About fifteen athletes gathered at the 4th Avenue Beach indoor sand courts in Seattle’s Industrial District.
Some people mingled and chatted nervously. Others warmed up by stretching and jogging in the ankle-deep sand, or by shooting balls through “korfs” — tall rims that look like basketball hoops without backboards or nets.
They were there for a Sunday morning regional talent identification camp hosted by US Beach Korfball.
Bill Johnson played professional basketball in Asia and Australia and now competes for the US Beach Korfball team. He leads the team’s talent identification camps in Seattle.
“There’s a couple of different versions of korfball,” Johnson said. “But it’s essentially a centuries-old European cousin of basketball.”
Korfball was invented in the Netherlands in the early 1900s. Unlike basketball, it is played in teams of four, has a no-dribbling rule, and can be played on a court or a beach.
In beach korfball, players run the full length of a sand court, trading passes as they go. The ball moves quickly, but the sand can make it look like players are running in slow motion.
According to Johnson, the biggest thing separating korfball from basketball is that korfball is mixed gender: two men and two women to a team. That caught Johnson’s attention when he first discovered the sport in 2019.
“Korfball is one of the few team sports where men and women not only compete together at the highest level, but compete together as equals,” Johnson said. “And that’s built into the sport’s DNA. I thought that was just incredibly powerful, something I wanted to be a part of and an experience I could learn from.”
In 2021, Johnson reached out to a few friends to gauge their interest in learning korfball. For Ashley Graham, a Renton local who had also played professional basketball overseas, the timing was just right.
“I think what initially got me excited about beach korfball was that we discovered this sport during [the COVID-19 pandemic],” Graham said. “So this was this really exciting opportunity to get outside, be around people again, playing a sport.”
To start their korfball journey, Johnson and Graham needed equipment. And since the sport didn’t have a large presence in the United States, they couldn’t just go out and buy the required 11.5-foot-tall korfs.
So Johnson headed to Home Depot to build his own.
“Basically, we got some wooden slabs and some PVC pipes and a cardboard hoop, essentially,” Johnson said. “And we just kind of made it work.”
Johnson and Graham set up their makeshift korf on Alki Beach. A year later, officially hooked, they began pulling together a team to represent the U.S. at the International Korfball Federation’s first-ever World Beach Korfball Championship. According to Graham, they only had six players; barely enough to compete.
“We were only playing against each other, and we didn’t gain any experience playing other korfball players,” Graham said. “That’s why it was sort of a surprise when we got to these international competitions, of — this is different. We’ve never played against people that have actually played the sport.”
For years, Team USA remained short-handed. But this summer, Johnson and Graham are working to find new talent. Graham, a basketball coach and trainer, has an in with hoopers across the Seattle area. Meanwhile, Johnson’s Instagram ads have brought dozens of newcomers to Seattle Beach Korfball’s weekly open sessions.
Johnson is unsurprised that locals have responded to their recruitment efforts.
“I think Seattle appreciates quirkier sports, or at least quirkier-sounding sports,” he said, citing pickleball and Ultimate Frisbee as examples. “These kind of lesser-known or more niche sports, I think there’s a history here in Seattle of it.”
Back at Team USA’s regional recruitment camp, Camille Parker took a breather after a series of fast-paced drills. Thirty minutes into her first korfball training session, she was acclimating to the sport’s pace.
“I am sweaty,” she said ruefully. “I’ve already fallen once.”
Parker found beach korfball through one of Johnson’s Instagram ads. A former college basketball player, she was looking for a way to stay in shape and get back into basketball casually.
“I feel like this is like an interesting way to do that,” she said. “And sand is unforgiving. So I knew it would be a workout for sure.”
As Parker headed back into the sand, Johnson adjusted a phone filming the scrimmage. He regularly sends clips to a Portugal-based korfball coach, asking for drill ideas and ways to improve.
For now, the U.S. version of korfball remains hampered by limited equipment and a lack of institutional knowledge. But Johnson is optimistic that one day, that will change.
“At this point it's just getting the word out and getting more people involved to spread the word of korfball,” he said.
In the short term, Johnson, Graham, and their teammates are focused on finding top talent, then building a U.S. team that will be a threat at the 2029 World Games.
