Keeping it Korf: an international sport's American revival

by Emily Gerston '11
FEATURES EDITOR

Korfball first came to Hamilton as the vision of one student eager to import his favorite part of his study-abroad experience in Scotland. Eighteen months later,

HamilKorf is a 30+ person club sponsored by the US Korfball Federation—and currently the only place you can find Korfball in the United States. HamilKorf will host its second annual international tournament on April 9, catching the attention of National Public Radio (NPR), which will attend and run a story on the tournament.

Louis Boguchwal first encountered Korfball while studying at St. Andrew’s University his freshman year, and didn’t want to leave it behind when he returned to the United States to attend Hamilton. “I thought, you know, this is something that’s a big part of my life,” he said. “I think passion is a very overused word, but I’m very passionate. I didn’t want to give it up.”

Instead of admitting defeat upon returning to the United States, Boguchwal, who is HamilKorf’s president, immediately looked into starting the sport at Hamilton. “I thought it sounds ridiculous in name, so I need to be just that ridiculous and create a niche for it,” he explained. To catch attention, he started composing poetry and ballads in all-campus emails, hoping to generate some interest. “At the very least, people would say, ‘this guy is nuts, I want to meet him,’” he explained.

Even The Duel Observer’s constant satirical prodding didn’t bother Boguchwal. “They made fun of it a lot, but any publicity is good publicity,” rationalized Boguchwal.

Boguchwal’s zany attention-grabbers worked. At the first interest meeting, around 35 people showed up, to Boguchwal’s delight, including now-club vice president Jack Dunn ’12.

Ryan Park ’12, the team’s treasurer, joined last spring, and enjoyed it immediately. “I wasn’t trying to pass judgment – I mean, you hear Korfball and you think it’s a bunch of nerds,” he laughed.

For Dunn, the people are one of the main draws of Korfball, “nerds” or not. “In addition to it being an intensely weird sport, the people were a great community of really great players – which is weird, considering it’s a bunch of people who responded to a random email two years ago,” said Dunn.

The interest was a personal success for Boguchwal, but it also tipped the scales to allow him to seek a crucial part of the Korfball experience: the equipment. A Korfball is like, but not quite the same, as a soccer ball, and the Korf itself (korf means “basket” in Dutch) can generally only be found in the Netherlands. Boguchwal knew that without the equipment, the sport could not be fully understood, and excitement would dissipate.

Luckily, Boguchwal had made some connections with the U.S. Korfball Federation, which had equipment from when the sport had enjoyed some attention in the United States in the 1980s. They told him that if he could garner enough interest, they would support the club—and he did.

True to their word, the U.S. Korfball Federation donated equipment, driving the equipment all the way from West Virginia to Hamilton. The International Korfball Federation jumped in also, providing a box of Korfball materials such as training videos and key chains for the newly founded HamilKorf.

“The International Korfball Federation was very excited,” said Boguchwal. “The U.S. getting involved is huge—from a marketing perspective and an advertising perspective, for example.”

Boguchwal knew he had scaled one of his most difficult obstacles. “If you get people hyped up and don’t deliver, you lose the confidence to get it off the ground,” he said. He thought about trying to make the materials—“It’s a pole with a basket and some balls—you should be able to just make it”—but getting the equipment was a crucial tipping point to ensuring Korfball’s survival.

Korfball is unique among many competitive sports in that it is co-ed—in fact, in order to be an official league game, each 8-person team must have 4 men and 4 women on it. “Just by nature it’s all about equality,” explained Boguchwal. “It was really something anyone could play. It’s got lots of rules for equality built in and it’s co-ed, so it’s a little more social.”

Dunn also emphasized the importance of equality within the rules of the game itself. “This system of defense encourages greater movement. It makes the game much more about positioning,” said Dunn. “It’s not actually an athletically intensive sport if you know where to go. It’s actually very tactical.”

Putting together an active 30-person club is a big accomplishment for a club in its first year, but HamilKorf’s ambitions didn’t stop there. To expand Korfball’s presence in the United States, they decided to host Hamilton’s first annual international Korfball tournament. In fact, it was the first international Korfball competition in the United States since 1996, according to Boguchwal. “We thought, ‘even if it’s tiny, can we just put something together?’ It would be a major milestone for us.”

In the tournament’s first year, HamilKorf gathered representatives from across the United States, as well as several countries around the world. “We almost had four people from the Netherlands come to the tournament, but the volcano erupted,” lamented Boguchwal. “I hate when that happens!”

Even though the first tournament was small, it garnered interest around the world. “People were finding me asking if they could come to this, not the other way around,” said Boguchwal. Ronald Buis, a top Korfball referee in the Netherlands, expressed interest in working with HamilKorf. HamilKorf has been invited by teams in Scotland, England and the Netherlands to participate in clinics and tournaments there. Their tournament was covered in a Dutch Korfball magazine, and garnered interest from The New York Times and ESPN, in addition to NPR’s upcoming coverage. All have been intrigued by this small sport experiencing a surprising resurgence at a small school in upstate New York.

The media coverage has helped HamilKorf with its upcoming goal: expand Korfball within the United States. “The goal for this semester is to form a league,” said Park. The team spoke with Colgate to facilitate setting up a team there, and it plans to approach Cornell, Vassar, Williams and Amherst about participating as well. Once HamilKorf organizes a league, it can receive more equipment and apply for funding from the International Korfball Federation.

“You cannot get Korfball anywhere else in the United States—at least, not yet,” said Boguchwal. “Even at just Hamilton, how far can it go? We went from 0-60 in under 2 years, but it’ll decline if we don’t expand.”

“We don’t have any unrealistic plans of spreading to the whole country,” said Dunn. “Maybe in our wildest dreams. But we’d like to get it going in the area.”

Buis in particular has been instrumental in encouraging HamilKorf’s international ambitions, even helping them find potential sponsors so the club can continue its international training and play. According to Boguchwal, Buis helped HamilKorf get in touch with Heinz, which may be interested in sponsoring the club next year if it continues to grow. “I don’t want to say it’s a huge long shot, but maybe a goal for next year,” Boguchwal said.

In the meantime, HamilKorf is focusing on organizing this year’s tournament, building their own skills, and “keeping it Korf” – part of Korfball’s unique lingo. “We put in little catchphrases, just to make it fun,” explained Boguchwal.

As proud as the club’s leaders are of their accomplishments so far, their goal of expansion is never far away. The club’s leaders are all too aware of their impending graduation next year. “This is something that has been built by Louis – by sheer force of will of his charismatic idea. We want it to go on after he graduates,” said Dunn. “Does it take a lot of time? Yeah. But as we’re meeting, look at where we’re going in such a short time.”