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coach Howard Golding, who
plans to scrimmage his Mac-
cabians against his own Oak
Park High School and
Southfield-Lathrup squads
during the summer. The two
schools are part of a Monday-
Wednesday league that
features one-hour games.
The Maccabi team should
be one of the biggest in the
Games, he said. "I can't pic-
ture too many other such
teams coming in with our
size." On the roster are 6-5,
200-pound Harley Marks,
6-6 Scott Zack, 6-2 Mike
Laker, 5-10 Seth Hoffman,
6-1 1/2 David Belenson,
6-2, 220-pound Aaron Gitler,
who played fullback last
season for North Farm-
ington, and 5-10 point guard
Jeff Rosenberg.
"We've got a good
nucleus," said Golding, who
said all have played junior-

M

Over 200 young athletes will
be putting their best feet
and arms and legs
forward as the host
squad for the JCC-
Maccabi Youth Games,

Merrek Sakwa
is a record-
setting
miler

RICHARD PEARL

Staff Writer

H

ere's a hot recipe for
this summer of 1990:
Take youthful en-
thusiasm, add a fair amount
of athletic ability, mix in a
chunk of community pride
and season with a mostly
veteran coaching staff. Bake
until Aug. 19.
The result? A new local
"entree" known as Team
Detroit: the 200-plus mem-
ber Detroit Maccabi Club
squad of area Jewish
athletes ages 13-16. Ideally,
it'll be served warm, gar-
nished with equal parts
competitiveness and
camaraderie, as the main
dish on the menu when
Detroit hosts the 1990 Jew-
ish Community Centers
North American Maccabi
Youth Games Aug. 19-26.
"We will probably have
about 210 youngsters on the
Detroit team," said Dr. Alan
Horowitz, the Farmington
Hills dentist who is the
team's volunteer coor-
dinator.
Both Horowitz and Jay
Robinson, Games general
chairman, have been im-
pressed by the commun-
ity-wide interest in the
Games, which brought out
nearly twice the number of
young hopefuls as there
were team slots.
In some cases, several

tryouts were needed to select
the final team. In other
cases, youngsters switched
to sports for which they were
better suited.
Altogether, Team Detroit
encompasses 19 squads par-
ticipating in 14 different
sports — basketball (boys'
and girls' teams competing
separately); chess (co-ed);
golf (boys); gymnastics (co-
ed); karate (boys); racquet-
ball (boys); soccer (boys and
girls); softball (boys and
girls); swimming (boys and
girls); table tennis (co-ed);
tennis (co-ed); track and field

Only a few
openings remain
for the Games in
August

(co-ed); volleyball (boys and
girls) and wrestling (boys).
A 15th sport, cross-
country, is available to all
team members wishing to
compete. It will be run at the
end of the Youth Games,
which are scheduled Aug.
19-26 at the Maple-Drake
JCC and other northwest
suburban Detroit sites.
Competition will come
from 60 other United States

and foreign delegations,
which will be bringing in
2,200 other youngsters in
what will be the largest
Youth Games in the biennial
event's eight-year history.
Horowitz and Robinson
pointed out that athletic
competition is not the only
thing the 1990 Youth Games
means.
"Whether or not our kids
win is truly secondary. In
fact, winning is not even the
primary focus of the
Games," said Horowitz.
Athletics, he said, is a means
to accomplish "the most im-
portant part of the Games,"
which he feels is "to get as
many kids as possible to par-
ticipate" and "meet and
interact and socialize with
other Jewish youngsters
from across the U.S. and
other countries.
"Whether our kids are na-
tional or all-state caliber
athletes or just recreational
athletes, the important
thing is for them to realize
they're Jewish and realize
we have a common culture
with others living
elsewhere."

varsity basketball and who
plans a pressure-type
defense. No starting lineup
has been established.
Assistant coaches are
Barry Bershad and Rick
Kaczander.
Rounding out the squad
are:
Ray Melton, Ryan Fried, Sam
Averbuck and Mark Herman.

GIRLS BASKETBALL
Steve Weiss, who coached
Detroit's 1986 team at the
Toronto Maccabi in which
North Farmington star Kim
Gurecki got her start, said
he's looking for her suc-
cessor in this year's squad.
Although too few players
tried out for the 1988
Chicago Maccabi Games to
form a team, some 20 girls
came out this year, but
several chose other sports.
Weiss is down to 10 players,
with room for two more on
the roster.
He said his goal is to be as
competitive as possible, but
he expects such cities as Los
Angeles to bring in bigger,
stronger and more experi-
enced teams.
"Participation is most im-
portant," he said. Besides,
"in '86 we were undersized
and inexperienced, but we
won a game and had a great
time. We hope to duplicate
that this year."
The 1990 squad:

Alison Goldberg, Niki Berlin, Debbi
Hortick, Amy Kelman, Jaime
Magid, Lisa Millman, Alison Stein,
Danielle Steinberg, Shana Victor,
Esther Yaniv.

Hurdler Jeanette
Rubinstein gears
up for the
games.

BOYS BASKETBALL
Six tryouts were needed to
whittle the original field of
65 boys down to the final 11-
player squad, according to

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THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

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