It is a mix of several sports, requiring high skills and agility; most of its rules are taken from handball, while it resembles basketball in form and method of play, this is Roll Ball, and what many do not know is that the first team specialised in practicing it was formed in Minya.
Porto Minya drew attention with their impressive skating skills and protective gear. The Egyptian Federation at the Ministry of Youth and Sports introduced the team specialising in Roll Ball, in February 2023.
Roll Ball is a team sport played between two teams, using skates, the ball is handled by the players’ hands, and the team that scores the most goals is declared the winner.
Ahmed Alaa, the team’s coach and goalkeeper, also a student in the Faculty of Medicine, says, “we started forming a team for skating a year and half ago. In the first four months, we started collecting information about the sport, and during the last six months we started training and practicing it.”
“After that, we learned about Roll Ball and liked it, as it mixes between Skating, Basketball, and Handball, yet it is a separate sport that requires fitness and agility the most, so we wanted to keep up with this development and be the first roll ball team in Minya and Upper Egypt,” added Ahmed.
Then he continued, “we started looking for sports enthusiasts in Minya and formed a team. Currently, we have ten main players. Roll Ball has become one of the university sports, especially since the players started using skates and training with them.”
Alaa mentioned that the team encountered numerous challenges but managed to overcome most of them. One major issue was the lack of interest in the sport, which led the team to seek a club affiliation to participate in the Egyptian League. However, they were unsuccessful. “We decided to name our team Porto Minya and registered it with the federation at our own expense,” Alaa explained.
Porto Minya participated for the first time in the Egyptian League for Roll Ball sport, and played a number of friendly matches with clubs such as Tanta, Al-Elamyeen and Cairo Club.
Abdulrahman Samaha, a student at the Faculty of Physical Education, Minya University, and a team member, says, “my background in skating and handball was instrumental in forming and playing for the Roller Ball team. I played handball at the Dermoas Youth Centre Club and the College of Physical Education handball team. Now, I’m working to bring that experience to my current team.”
Mohamed Ismael, a student at the Faculty of Physical Education and a member of the Porto Minya team, commented on the team’s formation saying, “the team consists of 10 players, with six on the field and four as reserves. The game’s rules differ from other sports, as players receive three warnings before being sent off for a foul.”
Mohamed thinks that Roll Ball doesn’t receive enough attention in Minya, the thing that Hazem Emad, one of the team members agrees on, saying, “clubs refused to be affiliated with us as the game wasn’t well known to others, even though we do intensive training that depends on warming up and then training on some skills.”
The same dreams are shared by Ahmed Alaa, “we aspire to secure a spot in the league this year and have some of our players join the Egyptian National Roll Ball Team. This is a common dream among many of our team members, and we are striving to make it a reality.”
Egyptian National Roll Ball Team participated in World Cup 2015, and African Championship in 2016, also in World Championship in Bangladesh in 2017, which was the first official participation of the Egyptian National Team after being approved by the Egyptian Olympic Committee in 2019.
The Egyptian team won a bronze medal in their first official participation and secured a silver medal at the World Championship in India in 2023. Additionally, Egypt is preparing to host the Africa and Arab Championship, competing against Kenya for the African and World Championship titles in Roll Ball.
