I SPORTS

Hitting The
Hardwoods

From benchwarmers to
All-Staters, Jewish players
are taking to the basketball
courts this winter.

MIKE ROSENBAUM

Special to The Jewish News

T

wo high school basket-
ball teams featuring
prominent and promis-
ing Jewish players hope to
make an impact on the state
and local scene this season.
North Farmington, featur-
ing all-state candidate Matt
Hoffman, won its first three
games and was ranked 10th in
the state in Class A in the
Detroit News.
Bloomfield Hills Andover,
although not aspiring to such
lofty heights, entered the holi-
day break at 3-3 in search of
its first winning season in
memory.
West Bloomfield and Ann
Arbor Huron also feature
Jewish players, while Howard
Golding, possibly the only
Jewish coach of boys varsity
basketball in Michigan,
returns for his second year at
Oak Park.
At West Bloomfield, .6-foot-7
sophomore center Scott Zack
has been moved up to the
Laker varsity squad by Coach
Tim Domke. "He played with
the Detroit Maccabi Club last
summer and it really improv-
ed him," Domke said.
Zack joins two other Jewish
varsity players, Josh Cascade,
a senior guard who is the
team's sixth man, and Dave
Hubert, a junior forward who
has yet to see heavy duty.
At North Farmington, Hoff-
man, a 5-foot-10 senior point
guard, is a third-year starter
who has excelled as both a
scorer and a playmaker with
the Raiders.
Last year, North Farm-
ington coach rIbm Negoshian
asked Hoffman to be floor
leader, running the offense
and hitting the open man.
Hoffman will keep that role
this year in North Farm-
ington's fast-break attack, but
he's also averaging 25 points
per game, with a season high
of 31.
"We're getting up and down
the floor an awful lot," ex-
plains Negoshian. "And I
think that has a lot to do with

54

FRIDAY, JANUARY 12, 1990

how many points we're scoring
as a team. We're averaging up
high in the 80's."
Also, the emergence of
Raider starting guard Brian
Temple and forwards Chris
White and Eric Carlson as
scorers helps keep the scoring
pressure off Hoffman. "The
other kids have become more
adept at shooting and scor-
ing" Negoshian says, "so it's
really allowed Matt to fulfill
more of a true point guard
role."
Hoffman, who is being
recruited by several Division
I colleges this season does not
think about posting big
numbers to impress college
coaches, Negoshian says.
"He's doing a real good job.
He's put the team ahead of
everything else. He feels that
if the team's successful, all his
personal goals will fall into
place. And I think he's very
correct in that. So everything
that he's doing is team-geared.
And I think that's the way it
has to be."
Senior forward Mike Smith
and senior guard Jamie
Stewart are North Farm-
ington's other two Jewish
players. Both played varsity
sparingly last year, but now
Smith is playing regularly off
the bench. Stewart, however,
is caught behind a strong
lineup of guards.
"Mike Smith has improved
vastly," Negoshian says. "He's
been one of our first kids off
the bench . . . He's done a nice
job for us. He worked awful
hard throughout the summer
to be able to not ony make the
team but be able to get some
playing time.

"The same thing with
Jamie," the coach adds.
"Jamie worked awful hard
through the summer. But it's
somewhat of a numbers game.
Out of 14 kids, we have 11 or
12 who lettered last year and
eight who started, at one time
or another. In no way is his
not playing indicative of his
ability or his attitude. I just
think that he's caught
somewhat in a numbers game
in playing behind some pret-

Laker sophomore Scott Zack
towers over Josh Cascade (33)
and junior-varsity player Ian
Friedenberg during practice.

Cascade, left, and Zack get a
breather from Coach Domke.