Sports

Handball Thrives Still on West 4th Court

By Aidan McHenry

Staff Reporter

Eric Santiago started playing handball in the streets of his native Brooklyn, with his four brothers, back in the 1970s. Though the 50-year-old retired from playing professional handball he’s still enjoying the sport, competing along a snatch of West Fourth Street that is better known for basketball.

“To get better, older players used to tell me I had to go to West Fourth to improve my game,” he said, looking back on how the handball courts on West Fourth became his favorite place to dabble in his favorite sport. Today, he keeps his ties to the sport by teaching it and officiating games.

Hector Rivera, 35, of Manhattan, is one of his mentees. “He came to the other park I was playing at,” Rivera said, of Santiago. “I wanted to get better, so I reached out to him and said, ‘I know you give lessons and I’m interested in improving my game, what do we have to do?’ So, we started working together and he started bring me here.”

Handball, Rivera said, helped him strike a balance between school and sports.

“The organized sport required a lot of time and dedication, and I wanted to focus on other things like schooling,” Rivera said. “This is something that I can always play on occasions, and don’t have to worry about being on a team or paying a league fee or anything like that.”

He’s formed some of his closest friendships on the handball court, too. There, he met John “Rookie” Wright, whom he touts “the GOAT,” which stands for “greatest of all time.” Santiago said Wright, absolutely, is among the best of all handballers.

Wright, 46, grew up on the Lower East Side, within walking distance of West Fourth. As a professional handball player, at his peak, he was what his co-players describe as an “A+ level player.” That’s just about the best that any handballer can be.

“Handball actually brought me to West Fourth,” Wright said. “But before handball drew me here, I was playing basketball” at The Cage, the famous basketball court that’s right next to the handball court.

“This is one of the meccas … of basketball,” Wright said. “I was just playing here for fun. I didn’t even know how good they were at basketball.”

And though Wright even competed with and against Smush Parker, a former NBA player, at The Cage and during high school, handball became his greater love. He had a little help with that: “What really got me in was the girls [who] used to play,” Wright said. “Then, I fell in love with the game. Now I have two loves: the girls and the game.”

Like Rivera, Wright also said that handball allowed him to form relationships.

“I’ve met a lot of people. I’ve networked with a lot of really good people,” Wright said. “And when you’re in a game where you excel to the top, everyone takes a liking to you, depending on the personality … I love it.”

Like retired pro handballer Santiago, Wright also teaches and mentors younger players. Two of them, Dan Pitry and Alex Monceo, are scheduled to compete in the Staten Island Wall Ball Tournament at Mariners Harbor in August.

As Wright left the court one summer day, several people came up to him, dapping him what doubled as a see-you-later and a salute to the GOAT.