SPORTS

Utile Bi Mart

It

he high school
football regular
season is over and
the playoffs, which
have been ex-
panded this year, are under
way. Jewish players made, or

challenge bigger players and
remain standing when the
dust clears. Yellowjacket
coach Joe D'Angelo called
Wolkind "pound-for-pound,
one of our toughest kids."
Indeed, while Wolkind

Country Day's Wolkind is an impact player
among this year's area Jewish gridiron standouts.

are still making, an impact
this season.
However, probably none
made a bigger impact than a
relatively small player, Eddie
Wolkind of Detroit Country
Day.
The Senior strong safety
and slotback stands only
5-foot-7 and weighs about 155
pounds. But, like Yoda from
the Star Wars movies, he has
a powerful ally — no, not "The
Force," but an inner drive and
intensity which allow him to

scored three touchdowns as of
mid-October, his most
memorable plays were key
hits on defense. D'Angelo
recalls a game-saving play
Wolkind made in Country
Day's 14-13 victory over
Muskegon Catholic Central,
which entered the Oct. 20
contest as the state's top-
ranked Class C team.
"The key play in the
ballgame," said the coach,
came with Country Day trail-
ing, 13-6, in the third quarter
and Muskegon going in for
another score "which
would've put them probably
so far ahead we couldn't catch
them.
"The quarterback was on
the one-yard line and he was
running the ball. He tried to
turn up inside and Eddie
came in and stripped the ball
out of his arm." Country Day
recovered the fumble in the
end zone, then marched 80
yards for a touchdown.
Wolkind, however, recalls a
different play. "They had a
big, All-American tight end

Wolkind decked the All-
American tight end.

MIKE ROSENBAUM

Special to The Jewish. News

62

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9,1990

and defensive tackle," said
Wolkind, "about 6-5, 250
pounds, and sometimes they
split him out as a wide-out.
"I was back at safety and
they ran sort of a slant pat-
tern and he came right in.
And as the ball came, I came
right in and popped him and
knocked him down." The
receiver dropped the ball.
"To me that was a real big
highlight, just knocking down
a big guy like that — a big
All-American. It just energiz-
ed me," said Wolkind.
"I like scoring touchdowns,
too. But I think, sometimes, a
hit like that can excite the
whole team and turn the
momentum around."
Wolkind does not rely ex-
clusively on brute force. "He's
smart out there," said
D'Angelo. "He understands
the defense and he's like a
defensive quarterback out
there, calling the secondary
coverages."
Wolkind, voted a co-captain
by his teammates, moved up
to varsity at the end of his
sophomore season and has
been a varsity starter for two
years. He plays on most
special teams, so he is on the
field for almost the entire 48
minutes.
Country Day finished the
regular season 9-0 and gain-
ed the Class CC playoffs.
While Detroit DePorres was
the pre-playoff CC favorite,
Wolkind felt that Country
Day could win it all. "We have
the talent to do it," he said.
"We just have to play our
best.
"We've shown that we can
win the big games. It seems
like we come up big in the
pressure situations."

Another smallish Jewish
player who has "come up big"
for Country Day this year is
junior kicker Jeremy
Michaelson. He kicks off and
does all the place-kicking.
Said Coach D'Angelo, "He's
been just a real joy to have
this year. It's an important
position to have someone who
can be very consistent."
Michaelson, a 140-pounder,
was also pressed into duty as
the long-snapper on punts,