The bonds that tie

Fitzgerald brothers are veterans of handball and the faith

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic -- A single vow of poverty requires patience, dedication and self-discipline beyond the means of most mortal men. But two vows? That takes a special breed. Meet Joe Fitzgerald, team handball Olympian and aspiring Catholic priest.

The first vow is self-explanatory. But the second? Remember the five-star, thousand-dollar-a-night hotel suites that barely passed muster with the Dream Team in Barcelona a decade ago? Well, after taking sabbaticals from their jobs and social lives, paying their way to New York to fight for group gym time, the members of the U.S. handball team stayed for two months in the Immaculate Conception Center in Douglaston, where Joe was living. Bad news: no mints on the pillow; good news: you get to clean your own latrines. "They got to experience my life. An 8-by-11-foot room, a lamp, a desk. They busted my chops a lot about the accommodations," says Joe, 31, who will join his brother Tom, 37, and the rest of the U.S. squad in taking on Uruguay for the team handball bronze medal in Santo Domingo on Monday.

The austere accommodations may have been new, but the Fitzgeralds' faith has been the cornerstone of their lives since long before Sunday school. Tom and Joe had an uncle in the priesthood and their parents, Thomas and Grace Anne, worked in the church. The Fitzgerald sons were altar boys until their senior years of high school. They were also outstanding athletes. Tom played basketball for St. Bonaventure. Joe won a national Division III title as a quarterback at Ithaca College.

In grade school, the boys were introduced to team handball, which is a bit like soccer without feet, hockey without sticks and basketball without travelling calls or hoops. The Fitzgeralds thought the game was a blast. "It combines great athletic skills, teamwork and quick thinking," Tom has said. "You have to try it."

The Fitzgeralds were teammates on the U.S. team handball squad that competed at the 1996 Atlanta Games. After the team was eliminated without winning a medal, both brothers went on with life, pursuing their respective interests while never losing sight of their shared goal of competing in another Olympics. Tom headed into the business world and now works in New York as a manager at Assante Life Management solutions, from which he frequently takes unpaid leave to train and compete.

Tom is also the team handball representative on the USOC's Athletes' Advisory Council. His federation has an annual budget of $200,000 to cover payroll and upkeep as well as the team's training and travel expenses. "When they give out the money, handball gets what's left over," he says.

Joe has taken the game into juvenile detention centers, introducing handball to anyone who is willing to give it a shot. He has also coaxed the priests into expanding the weight room at the seminary. "It used to be a couple of dumbbells," he says. "We want to have healthy priests. It helps manage the stress."

Still, Joe's dual pursuits do demand a lot. "I have this vision of myself as Superman," Joe says. "I'm ripping off the priest suit, putting on the USA shirt and then heading back to confessional." Of course, I'm under the church's jurisdiction. If they tell me to stop, I stop. Of our vows: poverty, chastity and obedience, the hardest one is obedience. If the bishop says, 'Joe, you can't go,' I have to hand in my shoes. I'm in parallel worlds, really. In the seminary I get up at 4 o'clock in the morning. It's a mind challenge that makes other challenges easy."

Monday's bronze medal game against Uruguay brings its own challenge -- a bittersweet one. Only the Pan Am champion will earn a berth in next summer's Games in Athens. After dropping their semifinal tilt against Brazil Thursday night, the U.S. men were eliminated from contention.

Still, despite their ages and their team's downfall in Santo Domingo, neither Joe nor Tom expressed any interest in retirement, as fanciful as another Olympic quest might seem. For now, the brothers Fitzgerald continue to serve the ideals of their faith and their sport with noble reverence.

Sports Illustrated staff writer Brian Cazeneuve covers Olympic sports for the magazine and is a regular contributor to SI.com.

 

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