PHOTOS BY DANIEL LIPPIM
Top:
Ronnie Levin:
A senior starter.
Left:
Garon Oseff has
been big in the
middle.
West Bloomfield High's
basketball team
is proud of its
accomplishments
this season.
MIKE ROSENBAUM
SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
T
he West Bloomfield High School basketball coach-
es feared this would be a long season.
After losing eight seniors, including four starters,
from last year's squad, Coach Tim Domke and his
two Jewish assistants, Barry Bershad and Gary Wasser-
man, were prepared for the worst. But the worst hasn't
happened.
Thanks in large part to the leadership of the team's
Jewish players, West Bloomfield is playing close to .500
basketball in the competitive Oakland Activities Asso-
ciation (OAA) Division II. Last Friday, after a 66-38 loss
to Oak Park, West Bloomfield dropped to 6-9 overall and
4-5 in the division.
The Lakers' lone returning starter, senior co-captain
Garon Oseff, is the team's undisputed leader, while co-
captain Ron Levin, also a senior, joins Oseff in the start-
ing five.
Sophomore guard Randy Wexelman is a part-time
starter while junior guard Blair Gottlieb comes off the
bench.
Bershad describes the 6-foot-6, 290-pound Oseff as
"much improved from last year and a real good shooter
around the basket. He's agile and a good team leader."
Oseff is a four-year varsity performer. He played for
Walled Lake Western in his freshman and sophomore
seasons, then transferred to West Bloomfield. Oseff av-
eraged 3.5 points and 10 rebounds per game last year.
This season he's averaging 13 points and 16 rebounds.
But Oseffs leadership may be just as important as his
scoring.
"I love being in a leadership role," he says. "I'm always
talking and yelling. Not yelling criticism — just trying
to get everybody on the same page so we can win.
"I feel I need to set an example, like how to take care
of your business on the court. If you get mad, you want
to show it a little bit, but you don't want to be kicking
chairs, taking stupid fouls. Just be a leader and show a
positive example for the younger guys."
"Garon's great," says teammate Blair Gottlieb. "He's
nice and loud. You always know where he is. He's a real
good basketball player, too."
Oseff "tells us what to do and we listen to him," Wex-
elman adds. "He's just like another coach for us."
Levin was generally the second or third man off the
bench last year. This year he's a starting guard who of-
ten scores in double figures.
The 5-10 Levin "is someone who has really worked
at basketball his whole life," Bershad says. "He's prob-
-.6insmi- 4,ftwipmempft.-
-.4sweiremost.
ably one of the few kids on the team who really has over-
achieved from what he was given (physically). And he's
a leader. Kids look up to him. He's earned their respect
by a lot of hard work."
In recent summers, Levin says, "I put a lot of extra
time in shooting jump shots and a lot of extra time play-
ing basketball, working on things I needed to work on."
Levin began'the season at point guard, but recently
switched to shooting guard.
"I like point guard better because I like to get other
people involved in the game," Levin says. "But lately I've
been playing shooting guard because they want to get
me more shots."
Oseff has known Levin for 12 years. "Ronnie's a great
player," he says. "He's stepped up tremendously this year.
His ballhandling improved and he's a great leader ... He
really helps out with younger guys, showing them what
they need to do, and especially with the guards. He sets
an example."
Wexelman is one of the Lakers' surprises. He played
on the freshman team last season and was slated for the
junior varsity this year. He's started about half the var-
sity games.
HOLDING THEIR OWN page 108