UNC student excels internationally in handball

Senior Diva Desai grew up playing basketball and soccer.

Then the Cary native came to UNC and was recommended to play on the club handball team. Three years and two national championships later, she competes on the under-21 USA handball team.

Desai said she was drawn to the athleticism handball requires.

“It is just a very unique sport,” she said. “It seemed like quite the challenge at the time.”

The challenge was soon second nature to Desai. She immersed herself in the sport on-campus and internationally. She became the public relations officer for the club her in 2009, when she tasted her first slice of national victory.

The UNC women’s handball team beat West Point for the Team Handball Collegiate Women’s National Championships two years in a row. The second time, Desai took home a new handball as the tournament’s top-scorer.

She was elected president of the club in fall 2010, and her involvement in the sport dramatically changed. UNC hosted the Tar Heel Invitational the same weekend the USA U-21 national team was holding tryouts in the area.

“I didn’t think I had a shot,” Desai said.

Desai decided not to try out and played in the tournament instead. Her play on the final day of the tournament caught the eye of USA Team Handball’s Technical Director Mariusz Wartalowicz.

“He came up to me after the game and was like ‘We’ve selected you for the U-21 national team that’s going to Poland. Are you available two weeks from now?’” Desai said.

Wartalowicz said it was Desai’s good peripheral vision, controlled calmness and court leadership that got the national team’s attention.

Desai’s life has been a whirlwind ever since. USA Team Handball flew her to Poland to compete in a few international tournaments and invited her to Colorado Springs this past summer to participate in the organization’s elite camp. Desai also won another national championship and was chosen to play for the USA Women’s Select Team in Germany.

After toying with the idea of taking a semester off to train with a Denmark club team, Desai decided to enjoy her senior year at UNC. After graduation, the business major hopes to work as the marketing supervisor of a European McDonald’s and play on a club team near her work.

Desai is currently preparing for UNC’s home tournament, the largest women’s handball tournament in the nation, and she is training to tryout for the USA Pan-American Games qualifier against Canada.

“I believe she has a very good chance of making the national team,” Desai’s teammate, Andrea Kline, said in an e-mail. “She’s a leader.”

Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.