THE JEWISH NEWS
113 FRONT
Fun And Games
This Week's Top Stories
Detroit's Maccabi team got off
to a fast start in New Jersey, but
beware of the "road warriors."
ALAN HITSKY ASSOCIATE EDITOR
buses broke a fan belt.
When the others realized a bus was missing, they halted at a rest
stop, unloaded and sent one bus back. The broken bus was left at
the side of the road; its 150 Detroit athletes plus their coaches shared
the three working buses for the remaining two-hour trip to Metro-
West (Whippany/Morristown).
One of the groups on the broken bus was the tennis team, with
coaches Okun and Bloom. The two women started their trans-
portation legend at the Pittsburgh Maccabi games several years ago,
after driving a car back from a late dinner and becoming lost in one
of the Steel City's worst neighborhoods. They continued the jinx Sun-
day night, getting lost on the way back to the hotel after opening cer-
emonies.
MACCABI page 16
PHOTOS BY JOHN DISCHER
isa Schwartz met a girl from South Jersey
... twice.
At Sunday night's opening ceremonies for
the Jewish Community Centers Maccabi
Youth Games in MetroWest, N.J., the young
soccer player for Detroit struck up a conver-
sation with a South Jersey player. They were
part of 2,200 teens waiting in the tunnel under the
Continental Airlines Arena (the former Meadow-
lands) for the parade of athletes to start.
During Detroit's opening-round soccer game the
next day, Lisa collided with a Jersey player and
glared at her as both lay on the ground. The glare
turned to smiles as the two friends from Sunday
night helped each other to their feet.
Dirty and tired, walking off the field at the end of
a tough loss, Lisa told coaches Larry Harwin and
Jeffrey Fox, "I've never had so much fun."
The fun and games began before the Detroiters
arrived in New Jersey on Sunday. As usual, it had
something to do with the buses — and the tennis
coaches. When it comes to transportation, Linda
Okun and Janice Bloom have a reputation to uphold
and, fairly or not, the veteran Detroit Maccabi coach-
es enhanced it this week.
On the way to New Jersey Sunday morning, the
last in the caravan of four chartered Detroit team
Top: Louis Skeegan and Jaimee Weiner carry the Detroit banner.
Above left: The Detroit Maccabi team's flagbearers.
Above right: Maccabi Club director Jay Robinson instructs the flagbearers.