 16 doubles teams took part in the competition meaning that four hard games had to be fought to take the title. In the Quarter Finals the duo faced an American pairing of David Millar and Mike Morales from Tucson Arizona. They strolled through on a score line of 21-7 and 21-12.
The semi final was a different story when the Irish pair had to face up favourites Paul Montel and Armando Kaplan from Chicago. The game went right down to the wire with Ryan and Johnny having to produce their best handball to proceed on a score line of 21-18 21-19.
In the Final Ryan had to face up to his brother Pauric and partner Coleman McGrath. Ryan and Johnny were too strong for their counterparts on the day and walked away with a well deserved title.
 
Another young handball star of the future, Pol Clarke, also took part in the nationals at U-15 level. Pol was the third seed going into the competition which is no mean feat in itself. However Pol was determined to make himself known blowing through competition and made potentially tricky games look easy. However in the semi final Pol came up against a very talented handball player in Matthew Chu of New York. Paul took the first game and looked set to progress to the final until Matthew upped his game. With nothing between the pair the tie breaker was set up to be a nail biter and didn’t disappoint. Pol displayed great character and his repertoire of shots were too much for Matthew in the end. Pol progressed to the penultimate game of the tournament on an 11-10 score line. In the final Pol came up against Dennis O’ Neill of cork who was Irelands representative at that level. The final was a well fought game however, unfortunately for Pol, Denis was on form and finished out to win the title.     

 


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