Two Olympians made a special trip to State College from Courtland, N.Y. last night to teach the game of handball to the recently formed Penn State handball team.

The small group of students who were on hand in the White Building were given the opportunity to learn the basic rules of the game from USA women's Olympic handball head coach Christian Latulippe and team captain Tomuke Ebuwei, a former Penn State women's volleyball player.

Ebuwei said that she and Latulippe are always trying to reach out and grow the sport, and this was a perfect opportunity to do so.

"I feel like this is a great university for sports in general," Ebuwei said. "Students here really take to sports and fitness. When I was here, intramurals were huge. And when you have that many people on campus that appreciate sports and fitness, you want to start something here. It's not going to fizzle out."

The guidance the two Olympians have to offer will be extremely helpful in the long run, as handball is a game that is foreign to many students including many members of the club. The growth of any sport depends a lot on how it is understood.

"One of the tough things about handball is there are a lot of small rules." Ebuwei said.

"We've found that it's much easier to get people running and learning on the fly."

That's exactly what the coach did.

From the moment he arrived, Latulippe had the group participating in a scrimmage game where he outlined basic rules and game scenarios. The team seemed to pick up the game quickly with Latulippe's coaching.

Sophomore Dave Kheightly, who is the club's president and contacted Latulippe with the club's intentions, praised the coach's methods.

"It really impressed me. I didn't think we would have this much enthusiasm," he said. "He's really given us a run through of the Olympic rules and I'm really pleased with how things went."

Even though they have the support of Latulippe and Ebuwei, Kheightly admitted the club was still in its infancy.

They don't have a large number of members, and they still don't have the money necessary to purchase handball goals, which are $500 apiece. For now, colored tape on the walls of the gym will suffice.

More importantly, the club has a core group of students who are interested in the sport and the tutelage of Latulippe and Ebuwei.

"We told these guys if they need anything we'd love to come down, maybe once a week for a practice to get them going." Ebuwei said. "I think that if they saw they had support from the highest level that we have in this country, I think that would help people come out."

In order to promote the sport, Latulippe stressed the need for the club to get some experience playing competitively.

"If these guys can get together and join a league or play some games against other college teams, they will fall in love with the game," he said. "We need to have more leagues and if we get enough clubs then we can get recognized as a varsity sport."