Alle Beiträge von Roger Willen

The sport of Fistball is taking over Roxbury Township in New Jersey

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roxThe sport of Fistball is taking over Roxbury Township this year, beginning with the demonstrations at local schools in the district. United States Congressman Leonard Lance (NJ District -7), along with Roxbury Mayor Jim Rilee and other key township and school officials attended the first ever Fistball demonstration held by Bob Feid and Steve Groeber of United States Fistball Association during Roxbury High School’s physical education classes on June 5th.
“It’s a wonderful opportunity for our students to experience an athletic activity and sport that has been in the Roxbury area for a long time,” said Superintendent of Schools Patrick Tierney.
“I am thrilled with what is happening and how much momentum we have already going into the Fistball games,” Bob Feid, President of the United States Fistball Association.
Roxbury Township officials along with United States Congressman Leonard Lance have unanimously endorsed and pledge to make the PanAmerican Fistball Games held at the Swim and Sport Club a success for all involved.
The International Fistball Association (IFA) in tandem with the United States Fistball Association (USFA) selected the Swim and Sport Club in Flanders, NJ (Roxbury Township) USA to host the 1st ever USA-based Pan-American Fistball Games held from August 27 thru 30, 2015.
Competing in the Pan-American Games in addition to the United States are 4 South American nations: Columbia, Argentina, Brazil, and Chile.
Fistball has been a tradition at the Swim and Sport Club since 1927. For more information, visit www.usfistball.com.

IFA follows new avenues in bid procedures for the hosting of IFA Fistball Women’s and Men’s World Championships.

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In order to provide the IFA Congress with a sound basis for the decision about the hosts for IFA 2018 Fistball Women’s and IFA 2019 Fistball Men’s World Championships, the IFA marketing department created a new way of proceeding for the bidding process.

As a first step the basic requirements for hosting such an event by federations, clubs, countries or towns were collected in a slide-presentation.
This attached presentation can be requested of the IFA-Office (office@ifa-fistball.com) from now on.

After the bidding process, which is explained to further detail below, the bids are evaluated by an IFA jury and the IFA marketing department and then presented to the delegates at the IFA congress.
The timetable is given by the date of the decision making at the IFA Congress:

1 June 2015 Information to all federations and interested hosts
by 15 July 2015 Official expression of interest by potential hosts 
17 July 2015 Dispatch of bidding documents by IFA-Office
by 18 September 2015 Return of the bidding documents by interested hosts 
by 25 September 2015 Dispatch of bidding documents to IFA jury
by 15 Oktober 2015 Assessment of bidding documents by IFA jury 
by 23 Oktober 2015 Assessment of bidding documents by IFA Marketing department
Proposal to IFA Congress
18 November 2015 Allocation of IFA Fistball Women’s and Men’s World Championship to hosts by IFA Congress

IFA expects a further development towards professionalism at events by this new procedure.
President Weiss: „We want to provide a sound basis to the delegates for their decision at the congress. World Championships are the highlights of our sport, we want to be prepared for the best requirements.“

IFA 2019 Fistball Mens World Championship Information for potential hosts May 2015 pdf 751.12 Kb download

Fistball worldwide – USFA – Interview with Diane

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The Phoenix Sports Club is one of the members of the Eastern Fistball Association. Fistball at Phoenix is closely connected with the families Groeber and Ganslosser. We take this opportunity to ask some questions to Diane Ganslosser Groeber.

Diane, was is your function in the Club?

I am the Vice-President of the Phoenix Club. My husband Steve is the Men’s Fistball Coach and Sports Chairman, coordinating all the sports (soccer and Fistball) at the Club . I’m also Sports Chairman of the Ladies Auxilary at Phoenix. For 18 years I ran the Women’s Fistball Program. Our daugtherTricia will take over running the Women’s program (the real name of our club, by our constitution is “The First German Sport Club Phoenix”.

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(Diane, Tricia and Steve)

Already you- and Steve’s parents were closely connected with fistball and the club. How did it all start?

All 4 of my grandparents came over to the USA from Germany and joined the First German Sport Club Phoenix. My mother met my father at Phoenix. Steve’s parents came to the US in 1926 and met and married at Phoenix. My family and Steve’s family all belonged to the Phoenix club, so they where good friends. Steve and I met through the club. I knew many of his family before we started dating. Our first date was the Groeber Family picnic.

Steve had many aunts and uncles at Phoenix as he grew up. This meant he had a lot of cousins also, playing fistball. Fistball to Steve at the club, meant playing with his cousins and friends. In 1960’s and 70’s we had tournaments involving 12-15 teams from New Jersey and Pennsylvania. 4 to 5 clubs.

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(Woman Fistball in the 50s; Diane’s Grandfather, pictured to the left, is the coach.)

My sister Susan, and her 2 children Laura and Ryan also play fistball.

Your daughter Tricia is a member of the Women’s National Team, representing the colors of the United States at the World Championship in Germany last year. What does this mean for you and the whole family Groeber

We are so proud of her. She worked very hard to be ready to play on the National Team. Tricia started playing when she was 5 years old. Phoenix needed a 5th player on the childrens team so we had her stand there. It is a joke that since Tricia played with her older cousins and her brother, she didn’t hit a Fistball until she was 7 years old.

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(Tricia 7 years old) (Tricia at the Worldchampionship 2014 in Dresden)

This year the very first Pan Am Games with teams from Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Chile and the USA will take place on the east coast. What does it means for Phoenix and the Groebers?

We hope this effort will help grow the sport in the US. If you would have asked me 10 years ago if I would become friends with people from all over the world I would have told you “You are crazy” I love all the people we have become friends with through Fistball. I haven’t met a Fistball player that I do not like. They are all good people. It is a very exciting time for Phoenix. Our members, many of whom played Fistball, are very excited to meet all the international players and watch the games.

We hope to show others the high level of competition found in the other countries which are coming.

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We will try our very best to help make it successful. By that we mean to make our South American friends feel at home and welcome. Bob Feid from SSC is a very good friend of ours and we will help provide a good tournament at SSC as well as a “warm-up” tournament hosted at Phoenix SC the weekend before. The city of Philadelphia and New York are wonderful cities to visit. A lot of history and excitement.

An IFA survey showed that an overwhelming majority of member federations welcomes the idea of IFA Women’s Fistball World Championships every two years. On the basis of this order President Weiss fixed an agreement with Pomerode/Brazil for 23 to 30 October 2016. What do you think about that?

I think it is a good idea, but the US has a long way to go to keep up with that ambitious of a schedule.
The US Government does not fund Fistball. The players pay all traveling expenses themselves. It is difficult for our girls to make World Championships every 2 years.

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(Fistball Sports Group at Phoenix)

Diane, thank you for your time!
More about Phoenix: http://phoenixsportclub.com/
More about the PanAm Games on: http://usfistball.com/

Fistball worldwide – The story from down under

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