Doncaster Rovers are launching a new team in a sport that is set to be a phenomenon at the London Olympics this summer.

In conjunction with G7 Sports and Community Coaching, Rovers are launching a Handball team to mark their involvement in a string of other sports separate to Football.

Handball is usually played by two seven-a-side teams and has a very similar concept to football, except that hands are used to pass the ball and the goals are much smaller.

Liam Scully, head of community for the Doncaster Rovers Community Foundation said: "It's a very exciting time for the Community Foundation as we venture into different sports other than football.

"The decision to create a handball team came after holding a number of taster sessions across a variety of different sports with our youth footballers and young people who are enrolled on the club's education courses. Handball was by far the most popular choice."

Graeme Severn, owner of G7 Sports and Community Coaching, is a qualified handball coach, he said: "The aim of the new club for over 16s is to put a strong emphasis on team sport participation and fitness.

"We aim to eventually start playing friendly fixtures against some of the local university and college teams and other handball clubs already set up in the UK, with the possibility of entering a team into the national league in the near future."

Another advantage of the new club will be to hold coaching courses in handball at the Keepmoat Stadium - providing local people with the opportunity to gain a coaching qualification in an up and coming sport.

The new club has the full backing of the National Governing Body of Handball (England Handball) and South Yorkshire Sport.

England Handball say they are proud to announce an agreement with Doncaster Rovers to introduce a new handball club and delighted to add the club to their list of established professional sports clubs within the country;

"This will see South Yorkshire become an emerging area for Handball. The development of coaches is critical to this and we are delighted to be working with the community team and Graeme Severn to support on-going coach education and to develop a long term sustained interest in handball."

Graeme added: "After meeting the Community Foundation team and identifying this as a potential partnership between both of our organizations, I felt it was an opportunity not to be missed.

"Everything else has been seamless and has just fitted into place. I am really excited about establishing this handball club and using the fantastic name and image Doncaster Rovers has to make this a fantastic project for years to come for people all across Doncaster."