GOVERNING BODIES 

USOC Re-Establishes Team Handball NGB

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.—The U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) has granted probationary status to USA Team Handball as the official national governing body (NGB) of team handball. The USOC will recommend USA Team Handball to the Fédération Internationale de Handball as the U.S. sport representative. 

USA Team Handball will be responsible for meeting the obligations detailed in the USOC bylaws and the Ted Stevens Olympic and Amateur Sports Act, including establishing procedures to ensure continuity of international, Olympic, Pan American and Paralympic Games programs for the sport. 

The announcement of USA Team Handball being granted probationary status is part of a rebuilding of the sport’s national governance structure after the USOC decertified the previous NGB in 2006. USA Team Handball will be required to submit a quadrennial plan for 2009-2012 that details how the organization will promote and grow the sport with a focus on achieving sustained competitive excellence in international competition. 

USA Volleyball Partners With Albertsons

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.—USA Volleyball has partnered with Albertsons supermarkets in an effort to raise $1 million to support current and future athletes. Volleyball is one of four sports in the Step Beyond Gold program in which Albertsons will donate a portion of purchases made May 7-Aug. 24 with Albertsons’ Preferred Savings card to the Home Depot Center Charitable Foundation, HOPSports, Los Angeles Galaxy Foundation and KaBOOM! More than 290 Albertsons supermarkets in Southern California and Nevada will participate in the Step Beyond Gold program. 

Hilton Hotels Corp. Renews Olympic Sponsorship

CHICAGO—Hilton Hotels Corp. has extended its longstanding relationship with the U.S. Olympic Committee by renewing its sponsorship of the U.S. Olympic Team. The sponsorship will continue through the 2008, 2010 and 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, as well as the 2011 U.S. Pan American Games. 

U.S. Paralympic Sailing Receives Donation

PORTSMOUTH, R.I.—U.S. Sailing has received a $5,000 donation to the U.S. Paralympic Sailing Team. The donation was given by yacht charter company The Moorings, which won the money as part of the 2007 John Southam Award for Excellence in Media Communications. The Moorings received the award for an episode of The Learning Channel’s “Little People, Big World,” which featured a sailing vacation in the Bahamas aboard one of The Moorings’ catamarans. 

The Moorings’ David Rohr said the yacht charter company donated the prize money to “re-invest back into sailing to support some of our most talented sailors headed off to China this summer.” 

New Director In USBC Public Relations/Publishing

GREENDALE, Wis.—Jason Overstreet, a former competitive youth bowler, has been named director of public relations/publishing for the U.S. Bowling Congress (USBC). Overstreet began as director of public relations/publishing on June 16. Prior to joining the USBC, he was metro north bureau chief for KDFW-TV in Dallas-Fort Worth.