The new handball club Rush: ‘Really more than just a sports association’

Rush is the university’s newest association. Founders and best friends Danique Poppe and Danicz Wijnsma are the motor behind the Rotterdam University Student Handball association: “We chose pink as our club colour, because we look really good in pink.”

On a Tuesday evening, around thirty members of Rush gather in Sportzaal Bloemhof in the South of Rotterdam to train together. They’ve only been training at the sport complex for a week, as finding a suitable location for the student association took some time.

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Fanatic screams of encouragement and high-pitched shoe shrieksfill the sports hall. During the breaks, the sounds are replaced by laughter and banter. “It feels so easy to be here. The first day, we were already friends”, explains Laia, a Spanish student. “It’s really more than just a sport association.”

For Nicolas, handball is a way to relax. “After a day of studying, your head is so full. When you go to practice, I can let of steam”, he says. “Just playing handball makes me feel better.”

Starting from zero

Poppe and Wijnsma were able to build the association from the ground up: “I’ve been involved in many boards, but just the experience of getting to do everything yourself and really tailoring it to what we want is so cool”, says Poppe, treasurer. An example is the blue and bright pink club colours that the girls picked and the logo they designed entirely themselves. “Both of our favourite colours!” says Wijnsma. “We chose blue, because it suits everyone. And pink, because we look really good in pink.”

Lifelong friends

Poppe and Wijnsma are each other’s oldest friends. “We’ve been friends for so long, so it’s so nice to do this together”, says Wijnsma. “Every single practice, we take fifteen minutes to get into the shower, because we’re just talking”, laughs Poppe.

The association is still growing and counts three teams now that will compete in the leagues this year. The board plans to organise watch parties for professional handball games and hope to join tournaments against teams from other universities.