III

Tomorrow, Saturday August 25th, we will be having our final tournament of the year. As always, it is located in Syosset Community Park (It is Ext 44N from LIE (135 N) On 135 N get off the first exit and on 2nd light, make right and that is the park)

The same rules apply and inshallah we’ll have a large turnout.

Pictures from July 21st

July 21st- 2nd Halal Handball Tournament

Trying to keep with the tradition of an annual handball tournament, the board of directors of Halal handball decided that Saturday, July 21st was an ideal day for the second Halal Handball tournament. Ironically enough, we had the exact same number of people show up as last time (a modest 10), which was good enough to compile a competitive bracket.

The format was also the same; each person played three games of 11 and added their scores from each game. The 8 people with the highest cumulative scores then moved on to the tournament. Unfortunately, Halal Handball veteran Haroonjooce and rookie Naseer were the two people that did not advance because of EXTREMELY low qualifying scores.

The bracket was the following:

1. Samim

8. Shafi

3. Alisher

6. Jamshid

4. Masood

5. Sohrab

1. Jason

7. Arif

(The people in bold advanced to the semis and finals, respectively)

1. Samim

6. Jamshid

1. Jason

4. Masood

Two upsets in the first round of that of Sohrab and Alisher. Saeed looked solid in the qualifying rounds and the beginning of the game. but as the game progressed it seemed Jamshid wore him down with his speed and endurance. Sohrab, on the other hand, didn’t look like the player who almost made it to the finals a year ago, and was overwhelmed by Masood. (It must be noted, however, that Noori was recovering from an ankle injury that affected his playing)

The two people who were tied for the number one seed, Jason and Samim, met in the finals. While Jason cruised to the finals, Samim seemed sluggish and struggled in the semis against Jamshid, who never seemed to run out of strength and stamina. Samim eventually defeated Jamshid 15-12.

In the finals, the two each took the lead several times and the game remained very close. Around 15-14, however, Jason stepped his game up and put an end to Samim’s hopes of repeating a championship. Halal Handball congratulates Mr. Medina and all those that participated.

Before the Summer is over, we hope to have another tournament and insh’Allah increase the number of participants and level of competitiveness even further.

July 21st Tournament Results

Here are the final rankings for the tournament, a summary will be posted soon as well.

1. Jason

2. Samim

3. Jamshid

4. Masood

5. Alisher

6. Sohrab

7. Shafi

8. Arif

Haroonjooce and Naseer were the two people that did not qualify for the tournament round.

Tomorrow

Tomorrow at 12pm, the Tournament will being. I wanted to get some ground rules out of the way to stop confusion and prevent any arguments on court.

• If the ball hits either of the side lines during any part of the game (serve, volley) it is GOOD.
• Short Serve- Any serve that first hits the wall and on the rebound hits the floor in front of or on the short line
• Long serve- Any serve that first hits the wall and on the rebound hits the floor in back of the long line. (meaning if it hits the long line, it’s GOOD)
• Since there are a limited number of courts, we should have someone available to referee each match to prevent disputes over a call.
• Once we get into bracket mode, games will be 21 for every round except the finals, which will be 25 win by two.

Directions: Take the LIE to exit 44N (135N). Take 135N to exit 14E towards Woodbury. Make a slight right on Jericho Turnpike and at the second light you should see it on your right-hand side.

Time and Date set

After some deliberations, we have decided that the best date for the tournament is July 21st at 12PM at Syosset Handball Courts. Clear your schedules and spread the word. Reply to this post to confirm.

Halal Handball Second Annual Tournament

After a long break, the Second Annual Halal Handball Tournament is upon us. Many have been asking about the date of this event and the answer is, it depends. I want everyone to reply and tell me which date works best for them: the 14th, the 21st, or the 28th (all in July). Once we get a number then we can move forward and set things up. Send out emails to anyone you think would be interested, we want this event to grow every year inshallah. Once we get the dat, the tournament would probably begin around 12 pm.

Site changed / Pictures added

We chose a new theme for the wordpress site.  Furthermore we started uploading pictures from the tournament.  Click on the link above to view them

Recap / Commentary of Tournament Number 1

*note* currently we are having technical difficulties pasting in excel cells, the two charts will up soon though, insha Allah

Saturday, June 17th of 2006 saw the first of, insha Allah, many more games and tournaments of the Halal Handball League.  With a modest and very respectable attendance of 10 people, the day was filled with trash talking, jokes, some intense handball, a little pizza, and a lot of brotherhood.  A majority of the participants punctually showed up at 2 pm, however one of them was very hungry and I don’t mean for some handball action.  Since the other brothers were running late, they had decided it would be a good idea if they went and got the pizza.  While Shafi H. and Majid A. went out to get the food, the other 4 brothers decided to start playing. Before we get into the results, the setup of the tournament should first be explained.  It was decided by the organizers that everyone would play 3 games, their opponents selected randomly.  The scores from all three games would be added up and the top eight would move on to the usual-bracket style tournament.  And so the numbers were picked randonmly and as fate would have it, the #1 and #2 players (Haroon Naderi and Alisher Saeed, respectively) would be facing each other while the brothers would battle it out with more at stake than what the usual sibling rivalry has to offer.  The pizza had arrived before the end of the games and perhaps it was the aroma of the delicious eggplant or the thought of having that ziti slice that put an end to Mateen and Alisher’s hopes of a victory.  Coincidently (or maybe not) the brothers Noori had showed up just when the food did. As good as that pizza was, it seems that the idea of having it right before the tournament was a very bad one.  Immediately one participant had to use the restroom and some were very sluggish in the preliminary round.  The results for the preliminary round is as follows:  (a note on how to read this chart:  The scores for the games are color-coded so that the players could be identified ie. Haroon Naderi played Alisher Saeed in Game 1)

Name

Game 1

Game 2

Game 3

Total

Preliminary Rank

A few comments on the preliminaries:

• It can be argued that the point system used for tournament qualifications was a very good one.  It seemed that after the first two games, there were 6 people who were guaranteed a seat in the tournament.  The last two seats were still up in the air and every single point in the last game counted!
• It can be said that the performance of the brothers Noori were a big surprise to everyone present.  The brothers Noori were coming all the way from brooklyn and currently were the only one who still ‘repped the city’.  Even when Haroon Naderi was asking the elder Noori, Arif, who could possibly de-throne him, Arif replied that it could easily be a Noori, since probability was on their side (40% chance).  Sadly, the two people who did not qualify were two Noori’s.  Also ironic was the fact that the two Noori’s who qualified were the younger Noori’s.  Later on Arif had said “we used to play all the time, every day after school we’d go to the handball courts right by our house”.
• Speaking of the Noori’s, this commentator is especially disappointed with the performance of Haroon Noori, who had come dead last, it could be argued that he purposefully took that spot to spare his older brother from the embarrassment, but nonetheless Haroon did horrible.  Haroon had this to say later on, “I haven’t played handball in a long time, I haven’t even played [Basket]Ball in long time”

The tournament was now ready to start, excitement was in the air.  Numbers were again drawn randomly to see who would be facing who.  The following is the result of the tournament:

A few notes/comments on the tournament:

• Though Arif’s hypothesis of a Noori coming in first place proved untrue, ironically his hypothesis of a Noori taking out Haroon Naderi proved deadly true.
• Alisher Saeed maintained his #2 spot.  He’s going to have to take it to the next level in order to reach number 1.
• Haroon Naderi was ranked #5 in the qualifying round as well as in the tournament, commentating later on Haroon said “Well I’ve always considered 5 to be my lucky number”.
• The first round of the tournament saw THREE 7-0 shutouts, which explains the three-way tie for 6th place.  It was a huge disappointment to see Shafi Hashmi (who was tied for 1st place in the qualifying round) get shut out, but as we all know, its survival of the fittest.

In the end it was Samim who would take home the bragging rights and the free pass into the next tournament.  Halal Handball congratulates Mr. Abedi and thanks everyone for participating in this momentous occasion.  Furthermore we hope to increase the number of participants to 20 before the next tournament, insha Allah!

Tournament Results

Salaam,

Today’s tournament went very well, I hope all the brothers had a good time even though all of us are probably sore at the moment. Here are the updated rankings from today based on who came. *UPDATE*  Mateen Abedi was actually shut out

1. Samim

2. Alisher

3. Sohrab

4. Majid

5. Haroonjooce

6. Mateen

6. Naseer

6.Shafi