MIAMI BEACH, Fla. — Nestled within the coronary heart of South Seashore, Flamingo Park has been a haven for handballers in South Florida because the Nineteen Seventies. A half-mile from Miami Seashore’s social gathering scene, the quiet handball courts right here have seen their share of world champions and are dwelling to a constant crew of gamers, most of them between the ages of 60 and 80. Fifty years of play have battered the once-vibrant pastel partitions of the courts, which at the moment are primed with a recent coat of white paint. However you’re nonetheless prone to discover the identical motley crews and trash talkers of years previous.
Apart from typical banter and arguments in regards to the rating, conversations typically revolve round well being — each bodily and the well being of the sport. Hand surgical procedures, knee points, bypass surgical procedures and automotive accidents are all truthful sport for the trash speaking (and excuse-making). There’s an endearing camaraderie inside the group that retains individuals coming again.
The sport has helped the present crew defy their ages, however a few of them worry an absence of youthful faces will finally catch as much as the game. Issues in regards to the well being of four-wall handball have seemingly been round for so long as the previous courts of Flamingo Park, however the query stays: Can the game survive with solely occasional late bloomers becoming a member of the fray, or will youthful gamers be wanted to maintain the sport alive? For now, a bunch of older ambassadors will carry the torch.
Krowitz, 69, was born within the Bronx. After rising up in Miami Seashore, he began enjoying handball there after he retired from being a lifeguard at 54. Whereas he considers himself an expert handball athlete, Krowitz additionally dabbles in different sports activities, together with biking, operating, swimming, and tango and ballroom dancing. He has practiced martial arts for 55 years.
“I play handball as a result of I wish to problem myself,” he stated. “Once I first began dancing tango, it took me six months simply to turn into a newbie. I couldn’t hear the beat, and that’s what I preferred. I wish to be challenged. I want to enhance continuously.”
Tony Gonzalez
Antonio “Tony” Gonzalez, 61, was born within the South Bronx and has been enjoying handball for almost 50 years. A scrappy participant who doesn’t shrink back from trash speaking, Gonzalez grew up enjoying on the courts on Jackson Avenue, which have been identified for playing within the Nineteen Seventies. Video games have been usually performed for small quantities of money, toughening up Gonzalez, who was then 14.
“I do know guys in New York which have handed away on the courtroom,” he stated. “In case your life has all the time been about handball, to me there’s no higher option to exit than together with your greatest mates enjoying the sport you’re keen on.”
O’Rourke, 61, is likely one of the extra athletic and aggressive gamers on the Flamingo Park courts. Born in Killarney, Eire, O’Rourke’s service movement is referred to by different gamers because the “Irish Whip.” He has been enjoying at Flamingo Park since 1996, and he has additionally performed each recreationally and competitively in locations like Brazil, Germany and Eire.
“Once we have been right here all through renovations, you by no means knew how many individuals would present up or in the event you might get a sport,” he stated. “However I can see these youthful guys coming for the final two weeks now that the one-wall courts opened, and it’s actually trying like these renovations can liven the park up once more.”
Ralph Fernandez
Fernandez, 83, is one other New Yorker who discovered a house in Florida handball. Nicknamed “Chico,” Fernandez began enjoying the sport in 1962 and had discovered his option to Flamingo Park by 1967. He’s coping with two changed knees and an injured rotator cuff, however he opts to adapt his sport to his physique moderately than take break day.
“I do issues to adapt my sport once I’m injured so I don’t damage as a lot on the courtroom, like modifying my swing,” he stated. “I play via it, largely as a result of I do know I’m going to really feel higher after I play. Particularly once I win.”
Joel Tauber
Tauber, 86, began enjoying handball in 1954 whereas learning on the College of Michigan. A Detroit native, Tauber constructed a customized handball courtroom in the course of his dwelling in Michigan — towards his spouse’s needs. An architect by commerce, Tauber designed a handful of choices, together with the finalized structure that featured soundproof partitions. Tauber has not too long ago begun dabbling in pickleball in the hunt for evenly-aged competitors.
“I attribute a few of my longevity to the sport,” he stated. “I feel the chance to play at a steady tempo in spite of everything these years has made a distinction in my well being and talent to perform — each from a bodily and psychological standpoint.”
Eugene Gerson
Gerson, 67, grew up watching his father play handball in Coney Island and took up the game as a young person. Initially from Brooklyn, Gerson has stayed energetic all through his life with actions like biking, diving, gymnastics, operating and swimming. He has saved up with swimming one mile a day, a behavior constructed throughout a 50-year profession as a lifeguard. Gerson performs handball in the course of the week whereas taking his lunch breaks from the pool the place he works (allocating 60 minutes to handball and none to consuming lunch). Regardless of a hip alternative and different small aches, Gerson hopes to finally full an Ironman triathlon.
“It’s powerful in your physique enjoying handball,” he stated. “You get drained such as you have been in a boxing match afterward. Individuals don’t come out in the summertime as a lot as a result of the room temperature will get effectively over 100 levels. You get soaked in sweat and you’ll lose three to 4 kilos of water in a sport. I find it irresistible.”