I SPORTS
Slick Dancing
Jill Attenson's move to ice dancing is
beginning to pay off.
D
MIKE ROSENBAUM
Sports Writer
wring nine years of figure
skating, Jill Attenson's am-
bition outweighed her suc-
cess. Rather than giving up,
she switched to ice dancing
this season, added a partner, and
qualified for her first Midwestern Sec-
tional Championship skating event.
Originally inspired by watching
skating on television, Attenson began
skating at age five. She gradually got
more involved in skating, taking
-group lessons, then solo lessons as she
began competing. -
"I wasn't too good" at solo
freestyle skating, Attenson, 15, ad-
mits. She wanted to switch to pairs
skating, which is more acrobatic than
dance, but an old knee injury prevents
her from doing some of the pairs
moves. So she decided to take the ad-
vice of skating judges and try dance.
Judges told her that "technically
I was very good and I loved perform-
ing. And they said that's what it
takes" to succeed in ice dancing.
While ice dancing lacks the spin-
ning jumps of freestyle figure skating,
dance has its own difficulties.
"Dance is more precise," explains
Attenson. "You have to be a perfec-
tionist. The judges are more picky
about dance than freestyle, because
freestyle is more jumps and spins —
we call it acrobatics. In dance there's
no jumps. I thought it was going to be
easier, but it's harder, much more dif-
ficult because you have to be precise,
you have to be perfect."
Attenson and partner Richard
Peal finished fifth in their regional in
only their second competition
together. At the Midwestern event,
held at the Detroit Skating Club Jan.
3-7, the team placed seventh among
eight pairs. "I'm very happy" with
that result, says Attenson, who says
the team finished with its best free
dance performance yet. "It was rewar-
ding. It was great. It was very en-
couraging for next year."
The team's coach, Peter Dalby,
says Attenson has "done very well.
She's learned a lot. She's got a very
good personality. She's tailor-made for
ice dancing."
Attenson, who began taking solo
dance lessons with Dalby one-and-
one-half years ago, says that dance
practice involves much more drilling
and repetition than freestyle practice.
She finds that she no longer gets the
almost daily rewards that figure
skating practice gives.
"With freestyle, it was really ex-
citing to start new jumps, like to go
on from doubles to triples. It was very
rewarding each time you landed a
jump. With dance it takes a while to
get the rewards that you want . . . The
only time you really get rewards are
when you test a dance or when you
compete?'
Another change for Attenson is
the switch from solo to team perfor-
mance. She spends at least 20 hours
a week on the ice with Peal. "It's like
4
Maccabi Club Looking To 1990
MIKE ROSENBAUM
Sports Writer
T
he Detroit Maccabi Club con-
tinues to increase its interest
in soccer by sponsoring three
new youth teams this spring and
summer.
The club is also building its ex-
ecutive backbone for the 1989
Regional Games in Pittsburgh and
the 1990 North American Youth
Games in Detroit.
One of the new soccer teams will
travel to Israel in July, at the same
time that the World Maccabiah
Games are taking place. The team
will attend the opening and closing
40
FRIDAY, JANUARY 13, 1989
Maccabiah ceremonies and will travel
through Israel, playing several
games.
The club will also form two Little
Caesar's League teams which will
begin play in the spring.
Gabe Attar and Steve Robinson
will coach the teams. Interested
players should call the Maccabi Club
at 661-5240 for tryout or other Mac-
cabi information.
Maccabi Club president Jay
Robinson has been named the general
chairman for the 1990 games.
William Davidson and David
Hermelin are the honorary
co-chairmen.
The North American games were
first held in Detroit in 1984. The
games are held every two years, in-
volving a week of competition, social
activities and cultural events for
Jewish youth aged 13-16. Hosts of the
event will be the Jewish Community
Center, JWB, (National Association of
Jewish Community Centers and
YMHA's), the United States Commit-
tee Sports for Israel anchiMaccabi
Canada. Co-sponsors, with the Center,
are the Michigan Jewish Sports Hall
of Fame and the Maccabi Club.
The games are expected to bring
twice as many athletes, coaches,
chaperones, parents and friends to
Detroit as compared with 1984, a
total of over 4,000 people. Over 2,000
athletes from around the United
States, Israel, Australia, Mexico,
Canada and several South American
countries are expected.
Competition will be held in
basketball, volleyball, softball, soccer,
track and field, gymnastics, swimm-
ing, tennis, table tennis, racquetball,
karate, wrestling, golf and chess.
Since Robinson is occupied with
the 1990 games, Alan Horowitz will
lead the Detroit delegation at the
regional games in Pittsburgh this
summer. An announcement regard-
ing coaches is expected soon. Tryout
dates are not expected before late
March. 111
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