Edging The Competition
ALAN HlTSKY
Associate Editor
The Detroit
Maccabi team
came home
from Baltimore
with plenty of
medals and
memories.
28
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 1992
B
altimore — Geoff
Werber was the
tradin' man of the
track team. If the
sun in Baltimore
felt like it was south of the
border, what better gear
than a Mexican sombrero?
Werber, of Oak Park, re-
laxed at the Catonsville
Community College track
last week in the 92-degree
heat, wearing one of the
prized black-and-silver som-
breros of the Mexican dele-
gation. "I traded a Detroit
warmup jacket and shorts
for it," Werber said.
He told several young-
sters who wanted to barter
for the sombrero that he
would take a jacket in trade.
The responses ranged from
silence to derogatory offers
that were beneath his dig-
nity.
One thing he wouldn't
trade is the medal his relay
team won just a few minutes
later.
It was Werber's last
chance to medal in track at
the 1992 Jewish Communi-
ty Centers North American
Maccabi Youth Games in
Baltimore. The boys 15-16-
year-old 4x400 meter relay
looked to be a good one, with
Marty Madden, Ryan Sills,
Daniel Ben-Meir and Wer-
ber.
Israel's strong team ran
away with the gold, but
Werber's teammates gave
him a 10-15 meter lead over
Los Angeles going into Wer-
ber's anchor leg.
But the L.A. anchor also
had visions of the silver
medal. He blazed through
the first 100 meters, passed
Werber and kept on going.
Werber picked up the pace,
desperately trying to remain
close. With 100 meters to go,
he started his own kick and
passed Los Angeles for the
silver.
The boys volleyball team
gave a similar performance
the following day. Playing
emotionally for a chance at
the gold medal, Detroit won
the hard-fought first game
against Montreal, 15-13.
The best 3-of-5 match
hinged on the second game,
and Scott Aaronson decided
to take over.
Using light taps and
tough cross-court spikes,
Aaronson began to dominate
the front line for Detroit.
The team took a 12-8 lead
over Montreal, but the
Canadians came back with
three straight points. The
lead changed hands several
times in the next few min-
utes before Detroit pulled
out the second game, 17-16.
The 92-degree heat began
to affect both teams in the
third game, but Detroit took
the lead and hung on for a
15-11 victory.
Scheduling required the
gold medal game against
Rockville, Md., to be played
only 30 minutes after De-
troit finished the two-hour
match against Montreal.
Rockville enjoyed a two-hour
break, and beat back Detroit
15-12, 15-2, 15-2.
In other results:
BASKETBALL
Boys coach Howard Gold-
ing did not have the strong
team of previous Maccabi
games. The boys lost their
three games, to Bronx-
Riverdale 75-32, to Rockville
53-32, and to Boston-New-
ton 70-41.
The team played hard,
"and losing was hard for
them to accept," Golding
said. .
The girls team faced an
even tougher assignment,
with none of the squad vet-
erans of high school play.
While they lost three games
by lopsided scores, they
worked hard throughout the