I SPORTS I Announcing: A 11111•111 ■ mom, vor Dedicated Maccabi Club Youth Games Tryouts Continued from preceding page The Maccabi Club of Detroit and the Jewish Community Center of Metropolitan Detroit announce tryouts/meetings for teams for the Jewish Community Centers' North American Maccabi Youth Games, August 19 - 26. ELIGIBILITY: Jewish Athletes Ages 13 - 16 as of August 1. TRYOUTS: Girls' Basketball Boys' Basketball Racquetball Boys' Soccer Sunday, March 11 5:15 p.m. Sunday, March 11 6:15 p.m. Sundays, March 18 & 2 5 2:00 p.m. Sunday, March 18 4:00 p.m. (may be outdoors if weather permits) Boys' Softball Sunday, March 2 5 5:00 p.m. (may be outdoors if weather permits) Girls' Softball Sunday, March 2 5 5:00 p.m. (may be outdoors if weather permits) Tennis Sunday, March 2 5 6:00 p.m. MEETINGS: Swimming Karate Wrestling Table Tennis Thesday, March 13 Thesday, March 13 Thesday, March 13 Thesday, March 13 7:15 p.m. 8:15 p.m. 8:15 p.m. 8:15 p.m. Track & Field/ Cross Country Volleyball Wednesday, March 14 7:15 p.m. Wednesday, March 14 8:15 p.m. Girls' Soccer Golf Gymnastics Chess Thursday, March 15 Thursday, March 15 Thursday, March 15 Thursday, March 15 8:15 p.m. 7:15 p.m. 7:15 p.m. 8:15 p.m. *ALL TRYOUTS AND MEETINGS WILL BE HELD AT THE MAPLE/DRAKE BUILDING. Jewish Community Center of Metropolitan Detroit. There will be separate boys' and girls' teams for the team sports. Individual sports will be competed separately for boys and girls by age groups. Everyone is encouraged to try out for multiple sports to maximize their chances of making the Detroit Team. For Further Information, contact Alan Horowitz at 737-0639 64 FRIDAY, MARCH 9, 1990 evenings on a network if they weren't." In addition to basketball, Shafran and Byrnes work high school and football and hockey games. Next August, Shafran hopes to work the Jewish Community Center's North American Maccabi Youth Games, which will be telecast by Continental. Coverage is only in the planning stages. Shafran got interested in broadcasting as a Southfield High School student. "I'm a terrible athlete, really," he says. "But I loved the games and so this is how I managed to participate, to get involv- ed." He worked for WSHJ, the high school radio station, but dropped his broadcasting plans after graduation. Atten- ding Oakland Community College and then Wayne State University, he was "more interested in a real career at that point in my life." The "real career" is his job as assistant manager of a men's store in Livonia. His work there takes most of his days and about three nights each week, Shafran says. Still, he never ditched the idea of sportscasting, if only as an avocation. One reason is the communications field is a family stronghold. Brother Dick is a well- known metro-area disc jockey, spinning records these days at WJOI-FM. Sister Cathy, who has worked television and radio jobs in East Lansing, Grand Rapids and Flint, recently did a stint as a Cable News Network correspondent in Israel. And the three have an un- cle who is a former TV news director for a station in Youngstown, Ohio. So, in the early 1980s, with the cable TV field beginning to open up, Shafran jumped at the chance to get back into sports broadcasting, even if he had to be his own producer, doing all the leg work and set- ting up assignments himself. The highlights have been many, he says. Among them was WKBD sports anchor Eli Zaret's showing of a portion of a recent Shafran Continental telecast on Zaret's 11 p.m. sports segment. The lowlights, meanwhile, have been few. Once, Shafran was doing his post-game wrap-up and forgot the score. "I just blanked out on that one," he says. "I've never done that before, totally blank out like that. "Of course, if you ask my crew, they'll tell you that's my normal state of mind: blank." Shafran's shtick isn't all self-deprecating humor. He Shafran: View from the top. sees the issues behind what he does including criticism that putting high school athletes on television is exploitation. "This is a community ser- vice," Shafran rebuts. "We're not here to make kings out of these kids. "I don't think it's exploita- tion when Howard Golding, the Oak Park High School basketball coach, calls me and tells me that a game tape helped get one of his kids in- to college." And, he adds, in recent years Continental has drawn advertisers like Arbor Drugs into sponsoring an academic athlete of the week. Between his day job and the cable work, there's little time left for other activities, Shafran says. A confirmed TV sportsaholic, he spends his off- hours tooling around the cable dial. He'll watch just about anything that involves a ball or a puck, he says. When he's had his fill of sports, which isn't often, he'll pick up a book or put on a record. Watching old tapes of his work may be enjoyable to family and friends, but not to him, Shafran says. "I'll look at a game two or three times and rip myself to shreds," he says. ❑ B'nai B'rith Men's Bowling Results March 5, 1990 BEN LUSKY-TRAVELING High Games Wayne Lusky 276 Lou Dorfman 243 Jerry Gotlieb 234 Mark Stein 233 Barry Schlussel 231 High Series (4 Gaines) Wayne Lusky 871 T'SHUVAH High Games Alan Saloman 265-258-230 Cal Myers 222 Andrew Feuereisen 225-212 High Series Alan Saloman 753