Abstract:
The purpose of this study was to assess practice and challenges of handball sport in seven selective
Weredas & administrative towns of Awi zone. To undertake this study the researcher took 30 Weredas’
sport officers, 25 Handball trainees, 14 Weredas’ handball committees, 4 Zone sport department officers,
4 Handball coaches and 2 Zone handball committees a total of 79 samples. Dangila, Injibara, Chagni,
Ankesha, Guagusa shikudad, Banja and Fagita were purposively selected. Moreover, to collect data the
researcher applied three data collection instruments which were questionnaire, interview and
observation. Both qualitative and quantitative research methods have been employed so SPSS version 23
software was used for quantitative data analysis and words used for qualitative analysis. The
demographic characteristics of respondents and the results were analyzed by descriptive statistics. The
results regarding practice and popularity of handball in Awi Zone, the mean value was greater than the
expected mean; this shows handball sport was popular in Awi zone but no regular training, competition
and players were not attain the training consistently as indicated the mean values (2.02,1.84 and 1.75)
are less than the expected mean (3.00). Equipment and facilities were also inadequate since the
mean value 2.55 was less than the expected mean, the result shows that availability of equipment
and facilities were not good enough and regarding follow up and support from the sport
organizations, federations and committees were very low. Federations and committees were not
functional regarding taking responsibilities and accountabilities to develop handball sport. To
conclude, Very less emphasis was given by sport officers, shortage of certified coaches, shortage of
playgrounds and facilities, low encouragements of youth to come to play handball greatly limit the
development of handball sport. Handball sport cannot develop only by sport government bodies, so
Handball committees, non-governmental organizations and the societies should support handball sport.
Also Zone sport department should activate the committees and work cooperatively to overcome the
problems of follow up, finance, equipment, facilities and shortages of coaches. Handball federation and
sport commission are the vital bodies to take the initiation so as to develop handball sport, therefore, the
federation and sport organizations should work jointly to overcome the problems related to handball