Sports Hero

Based on his experience in secondary school, Mr Tang said that in terms of popularity of the ball games available at the time, the order from the most popular to the least was basketball, football, volleyball and handball. At the time, handball was an unpopular sport that few people were interested in playing. He liked handball because it was an exciting team sport that emphasised speed. As a result, he founded Chun Yuen Sports Club to promote handball at the community level.

 

 

 

 

Enlightened by his coach to excel
Mr Tang recalls meeting his first handball teacher in Form 4 of secondary school. Being a very competent swimmer, he was soon attracted by this fast-paced sport. After practising for about two years, his team became the handball champion in the New Territories. The team members still relish those days when they played handball together. The fact that he played in handball matches as an athlete throughout his secondary school days, university and after graduation is a testament to his passion for the sport.

Mr Tang has always been promoting handball in school after joining the education sector and helped his school set up a school team. He was a physical education teacher, a handball coach and also the coach of the Hong Kong Handball Youth Team for some time. In 2002, he established Chun Yuen Sports Club to promote handball in the Sha Tin District. He said that the biggest difficulty he faced at the beginning was that he had to spend a lot of time on document processing to slowly build a database, as well as searching for coaches and athletes. Speaking of organising training classes and competitions, he points out that he is very familiar with all of that since his work has always revolved around handball.

Developing morals and fitness from a young age
Mr Tang believes that handball is a team sport that can help young people improve their physical fitness, learn to support each other and develop team spirit. As handball can teach them good conduct and is beneficial to their growth, he spares no effort in promoting the sport. As a community sports club, Chun Yuen Sports Club enjoys priority booking and receives financial assistance under the Community Sports Club Programme. Mr Tang hopes to hire facilities of schools in the district so that there will be convenient venues for nearby citizens in the community to participate in sports activities.

It has always been his another mission to provide more competition opportunities. He organised the Chun Yuen Cup to let athletes of similar calibre compete so that they could experience both victory and defeat, and to encourage them to keep playing handball. He hopes that more handball sports clubs will be established to increase the number of handball players. Sports clubs can arrange competitions to create a good atmosphere for public attention. He also proposes promoting handball in primary schools to start nurturing players from a young age and increase the exposure of handball players, which will in turn raise the overall standards of handball in Hong Kong, popularise handball and encourage lifelong participation in the sport.