Young goalie weighs his professional options

Lyndon Suvanto had no idea how much a sport would dominate his life when he was introduced to team handball five years ago.

Suvanto agreed to try out the sport only because his brother’s high school squad was searching for a goalie.
It didn’t take long, however, for Suvanto to make a name for himself with his Onoway High School team.

As it turned out he had a natural knack for playing goal in the sport and he quickly progressed up the ranks to compete at provincial and national levels.

“I never expected to get where I am now,” said Suvanto, a 19-year-old Métis.

Suvanto is currently a member of the national junior men’s squad. That club travelled to Brazil to compete in the Pan American junior men’s tournament, which ran from April 15 to 23.

Besides the national team, Suvanto also toils for four other handball teams, including Alberta’s under-21 club.
Plus, he finds the time to return to his alma mater and help coach his high school team.

He manages to juggle playing for all five of his clubs, as well as his high school coaching duties, while also being a television broadcast student at Edmonton’s Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT).

Suvanto was active in athletics before he took up handball. He used to play hockey, baseball and badminton.

But when he realized how proficient he was in handball, he didn’t mind focusing on that.

“I gave up hockey,” he said. “I wasn’t really going anywhere with it.”

Team handball, which is an Olympic sport, features seven players per team on the court. The goal is to pass a ball (slightly smaller than a soccer ball) around and attempt to throw it into the opposition’s net, which is two metres high and three metres wide.

Suvanto excels in the sport as he can cover a large chunk of the net rather effectively.

“For my size, I’m pretty flexible and pretty explosive,” added Suvanto, who weighs 240 pounds and is almost 6-foot-4.

Though handball is not very popular in North America, Suvanto said there is a tremendous amount of interest in the sport in Europe. In fact, there are various professional leagues overseas.

Suvanto seriously thought of toiling in one of these circuits after his high school days were over.

“I almost went to play in Norway,” he said. “But I decided to go to (NAIT) instead.”

Suvanto is expecting to graduate from his television broadcast program this December. But he might not be done his education as television production appeals to him as does working on film sets.
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Attempting to hook up with a pro handball team in Europe is also something still in the back of his mind.
“I’m still really young,” he added.

Suvanto was selected as the most valuable player at last year’s national senior tournament staged in Edmonton. He was the youngest person to win that MVP award.
Suvanto is also hoping to one day represent Canada in handball at the Olympics.

“The team we have now is pretty close,” he said. “I think we can make it in a few years.”