August Raskie left Colorado Springs as a volleyball player and returned as a rising handball star. 

A graduate of Rampart High School, Raskie, 29, went on to become an All-American volleyball player at the University of Oregon before embarking on a seven-year professional career. In January, she attended a handball tryout and found quick success, even representing the U.S. in a friendly with Puerto Rico. 

Six months later, Raskie returned home as one of 48 top U.S. women’s handball athletes invited to participate in the inaugural Handball Futures Festival, a multi-day showcase of emerging handball talent, at Fountain Valley School in Colorado Springs. 

“It’s incredible to have so many talented people come together and build the future of handball,” Raskie said. “Everybody here is part of something bigger than themselves, so it’s awesome to be part of that and watch this sport continue to grow.” 

The purpose of the festival is to bring together multiple generations of handball athletes and to showcase rising stars like Raskie through a four-team tournament. Players were selected from tryouts held across the country and are coached by past Olympians and national team legends. 

Opening day on Wednesday also featured an opening ceremony inside the school’s gym and a clinic with local youth. The vision for the showcase came from former U.S. handball Olympian Kathy Rex, who was inspired by the U.S. Olympic Sports Festival that Colorado Springs hosted for the first two years in 1978 and 1979. 

With the showcase, organizers hope to facilitate the growth of women’s handball, which hasn’t been in the Olympics since the Atlanta games in 1996, when it auto-qualified as the host nation. The United States will auto-qualify again for LA28, and Team USA Handball wants to make the most of it. 

“There was a lot of change in philosophy about how to put a team together,” Cindy Stinger, a three-time U.S. handball Olympian, said. “After ‘96, leadership didn’t take advantage of the grassroots they developed in Atlanta. People got upset and stepped away, but now it’s back.”

Stinger, 68, played in the 1984, 88, and ’92 Olympics for Team USA, and worked for the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee for 36 years before retiring. The New Jersey native recalls being hooked after an invite-only tryout at the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Training Center, which had just opened.

“It’s meant everything to my life,” Stinger said about handball. “It’s brought me here and allowed me to compete at the highest level. It provided me an opportunity to think outside the box, and that allowed me to seek other things with the Olympic committee.” 

For one former Olympian, Kristen Torpey, the festival is a chance to pass on her love for the sport to her daughter, Brigid, who played handball for the first time Wednesday. Torpey played on the 1996 squad and hopes Brigid, a lacrosse player at the University of Montevallo, continues to play handball after college. 

Torpey is an advocate for grassroots handball and recommends those interested in the sport to seek local clubs. There are 16 courts in Colorado where handball is played, according to the Colorado Handball Association, including the Pikes Peak YMCA in Colorado Springs. 

The handball community is close, with several former players joyously reuniting at Fountain Valley School for the first time in years. During the opening ceremony, Stinger passed a torch to her 1992 teammate, Chryssandra Watts-Hires. The former Olympic athletes have remained close and are planning a trip to L.A. together in 2028. 

“A lot of people see handball around the Olympics and want to know more about it, so we want to start the awareness now,” Watts-Hires said. “We want to give women another avenue for a major sport that they can play in the Olympics.”

Coming home was a full-circle moment for Raskie. Although she dreams of representing the United States on the Olympic stage, she sees a greater sense of purpose in helping grow the sport. 

As a former three-sport athlete at Rampart, Raskie’s versatility and athleticism have proved valuable, and she wants others to see that potential in themselves. 

“I tell others, ‘go be brave,’ ” Raskie said. “It’s going to be awkward and uncomfortable, but we want to make mistakes because when we make mistakes, we’re learning. That’s what sports are all about.”