Melting Pot

Berkley's soccer team had an international flavor and a respectable season.

MIKE ROSENBAUM SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

oreign imports are general-
ly frowned upon in the
Detroit area, but at Berkley
High School this fall, the on-
ly people concerned about
the soccer teams' "imports"
were the Bears' opponents.

Berkley, which wasn't ex-
pected to field a competitive
team this season, was
bolstered by eight Jewish
players — four from Russia,
one Brazilian exchange stu-
dent and three Americans.
As a result, Berkley finish-
ed a respectable 8-10-1, in-
cluding a victory in its Class
A district opener.

The Bears were then edg-
ed by Bloomfield Hills
Lahser, 1-0, in the district
semi-final.

With Coach Epstein are Ilya
Berkovich, Denis Greenberg,
Segev Phillips and Boris Berkovich.

Photos by Glenn Triest

The team was led by first-
year coach Joel Epstein —
who's also Jewish. As he
entered the season with a
collection of players from
vastly different back-
grounds, he knew it would
take time before his team
developed the proper
chemistry.
"We've got guys from dif-
ferent parts of the world
who've never seen each
other," Epstein said. "Sud-
denly, they're thrust upon a
soccer field together and it
took a couple months to get
together."
So, what's the first thing
Epstein did in order to build
solid' team chemistry?
Nothing. But Epstein's
"nothing" was actually a

calculated move designed to
teach a crucial lesson.
"We had to give them
some sort of adversity that
they had to work through
together," Epstein explains.
"Then, once they have suf-
fered a little together, that
brings them a little closer
because now they have
something in common.
Epstein gave his players a
chance to learn that they
needed each other.
Junior Kevin Sweetwine
said the team learned. "If
someone messes up, you give
him some constructive
criticism. It's better than
yelling at him, putting him
down."
"It's not only his respon-
sibility," added junior de-

fender Boris Berkovich,
"because there are 11 guys
on the field who are playing
and if they're losing, all of
them are losing. And if
they're winning, all of them
are winning. It doesn't mat-
ter who scores or doesn't
score.
"Basically, in the begin-
ning of the season, whoever
messed up, everybody was
blaming for messing up."
But at the end of the season
"everybody took it (person-
ally) because they did it,
too."
Junior forward Andre
Baum, who led the Bears
with 22 goals, called the
season "really interesting
because we spoke three
languages on the field. The
Russian guys were talking
in Russian, me and the
other Brazilian were talking
Portuguese sometimes, and
the Americans were talking
in English. It was kind of
funny."
But as the season pro-
gressed, communication
became "better and better."
"It's been a good ex-
perience," concluded Sweet-
wine, "because now I'm tri-
lingual. I can communicate
in Russian and Portuguese.
It works good on the field

