Miami Sharks Continue To Lead
Miami Shark center back Mark Ortega has signed a contract to play for Norwegian First Division team Alta IF. Ortega will begin his second season with a professional squad after playing one season in Spain with a club out of Santander. Ortega was one of the first members of the Miami Sharks squad and Head Coach and owner Cristian Zaharia has helped him develop into an all around player. "Mark is a very good athlete and he works hard," Coach Zaharia said. "I am very proud of him and look forward to seeing him succeed with Alta IF. Mark is a fine product of Miami Sharks organization, where the grass roots are very important and hard work, discipline, dedication and team spirit are criteria we are based on. All our members should be very proud of this achievement, becasue without his teammates, Mark would not have been able to progress as he did." Ortega has also been a member of the United States National Team, competing in several International Competitions.
Handball in Miami
The Miami Sharks organization is a proud promoter of the sport of Team Handball (the Olympic Sport) in the United States. Seeing all of the Games on line and on TV from Beijing has given a lot of young dreamers a good target for the future Olympic Games, especially with the state of the development of this great sport in the United States of America.
The USOC is not paying too much attention to the grass roots development and the new NGB has yet to show any initiative besides the big promises. With that said, we are welcoming to the Miami Sharks Team Handball Organization all those athletes, young and old who, after seeing these Beijing Olympics would like to one day feel the passion and experiene of participating in an the Olympics for themselves.You will find the info on how to contact us on this web site, come and play one of the greatest sport in the World!
Coach Cristian Zaharia
1992 Olympian
Bronze Medal 2003 Pan Am Games
Miami Shark center back Mark Ortega has signed a contract to play for Norwegian First Division team Alta IF. Ortega will begin his second season with a professional squad after playing one season in Spain with a club out of Santander. Ortega was one of the first members of the Miami Sharks squad and Head Coach and owner Cristian Zaharia has helped him develop into an all around player. "Mark is a very good athlete and he works hard," Coach Zaharia said. "I am very proud of him and look forward to seeing him succeed with Alta IF. Mark is a fine product of Miami Sharks organization, where the grass roots are very important and hard work, discipline, dedication and team spirit are criteria we are based on. All our members should be very proud of this achievement, becasue without his teammates, Mark would not have been able to progress as he did." Ortega has also been a member of the United States National Team, competing in several International Competitions.
The USOC is not paying too much attention to the grass roots development and the new NGB has yet to show any initiative besides the big promises. With that said, we are welcoming to the Miami Sharks Team Handball Organization all those athletes, young and old who, after seeing these Beijing Olympics would like to one day feel the passion and experiene of participating in an the Olympics for themselves.You will find the info on how to contact us on this web site, come and play one of the greatest sport in the World!
Coach Cristian Zaharia
1992 Olympian
Bronze Medal 2003 Pan Am Games
Clarification
Seeing that there recently was an article regarding the participation of the Miami Sharks organization in a so called "summer league/professional league" going by the name ATHL, and due to numerous demands regarding the validity of the information, I want to address this issue and inform our fans, supporters and those interested in the truth.
The Miami Sharks will not be part of this sharade called ATHL, as is made to believe by the Handball Woche article and the declaration made by certain persons interested mainly to be associated with our team and the renown we have.
We have never been asked or approached by anyone, and the contents of the article are, the at the very least, misleading, and for what purpose, we all know why.
The ATHL proposal is naive in the business format approach, and the Miami Sharks, as a club, as a team ad as an organization does not see the benefit of being associated with it.
I am shocked and horrified, that a serious news handball magazine like Handball Woche did not contact all the clubs mentioned in the article, to verify the authenticity of those declarations.
In my opinion this article is a wish list expressed by some persons who otherwise have no credibility in the International Handball World, with a blatant attempt to gain that credibility, on the back of real, passionned, hard working people who have made huge personal sacrifices, financially and personally.
The Miami Sharks will be interested to be part of a real professional league where the business plan is based on the realities on the field, with a real system in place, with a realistic budget, with real ownership of the teams, and the list goes on.
This article is necessary, so those people will not be able to speculate any more in other peoples names.
Cristian Zaharia
Owner/ Head coach Miami Sharks Team Handball Organization
1992 Olympian
2003 Bronze Medal Pan Am Games
1990 Bronze Medal World Championship