Aidan Sarazen The screen went dark. Excitement buzzed in the audience, waiting for Latin’s Ausi-Handball Club’s first video. Then, accompanied by Tinie Tempah’s Written in the Stars, the video started. It showed sophomores Julius Reiner and Arman Achutan, expert Ausi-Handballers, playing a match in the fifth floor gym. The intensity of the music and points that Julius and Arman were playing clearly caused the crowd to get into the video. Not only did the video show how to play Ausi-Handball, but it also gave a lot of interesting information on the sport, proving to Latin’s community that it was not just some game Julius had made up. At multiple times throughout the video, many people thought it was going to end, but it kept going. Sophomore Chris Quazzo reacted, saying “it kept me on the edge of my seat, because I thought it was over…but then BAM it started up again”. The video that promoted Ausi-Handball was successful, because it got people laughing, and it made people want to attend the club. Even without the video, Julius, the club head and creator, gained what he called “surprising popularity” at the clubs fair, as nearly 50 students signed up. With the combination of the successful clubs fair and the engaging video, the beginning of the 2012-2013 school year looked promising for the Ausi-Handball club. Unfortunately, there were a couple of major issues in the timing of everything for Julius and the club. The goal was for everyone to come to the open gym that Ausi-Handball was having during clubs block this past Friday. The video was played over a week before the clubs block so the effects of the video wore off on its viewers. Excitement was immediate after the video, and had the clubs block been the next day, the turn out would have most definitely been better. Students either forgot about the Ausi-Handball open gym, or had other clubs they needed to attend. For example, Model U.N., an extremely popular club at Latin, had a mandatory meeting during clubs block, deterring from the outcome of the Ausi-Handball club. Sometimes other clubs are tough to compete with, but as Ausi-Handball gains experience as a club, it may just be that club that is impossible to contend with. Julius was a little put down by the turnout to the Ausi-Handball club this past Friday, as he “didn’t see many of the new faces” that he hoped to see. Julius, though, knows what went wrong, as he was aware of the pull of other clubs. With gaining maturity as a club head, Julius will be looking for new, exciting ways to bring people into the world of Ausi-Handball. The Latin community should be ready for Ausi-Handball to come back with even more thrilling tactics to gain popularity for the club.]]>