Dan McMillan chanced his arm at a number of sports before settling on the one that could take him all the way to the 2012 Olympics.

The Edinburgh-born athlete is one of only two remaining Scots in the Great Britain men’s handball team (Chris Mohr is the other) after cuts to the funding from UK Sport meant the original plans had to be curtailed.

McMillan, 26, has been based in Aarhus, Denmark, with the rest of the GB squad in recent months but at the start of this month [Feb] he moved to Germany to play in the Bundesliga after a link-up between a German club and British Handball.

When the original announcement was made that the sport’s Olympic funding was going to be cut back, the governing body has worked hard to forge links throughout Europe.

McMillan, whose first love was basketball but who has also played baseball and American football, is returning to the country where he played on the gridiron for the Lubeck Cougars.

He originally played with the Southern Sundevils where he came into contact with defensive end Tom Tovo and kicker Rob Hart who went on to play in the NFL Europe League with first the London Monarchs and then the Scottish Claymores.

McMillan had a real passion for American football and played for the Great Britain Lions Under-19 team when he was only 17 but was not able to make the step up to NFL Europe.

“I was never physically ready to play in the NFL Europe when I was still playing American football,” he recalls.

“I would have been undersize. My technique and skills were up to the right standard, they have been the aspects of my game which have helped me play at a high standard.

“This is because ever since I started at 15 I was training with the senior team up against bigger and stronger guys so I had to adjust to deal with them.

“When I went to my very first GB youth tryout I went as a tight end but ended up playing and starting as offensive guard.

“This is because of my blocking techniques; I was the smallest offensive lineman at the European Youth Championships in Berlin in 2000.

“As a result of the Championships I was offered to try out for Team Europe at fullback but I couldn’t fly to it in Frankfurt due to financial restrictions.”

McMillan first attended Sundevils practice with Shaun Smith who went on to play for Rhein Fife in NFL Europe and is now on the practice squad of the Carolina Panthers in the NFL.

It was during his time playing American football in Germany that he first saw a handball match and he was hooked.

When sports were looking to recruit athletes for the Olympics through their Sporting Giants programme, McMillan applied and immediately realised that he had a talent for the sport.

“I remember saying to my German girlfriend at the time, “That game looks easy, I bet I could play that!” he explains.

“It is a game that plays to my strengths of throwing, catching and running. The first time I played it was in Nottingham at one of the Sporting Giants trials and this was mid-season for me and my German club so I naturally was able to throw an accurate and fast pass using my Quarterback techniques which I still do hold to a certain degree today.

“My team-mates Danish and British are always commenting on my quarterback style long passes, it makes for an interesting conversion into the sport.

“The change from my football training into handball training was a little difficult in the beginning because of the completely different nature of the sports.

“American Football is very explosive but in short sharp bursts whereas Handball is very continuous at a high pace throughout.

“Therefore I had to change my athletic endurance to adapt to the training; this didn’t take too long under the intensity of the training through my ten-week trial period in Sheffield November 2007.

“There are many parts of my American football training from over the years that have majorly helped to contribute to my success in Handball.

“For example, change of direction drills are common place in football training sessions and speed of directional change in Handball is very important.

“Also, explosive speed from a stationary position is again worked on in football and is helping me massively in handball giving me that extra edge over my opponents.”

McMillan does not know what the future holds after the latest round of cuts from UK Sport but knows the Bundesliga offers him a unique opportunity to further hone his skills.

“We are now going from a centralized program in Aarhus to a de-centralized one over Europe and this potentially could affect the development of many of GB handball athletes in a negative way,” he points out.

“I and four other of the squad are lucky enough to have been given a fantastic opportunity to join Tusem Essen and play in the German Bundesliga for the next four months which is undoubtedly the best league in the world for handball.”

RM
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