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Team handball is at the center of Constance Duverts life. She plays it indoors and on beaches, coaches the game and acts as an ambassador for the sports growth in Californias Bay Area, where she lives and works.As a girl in France, she was a dedicated gymnast for many years until she grew tired of being in a substantially individual sport. There was a team aspect to it, of course, but not as much as she wanted.Youre still the only one on the beam at the end of the day, right? she says.So she switched to team handball, a popular sport in France and Europe that was introduced to the summer Olympics in 1936 and became a permanent part of the Games in 1972.She fell for its speed, high-scoring flow and teamwork. I like working for others and having others work for me, says Duvert, 27.But when she moved to the U.S. 10 years ago -- originally to perfect her English skills -- anybody shed talk to about team handball gave her a blank stare. No one had heard of it. For the next several years, while she pursued her degree in finance at San Jose State and then worked at a big accounting firm, Duvert missed the game.Then in 2013, she was listening to a French radio show about team handball and heard about the U.S. national club championships in Reno. When she investigated, she discovered the San Francisco CalHeat Team Handball Club had sent both a mens and womens team.I was a little bit mad at myself for not finding it before, she says.Ever since, shes been an active part of the club, composed almost entirely of global transplants. Its mens and womens teams compete in tournaments around the U.S. In the three years since finding her way back to the game, her passion for the sport has only grown. She plays the indoor (Olympic) version most of the year but switches to beach handball in the summer. Shes coached at the French high school in San Francisco, helped put on clinics in the area, is working to establish a youth league and was a volunteer at the 2015 Special Olympics World Summer Games as a delegation liaison for the sport, using her ability to speak fluent French, English and Spanish.Plus, the club for her is more than a place to play. Its a home away from home. Far away from France, Duvert is surrounded by like-minded players from Scandinavia, Spain, Iceland, Germany, Brazil and France. About 50 club members have bonded around the game -- the only problem sometimes is on-court communication.You have to speak to each other a lot, right? she says, laughing. To say, Ive got this one, take her. But everybodys used to playing in their own language, so its quite entertaining.Duvert may be French, but her lifestyle is pure Californian, a blend of freeways, work, handball and surfing. On most days, she commutes 55 miles each way to Santa Cruz for her job as a financial analyst at Plantronics, a communications tech company. She supports the sales team for the Asia/Pacific region in its marketing and sales ventures, a job she calls challenging and exciting.People think Im crazy, she says of the daily drives. Yet she loves having the combination of city living with the atmosphere in Santa Cruz, where her office is steps from the beach. The hours behind the wheel are the dues she pays to keep both.She keeps a surfboard stuffed in the back of her car, and every day her goal is to break away to catch some waves. Shes not always successful, but she averages about three surf sessions a week.Aside from her commute, she drives about 45 minutes from her home to her clubs team handball court in Fremont, where she takes part in 2- to 2 1/2-hour practices two nights a week. The CalHeat club has one of the few handball-specific indoor courts in the U.S. She says shes lucky because shes allowed to have a lot of flexibility in her work schedule, and one day per week she can work from home. On those days, she takes a break to coach team handball at a middle school.Duvert calls team handball a mix of soccer, basketball and dryland water polo. Its a seven-on-seven game (six players plus a goalkeeper for each team) played on an indoor court 66 feet wide and 131 feet long. Players move up the court by passing the ball, dribbling it or taking up to three steps before passing or shooting.There is a line on the court -- an arc almost like a three-point line in basketball -- about 19 1/2 feet from the goal. Offensive players cant step inside the arc, but they can leap over it and fire shots before touching down, resulting in flying, athletic and contested goals. The game moves quickly and goals come often.Its such a cool sport, says Duvert. I dont understand why its not more popular in the U.S., because its high-scoring, fast-paced and a very physical sport. I think Americans would love it.Yet, Americans have mostly ignored it. U.S. teams have not medaled at the Olympics in the sport and have rarely qualified for the Games. In fact, she says some whove seen her club play it -- either the indoor or beach version -- have no idea what it is. Shes heard some compare it to a type of dodgeball or quidditch, the game from Harry Potter. She just laughs.Its an Olympic sport, for Gods sake, she says.When Duvert plays the game, shes not laughing. She prefers defense but also is a good scorer. At this years California Cup tournament in Fremont, her CalHeat team finished second among four teams with a 3-2 record, and Duvert was the second-leading scorer in the event with 15 goals (second to teammate Katherine Aggers 17).What my teammates would say is, Im a good defender, she says. Im not scared of getting hit. Im pretty well known by other teams to have black eyes after tournaments. Everybody remembers me as the black-eye girl if they dont know my name.At this years U.S. club championships, she came away with a black eye and several bruises after helping her team to a fourth-place finish, the highest shes experienced since joining the club.Her playing highlight came in 2013, just after returning to the sport. She was invited to play with the Los Angeles Team Handball Club as the representative of the United States at the womens Central American championships in El Salvador. The U.S. went 4-0, beating teams from Guatemala (twice), Costa Rica and Nicaragua.Even though she isnt a U.S. citizen, she said it was very moving to hear The Star-Spangled Banner in their honor. Because team handball clubs are few in number in the U.S., CalHeat games and tournaments are few and far between. Players have to pay for trips to play opponents in New York, Chicago and western cities such as Portland, Los Angeles and Phoenix, plus the national championships.Now, shes hoping the exposure team handball received at the Olympics will translate to added interest. Shes doing her part to plant the seeds for young people to take it up, so in future years when people hear team handball, they know what it is. Shes signed up to conduct clinics. Shes also working to organize a beach team handball tournament in Santa Cruz next year.Were starting a youth league in the Bay Area because we know this is the only way we can promote the sport, she says.Its a far cry from her experience at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics this summer. She signed up two years ago to be a volunteer at Rio and was stationed at the judo and wrestling venue where she was part of the results team. But almost every free moment was spent at the team handball venue, among rowdy, passionate crowds. 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Supported by three-run homers from Jayson Werth and Wilson Ramos, the young right-hander went seven strong innings in the Washington Nationals 8-4 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Friday night.Frespanol has erased memories of his last trip to the Sunshine Coast with victory in the open handicap, a race deferred from the Doomben wash-out.The 1350m-race abandoned on Saturday was added to what was already a 12--race program on Wednesday with many of the runners being prepared for upcoming summer features.Ridden by Jim Byrne, former Sydney-trained Frespanol ($10) scored by a short head to Jopa ($9) on Wednesday with a half length to third-placed Harada Bay ($8).The last time Frespanol headed to the Sunshine Coast in April he was in a float which rolled down an embankment on the Bruce Highway and he spent 40 minutes trapped inside.Frespanol and the three other horses on the truck escaped serious injury but he missed the winter carnival.Trainer Tony Gollan, who is in New Zealand for a horse sale, said by phone the win had come as no surprise and Frespanol had improved withh each race this campaign.ddddddddddddHe was good first-up and then had no luck at all second-up when caught deep, Gollan said.He is a nice horse and he will now run in the Recognition Stakes at Eagle Farm on Saturday week.After that he will chase the feature races such as the Lough Neagh and Bernborough Stakes in the summer.Gollan said Frespanol owed him a win in a stakes race from his days when the gelding was trained in Sydney.He actually beat me in a stakes race when Gai Waterhouse trained him. My mare Tornado Miss ran second to him in the 2015 Spear Chief Stakes at Doomben, Gollan said.I do think he will be even fitter next time so the stakes race might be soon.Group Two winner Rudy lost no friends when he came from third last to finish fifth. ' ' '