!SPORTS
MIKE ROSENBAUM
Sports Writer
N
o, the kangaroos are not
hopping down the streets
of Australia. No, the Aus-
tralians do not keep them
for pets. Yes, they do speak
English, and are easily understand-
able. And yes, they can play good
basketball.
The Ajax Maccabi Basketball
Club left their Australian summer
behind to tour eight U.S. communities
in January. They began in Los Ange-
les and Palo Alto, California, then
journeyed to Omaha, San Antonio,
Miami, Washington D.C., Norfolk and
New York before winding up their trip
in Detroit last week. They competed
against Jewish Community Center
teams at each stop, and stayed with
local Jewish families.
At a skating party at the South-
field Civic Center Jan. 27, their last
full day before beginning the return
trip home, the Aussies gave their im-
pressions of the United States and
Detroit.
The Australians were knowledge-
.
able about the U.S. before the trip,
they said, but the reverse was not
true. What questions did Americans
ask them about Australia? "The
usual question;' said 15-year-old
Adam Wrublewski, captain of the
13-16-year-old team, "is, do we have
many kangaroos and do we see them
. . . And another strange question is,
do we speak English in Australia.
That was a very strange question.
"We don't really see kangaroos in
Australia," he continued, clearing up
that misconception. "We see them in
the country, not in the city. It's too
crowded!'
Wrublewski is from Sydney, Aus-
tralia's most populous city. He says ur-
Lou Katz, far right, manager of the Ajax Maccabi Club team, tries to keep his troops in line.
No Kangaroos!
An Australian tour of the United
States taught Americans and
Australians some lessons
ban life in Australia is much different
than in the United States. "The pace
at which everything is done in
America is much faster than in
Australia. In Australia they don't
work as long hours and they just don't
rush as much as in America. In
America, everybody seems like
they're in a rush and they're in a
hurry. If you get in their way it's not
very smart!'
Zev Khusid, 15, also from Sydney,
found a new experience on the court.
"In New York, it was good because we
played against the black kids, which
is the first time for me and a lot of
other kids. That was really in-
teresting."
Alan Silver, the head of the
delegation, said earlier in the week
that the young Aussies found several
curious aspects of U.S. Jewish life. "I
think that the kids would say that
they find it difficult to comprehend
the Reform movement here, because
we don't have a Reformed synagogue
Movement in Australia. It's mainly
Orthodox with some liberal syna-
gogues as well!' He defined the
Australian synagogues as generally
not "ultra-Orthodox," but rather
"fairly Conservative!"
Silver continued, "The other
thing that they found interesting was
that in most of the (Jewish) communi-
ty centers we visited, we came across
the fact that the JCC's are not all
Jewish. For instance, in New York we
played against black and Hispanic
teams, and that was fine, and certain-
ly an experience for them. But it was
a shock, I think, initially to find that
JCC's weren't totally. Jewish!'
The Australian Maccabi program
is much older than the U.S. move-
ment. Australia recently held its 55th
Jewish Sports Carnival, in which
Jewish athletes from across the con-
tinent participated. He believes "that
the JCC movement and the Maccabi
movement (in the United States) have
really got to start to mesh together a
lot more than has probably been in
the past."
Silver says the trip took about a
year to put together. He worked
through the U.S. Committee Sports
For Israel, the Maccabi movement
and the Jewish Welfare Board. It was
the first U.S. tour for Australian Mac-
cabi basketball players since 1979.
"The kids represent the Austra-
lian Maccabi Federation," he explain-
ed, "which is the roof body of Jewish
sport in Australia. Some of them, not
many but some of them will go on and
represent Australia in the Maccabiah
Games. So the rationale for the trip
ROUND UP
High School
Player Dies
North Farmington junior
Matthew Leiter, 17, collapsed
after playing in his first var-
sity basketball game on Jan.
26. Despite receiving im-
mediate medical treatment, ,
Leiter was pronounced dead
at Botsford General Hospital
in Farmington Hills later
that night. North Farmington
coach Tom Negoshian said
the death was due to con-
gestive heart failure.
Negoshian, also a teacher
at Warner Middle School,
knew Leiter as a student
there. "As a young man, he
loved the game," said
Negoshian. "It was evident
from the amount of time he
spent on it, from his know-
ledge of what all other teams
44
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1988
are doing. His interest in it
was just immense."
There was a moment of
silence in Leiter's honor
before North Farmington's
game at Farmington last Fri-
day, won by North Farm-
ington, 53-52. Negoshian said
the team is not taking
Leiter's death well. "It's been
a very emotional time for
them, the school, the coach-
ing staff, everybody. The
family. A very, very difficult
time right now."
Goldstein 1st
In Indy Meet
Linda Goldstein scored two
first-place finishes in the
13-14-year-old age group at
the Circle City Classic swim
meet in Indianapolis last
weekend. Goldstein won the
500 freestyle in 5:07.8 and
the 200 free in 1:57.5. She
scored second-places in the
100 free (55.3), 200 back-
stroke (2:16.7) and 200 in-
dividual medley (2:12). She
was third in the 400 IM
(4:43.8). Her time in the 200
IM was .3 seconds short of
qualifying for the United
States Swimming junior na-
tional meet. Her goal is to
swim junior national qualify-
ing times in several events at
the USS Michigan state
championships March 4-6 at
the Oakland Community Col-
lege Orchard Ridge campus.
Jodi Shapiro was runnerup
in two events last weekend,
the 50 breaststroke (34.3) and
100 breaststroke (1:13.9).
Dena Bernstein is still
rounding back into shape
following a winter vacation,
according to her coach, Bob
Jenrow. She still swam a per-
sonal best 2:17.2 in the 200
butterfly, placing 11th.
Bernstein plans to swim in
an Ann Arbor meet Feb.
20-21. She and Shapiro will
also compete in the state
championships.
Akiva Drops
Second Game
Akiva Day School's basket-
ball team took a quick 6-0
lead at Southfield Manoogian
last Tuesday, but Manoogian
roared back to win, 43-23.
Akiva is now 1-2.
"They took the game to us,"
reported Akiva coach Gary
Yashinsky. "They were bigger
and stronger than us and we
tired out in the late going."
Joel Finkelman led Akiva
with eight points, Noam
Koenigsberg added six, Dan-
ny Najman four, Yariv Misgav
three and Jeff Traurig two.
The two teams will stage a
rematch early next week.
Dobransky In
Gym Meet
Olympic hopeful Dana
Dobransky headlines this
weekend's Acronaut Invita-
tional gymnastics meet at
Pontiac Central High School.
Dobransky competes for the
Birmingham-based Aeronaut
team.
650 women are expected to
compete today through Sun-
day. The championships in
the Elite Class, which in-
cludes Dobransky, begins at 6
p.m. Saturday.
Admission will be charged.