Major women's sport leagues in North America regional associations of U Sports: Canada West Universities Athletic Association, Ontario University Athletics, Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec, and Atlantic University Sport. After interconference playoffs have been played, eight teams compete for the Gladys Bean Memorial Trophy, awarded to the U Sports Women's Soccer Championship team. The regular season is eight to nine weeks long, depending on the conference, and, as of 2016, opens on the Labour Day weekend. Teams play between 13 and 16 regular season games, depending on conference or division, with teams typically playing a home-and-home series with every other team in their conference or division.
Hans Baumann Trophy for studying and testing new ideas for the format of the game. In 2002, Handball Federation of Russia has been selected as the recipient of the Hans Baumann Trophy. The Handball Union of Russia was awarded the trophy for the great contribution to the world development of this sport. In 2017, IHF Council decided to reframe and rename it as the IHF President's Development Award. From the commencement of the Trophy till 2015 when the award was reformed and renamed as IHF President's Development Award, the trophy has been awarded to the following national handball federations for their extra ordinary