Copley graduate Jason Borchik leads USA men’s beach handball team

Men’s soccer fans are engrossed in the 2026 World Cup that is currently taking place in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

The play on the pitch has been entertaining and spirited, but there is another world championship tournament taking place right now.

That tournament is the 2026 Men’s Beach Handball World Championship in Zagreb, Croatia from June 23-28.

Jason Borchik, a 2006 Copley High School graduate, is the captain of the United States men’s beach handball team. USA was scheduled to play against Portugal and Spain on Tuesday, June 23 and Iran on Wednesday, June 24 in preliminary matches. The top two teams advance to the knockout round.

Borchik was a three-sport standout at Copley who started playing Indoor Handball during his time as a student in the United States Military Academy at West Point.

“I didn’t know what it was,” Borchik said of handball during a telephone interview with the Akron Beacon Journal on June 16.

“I was in a Computer Science class sitting with one of my classmates, and he said ‘You should come play handball.’ I was like, ‘What the heck is handball?’ He pulled up a YouTube video and showed me a clip of handball from the Olympics or something. I was like ‘This looks awesome. We have that here?” He said: ‘Yeah, I am on the team. You should come try it.’

Borchik went to a practice and ended up playing on the team for the remainder of his time at West Point.

Borchik, who is 6-foot-6 and 215 pounds, earned three USA Indoor Handball collegiate club championships and played on the American team in the 2012 Pan American Championships in Argentina.

“I loved playing handball a West Point,” Borchik said. “I had a great time doing that. My junior year, I got invited to tryout for the USA junior national team and played with them that summer. Then my senior year, I ended playing with the actual USA national team, and played on and off for a few years after that with the with the indoor national team.”

Borchik, 38, lives in Austin, Texas with his wife, Laura, and their son, Sebastian.

Borchik has been playing beach handball from 2020 to the present. He got his start at Hermosa Beach, California and regularly travels back there once a month to play.

Borchik is a pivot for the USA national beach handball team.

“I would say it is most comparable to a power forward in basketball,” Borchik said. “It’s a hybrid between a wing and a power forward in basketball where it is a primary scoring threat. There is a six-meter line and I play right along the six-meter line. The objective is you are trying to put the ball in the back of the net. I am trying to position myself in between the defenders.

“There are three backs, a left wing, a center back, who is kind of the point guard, and then there is a right wing. The three of them are basically penetrating and kicking. They are trying to draw attention from the defense, and throw a pass to the line where then I can finish. In most competitions, I am either our leading scorer or second leading scorer. My role is to score.”

Borchik is one of 10 players on USA’s roster for the Beach Handball World Championship, a tournament with 16 teams. The 2026 World Championship in Croatia is his third after helping the Americans finish 11th in 2022 in Greece and 13th in 2024 in China.

Borchik played a key role in USA winning the North American / Caribbean championship in 2022, 2024 and 2026. He was named MVP in 2024.

United States beach handball player Jason Borchik’s connection to Copley

Jason Borchik is the second of Jim and Linda Borchik’s four sons. All four sons graduated from Copley High School: Jamie in 2003, Jason in 2006, Daniel in 2008 and David in 2011. Jim Borchik was an assistant principal at Copley from 1993-2016 and Copley’s athletic director from 2010-2016. He was also a teacher and basketball coach at Barberton High School for a decade prior to his run at Copley.

Jason Borchik was inducted into the Copley High School Athletic Hall of Fame in December of 2025. He was a three-year varsity letter winner in football, basketball and baseball who earned All-Suburban League honors and served as a team captain in all three sports. He played quarterback in football, in the paint in basketball and was a first baseman and pitcher in baseball.

Borchik was named the Akron Beacon Journal Student-Athlete of the Year in 2006. He graduated with a 3.9 GPA, ranking 13th in a class of 236.

Borchik attended the United States Military Academy at West Point and earned a bachelor’s degree in Kinesiology in 2010.

From 2010 to 2020, Borchik served in the U.S. Army where he became a Sapper, a Ranger and a Green Beret. He rose to the rank of Captain, was deployed twice to Afghanistan and once to Colombia, earned two Bronze Star Medals and received an MBA from Northwestern.

United States beach handball player Jason Borchik’s connection to baseball

Away from the sand, Borchik is the Executive Vice President of Business Development for Home Run Dugout, an innovative baseball entertainment company featuring immersive, gamified batting bays and social venues.

“Home Run Dugout is similar to Top Golf, but you are not hitting a ball into an open range like Top Golf,” Borchik said. “This is actually more like a golf simulator. We invented this technology where the ball pops out of the ground right in front of home plate. It is like a little soft toss up into the air. You hit the ball off a 20-foot wide curved screen and there is a simulation of all of the Major League Baseball stadiums. You can play at Progressive Field or Yankee Stadium or Fenway Park or any stadium. There are a bunch of different games that you can play.”

Home Run Dugout has batting bays at Globe Life Field in Arlington, home of the Texas Rangers, and in Katy, Texas; Wichita, Kansas; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Bossier City, Louisiana; Round Rock, Texas and Cooperstown, New York.

Akron Beacon Journal sports writer Michael Beaven can be reached by email at mbeaven@thebeaconjournal.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Copley graduate Jason Borchik leads USA men’s beach handball team