Sasquatch All-Time Player Registry

 

The Portland Sasquatch are one of the most decorated teams in Oregon sports history. We have begun the process of adding a comprehensive all-player registry. Check back often for new adds & player/coach biographies. 

Abbas: Cascadia Champion. State Champion. Portland Sasquatch tournament player. 

Ahmad: Cascadia Champion. State Champion. Portland Sasquatch tournament player. 

Aljaz Supovec: United States 2023 Tournament Silver Medalists for goals scored: 55.

Alexandra Creteau: 2022 Inspiration Award. 2x Ukrainian Karatedo National Champion. 13x Medalist.

Amelia Horton: 2022 Inspiration Award. Florida State University. National Champion. 

Ali Nouri: Cascadia Champion. State Champion. Portland Sasquatch tournament player. 

Angel Cardona:  Two-time National Silver Medalist. Cascadia Champion. State Champion. Angel started playing handball over 10 years ago in Puerto Rico, playing for the Guaynabo Conquistadores. There he found his love for the game and for his position as a goalkeeper.

After Angel moved to Georgia, he joined the Georgia Handball Club where they brought back two silver medals at US Nationals.

Angel finally made it to the PNW, and is proudly the Sasquatch starting tournament goalkeeper.

Amanda Mourao: Cascadia Champion. State Champion. Portland Sasquatch tournament player. 

Brad Dow: Co-Founder of the Portland Sasquatch. Team USA. Cascadia Champion. State Champion. Portland Sasquatch tournament player. 

Britney Cooper: 2022 Inspirational Award, West Indies. Cricket World Cup. 

Bryce Fransen: Cascadia Champion. State Champion. Portland Sasquatch tournament player. 

Caren: Cascadia Champion. State Champion. Portland Sasquatch tournament player. 

Clement Suard: Cascadia Champion. State Champion. Portland Sasquatch tournament player. 

Drew Edelman: 2022 Inspirational Award. Professional Basketball (Israel).

EJ Udo-Udoma: Team USA. State Champion.  A Sasquatch legend since the 2008 season, EJ would go on to become a National Team player in both Indoor and Beach Handball for the United States, now internationally known as the “Handball Ninja”. EJ is a true inspiration to all players with the dream of making Team USA and/or winning a national championship.

Eva J: State Champion. Portland Sasquatch tournament player. 

Fabien: Cascadia Champion. State Champion. Portland Sasquatch tournament player. 

Felippe Motta: Cascadia Champion. State Champion. Felippe started playing college handball in Brazil, where he represented Faculdade Casper Libero for seven years, participating in several local, regional, and national tournaments. Felippe and family moved to the United States in 2016 and from that on, he defends our Portland Sasquatch colors.

Fernanda Valenzuela: Joined the team in the 2021/2022 season: Portland Sasquatch tournament player. 

George Callaway: Cascadia Champion. State Champion. Portland Sasquatch tournament player. 

Greg Inahara: Cascadia Champion. State Champion. Portland Sasquatch tournament player. 

Guilherme Berberian: Cascadia Champion. State Champion. Portland Sasquatch tournament player. 

Horst Niehaus: Olympic Athlete. Cascadia Champion. State Champion. Portland Sasquatch tournament player. 

Jacob Seawell: Cascadia Champion. State Champion. Portland Sasquatch tournament player. 

Jake: Cascadia Champion. State Champion. Portland Sasquatch tournament player. 

Jan Vanderstraeten: Cascadia Champion. State Champion. Head Coach.  Jan's path to player, coach, servant-leader of Portland Sasquatch truly began in 2002. A talented & heavily recruited soccer goalie, Jan was at an athletic crossroads after declining a semi-professional soccer offer. During this athletic soul searching, Coach G. Debusschere from HC Don Bosco Gent watched Jan play in a soccer friendly and talked to Jan about coming out and trying out as a Team Handball goalie. Especially since P. Danhieux, B. Danhieux and much younger T. Van de Walle (Jan`s cousins) are already into the sport. 

After a couple of practices, Jan decided he'd rather be a field player in handball than a goalie in soccer or handball. This is when the real handball journey began. Jan started practicing four times a week and a played minimum one game every weekend -- often two. Concurrently, Jan was finishing up his Masters in Kinesiology and Physical Education, he decided to take on even more, and started coaching the youngest kids at HC Don Bosco Gent (7-10 year old). What Jan lacked in experience in handball, was made up in determination. M.Thys - VFL Gummersbach/HC Don Bosco Gent, together with the coaching team at HC Don Bosco Gent, to win the prize for best youth sports team development in Belgium two years in a row. 

Jan was ready for the next step and accepted a half-time job with DHW Antwerp where he had the difficult task of creating a youth development program, specifically empowering female athletes. Jan ended up spreading his enthusiasm for the sport to inspirational athletes like N. Antonissen and K. Antonissen (Belgium Women's national team). While working as a youth coordinator for DHW Antwerp, Jan kept on playing and coaching for HC Don Bosco Gent, and this results in three appearances for the first team (who were playing top 3 in Belgium's 2nd division at that time). Even though Jan missed all the youth experience as a field player, Jan grew as a coach and sets out to realize his UEFA B License for Handball.

The handball gods called again, as Jan was in the States in the 2013/2014 sports season. In the States, he met the DC Diplomats and DC Ambassadors and decided to continue with his youth coaching ambitions. Jan volunteered for KidPower in DC and managed to get five middle schools to play in a handball tournament against each other, which is probably the first time a youth tournament ever happened in the USA. While playing for the ambassadors with B. Kaminski and Bryan Cothorn (DC Diplomats).

Equally in the 2012-2013 season, Jan was back in Belgium co-coaching an older team 11-14 year olds with success: That team ended up qualifying for the VHL finals.  

At the end of the 2013 season, Jan resolved to move to the States permanently. Jan and his family ended up in Portland, OR, developing the new era of Pacific Northwest talent. This included local legend, Ebiye Udo-Oduma, now USA`s Beach Handball Director. 

Working with Brad Dow`s (Coach Portland), Jan started slowly putting in some more structure into the team and the practices. Jan clicked with Jerad Klingsporn (THC Portland Sasquatch) and together they were able to improve the team: Jerad ensuring facilities and Jan taking care of player influx, online presence, and simply structuring and organizing the team and the practices (this is the whole reason why G. Inahara-USA men's National team came into contact with the sport). These achievements earned Jan the status, `Coach` of the Portland Sasquatch.

All the hard work resulted in a huge increase of players in three years time with the season 2018-2019 being absolutely amazing with a minimum of 25 players during every practice. At the same time Jan made sure that the Portland Sasquatch started contending in local and national tournaments: Vancouver Cup, Calheat Cup, Nationals Reno, Chicago, to name a few. Jan also decided that Portland deserved its own tournament and this resulted in the creation of  The Sasquatch Slam, which became the pinnacle of anything Team Handball in the Pacific Northwest. The next dream is to create a middle and high school tournament that hopefully will someday result in a rejuvenating of the United States first team! 

Jasmin: Cascadia Champion. State Champion. Portland Sasquatch tournament player. 

Jerrad Klingsporn: Co-Founder of the Portland Sasquatch. State Champion. Portland Sasquatch tournament player. 

Joe Bauer: Cascadia Champion. State Champion. Portland Sasquatch tournament player. 

John Tudisco: Cascadia Champion. State Champion. Portland Sasquatch tournament player. 

Juan Carlos Rolon: Cascadia Champion. State Champion. Portland Sasquatch tournament player. 

Justin Lacche: Cascadia Champion. State Champion. Part of the Sasquatch goalkeeping core since the 2016 season, Justin is a professional multi-sport athlete, including one of the national all-time American cricket runs-scored batsman with the Beaverton Badshahs.  In 2021, Lacche formed Handball Goalies United. 

Krystel Taffola: Cascadia Champion. State Champion. Portland Sasquatch tournament player. 

Linda M: Cascadia Champion. State Champion. Portland Sasquatch tournament player. 

Madison Haley: 2022 Inspiration Award. Stanford University, NCAA All-American, 2019.

Marco Kashima: Cascadia Champion. State Champion. Portland Sasquatch tournament player. 

Mario Fleiter: Cascadia Champion. State Champion. Portland Sasquatch coach and tournament player. 

Marta García López: Motorsports & Esports Champion. Spain.

Martin Conta: Cascadia Champion. State Champion. Portland Sasquatch tournament player. 

Maryna Moroz: Ukrainian Boxing Champion. UFC professional. 

Mason Schreck: 2022 Inspiration Award: Cincinnati Bengals, 2021 AFC Champions.

Mimoza Livingston: Cascadia Champion. State Champion. Portland Sasquatch tournament player. 

Mustafa Kamal: Cascadia Champion. State Champion. Portland Sasquatch tournament player. 

Pauilto: Cascadia Champion. State Champion. Portland Sasquatch tournament player. 

Phillippe Motta: Cascadia Champion. State Champion. Portland Sasquatch tournament player. Phillippe started playing college handball in Brazil, where he represented Faculdade Casper Libero for seven years, participating in several local, regional, and national tournaments. Phillippe to the United States in 2016 and from that on, he defends our Portland Sasquatch colors.

Raphael Renault: Co-Founder of the Portland Sasquatch. State Champion. Portland Sasquatch tournament player. 

Ruben SA: Cascadia Champion. State Champion. Portland Sasquatch tournament player. 

Ryan Earley: Cascadia Champion. State Champion. Portland Sasquatch tournament player. 

Sam Membrino: Cascadia Champion. State Champion. Portland Sasquatch tournament player. 

Sam Noyer: Inspirational Athlete. Division I Quarterback. Oregon State University. University of Colorado. 

Shriki Yaniv: International Bronze Medalist. Israeli Club Champion. Cascadia Champion. State Champion. Shriki started playing the sport at nine years old; going on to be chosen to play at the Israeli national team, youth level.

This achievement culminated in Shriki and team winning Bronze at the U18 European Championship. In his international career, Shriki has played against teams from Denmark, Spain, Germany, France, Turkey, Portugal and more. At Club level. Shriki played First Division in Israel with Maccbi Tel Aviv, Netanya , Rannana, and Hertzlia, retired at 38 with a Second Division championship with Ramat Han. In 2015, Shriki moved to Portland Oregon and joined Portland Sasquatch:

“What I have noticed playing over the years with players from all over the world and different languages and cultures is that handball is a mutual love and in spoken language that you truly understand each other by movements and not words. It’s a highly physical game with an honorable behavior,” Shriki said.

Stephane Roux: Co-Founder of the Portland Sasquatch. National Champion. Stephane started playing team handball in 1982 in France at a regional club level and national university level until he moved to the USA in 1995. 

In 2003 after some research, Stephane created a handball club in Portland and since then with the help of some key members, Raphael Renault, Jerrad Klingsporn, Brad Doe and now Jan Vanderstraeten -  Portland has had a handball presence for the past 18 years.

Stephane helped win a United States national championship in 2005 in open division with the Salt Lake City Warriors. Stephane returned in the 2021 season to help the Sasquatch return to action post the global pandemic.

Simone Mortensen: Cascadia Champion. State Champion. Portland Sasquatch tournament player. 

Teresa: Cascadia Champion. State Champion. Portland Sasquatch tournament player. 

Tim H: Cascadia Champion. State Champion. Portland Sasquatch tournament player. 

Touraj: Cascadia Champion. State Champion. Portland Sasquatch tournament player. 

Trent Wollam: Portland Sasquatch tournament player. 

Valentin Josipovic: Sasquatch President: Cascadia Champion. State Champion. Portland Sasquatch tournament player. 

Will Arndt: 2022 Inspirational Award. Canadian Football League QB.

Yaniv Shriki: Cascadia Champion. State Champion. Portland Sasquatch tournament player.