I SPORTS

lot of people who have surgeries to the
knee?'
Front says his own athletic par-
ticipation helps him deal with his pa-
tients' injuries. "I think it gives me
a lot more insight into dealing with
them?'
Front's work earned him his trip
to Israel in 1985, plus an invitation
to return in 1989. He hopes to accept
that second invitation. As for his first
excursion, he says, "I thoroughly en-
joyed it. It was a very humbling ex-
perience, to be there and to feel the
identity of Judaism at its basic roots.

1 1

n a time when many sports
headlines tell tales of drug use,
player strikes or college re-
cruiting violations, it is well to
remember the many positive
and beneficial roles that sports can
play.

Many of those roles are ex-
emplified by Huntington Woods resi-
dent Jack Front. A physical therapist,
Front treats many people with sports
injuries, an occupation which led him
to Israel and the international Mac-
cabi Games in 1985, as a U.S. team
trainer. Front also competed in the
1987 Pan Am Maccabi Games in the
half-marathon, and he will coach
Detroit's girls basketball team in
Chicago this year. Additionally, Front,
53, is a regular in the Jewish Com-
munity Center's basketball leagues,
taking on some players half his age.
While Front says he receives dif-
ferent types of satisfaction from dif-
ferent types of athletic involvement,
the common denominator is people. "I
just enjoy working with people," he
says. "It's just the relationship, the
rapport that I can establish with peo-
ple is enjoyable to me." In his medical
career, he adds, he has treated "peo-
ple who've had strokes and amputa-
tions down to the sports injuries, the
sprains and very minor problems, the
whole gamut. I enjoy working with
many of the people that I've been
associated with."

Front competed in varsity foot-
ball, basketball and track at Woodrow
Wilson High School in Beckley, West
Virginia. He went on to rim track and
swim at West Virginia University.
Front was director of physical
therapy at WVU hospital before he
moved to Michigan in 1967 to take a
similar position at the Detroit
Rehabilitation Institute's Medical
Center, where he remained for 13
years. He then set up a private prac-
tice in Bloomfield Hills, where he
remains.

Up Front

For Good Sports

As coach, trainer, physical therapist
and athlete, Jack Front personifies
the positive aspect of sports

MIKE ROSENBAUM

Sports Writer

"We see a lot of people who have
arthritis, patients who have had
sports injuries . . . Not professional
athletes, because professional teams
have their own trainers, but these are
weekend warriors like myself who've

injured themselves. We have a lot of
people who have orthopedic problems,
who have had fractures of the bones,
been in casts and need strengthening
and exercises to develop motion and
strength after the cast is removed, a

"One of the most memorable ex-
periences was going into Jerusalem,
the old city, and seeing the Western
Wall, the old city itself — it's just so
steeped in religion. You definitely
know that this is a religious city."
Front returned to Maccabi action
as a competitor in Caracas,
Venezuela, last summer. Although he
only ran the master's half-marathon
"as a challenge" and was proud to
complete the race, he was more in-
terested in learning how the Jewish
population of Caracas lives. "It was
interesting because the country is
predominantly Catholic there, 90 per-
cent Catholic. The Jewish population
is a very small population. But they
tend to be almost cloistered into an
area of town. The majority of the Jews
in Caracas lived in one section of the
town and they had their own school,
and their own facility there, it was
almost like a country club, where they
had athletic facilities and a school for
the children in the community,
through high school. It was in-
teresting to see that, that they tried
to preserve the Jewish identity in this
manner?'

Front says the Caracas Jewish
community is thriving. "They seem to
be very happy there. There didn't
seem to be any inhibitions of civil
liberties there. The Jews, from my

ROUND UP

Recent Scores
In B'nai B'rith
Bowling Leagues

Ben Lusky Traveling
High games:
Cy Rott
Burt Ellstein
Jerry Lash238
High series (4 games):
Jerry Lash
Mort Friedman
Phil Horowitz

268
244

880
867
799

Zager-Stone/Tucker-Grant
•
High games:
243
Sheldon Rakotz
212
Ron Jacobs
High series:
652
Sheldon Rakotz

Bill Oram
Shel Sherman
Harvey Sherman

569
546
542

Downtown Fox

High game:
Steve Kay

Bloch-Israel
High game:
Neil Werner

Pisgah
High game:
Mort Friedman
High series:
Mort Friedman

Brotherhood Eddie
Jacobson
High game:
Steve Weinberg

250

253

257

701

256

tick, Gary Heicklen, Paul
Katz, Eric Kaczander and
Robert Lyan.

Kenny Goldman
Titles Won

The Grey team coached by
Tare Wigod won the cham-
pionship of the Kenny
Goldman eight-to-10 year-old
league at the Jewish Com-
munity Center on Dec. 20,
4-3, over the Green team
coached by Peter May.
Playing for the victors were:
Michael Bagdade, Garon
Oseff, Scott Schwartz,
Howard Kahn, Randy Modell,
Jordan Field, Brandon Jarvis
and Owen Alterman. Green
team competitors were: Bob-
by Zaid, Shawn Feldman,
Alan Feldman, Freddie Hor-

JCC Teams
Meet Toronto

•

The Jewish Community
Center varsity and junior var-
sity basketball teams travel
to Toronto the weekend of
Jan. 8-10 to compete against
Thronto's JCC varsity and JV
squads. The local JCC varsi-
ty is 4-0 in games and 2-0 in
scrimmages this season, ac-
cording to coach Barry
Bershad.
The varsity squad includes:
Tare Wigod, Greg Wolgin, J.J.
Modell, Marty Upfall, Ryan

Jaffe, Jason Vieder, Scott
Lucas, Greg Feldhandler,
Scott Segal, Steve Cohen, Joe
Zeff, Tom Sweeny, Marty
Belkin and Bob Frankel.

Good Sports?

If you know of an athlete,
coach or sporting event-in
the community which you
would like us to mention in
our sports page, let us
know. Call Mike Rosen-
baum at 354-6060 between
9 a.m. and 1 p.m., Monday-
Thursday. Or write to us:
The Jewish News, 20300
Civic Center Dr., Suite
240, Southfield, MI 48076.

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

59