Photo by Glenn Triest

Team Spirit

Above: Donors Herbert and Alan Kaufman.

Inset: David Feldman tries to put up a shot against Berkshire.

Athletics are becoming a priority at Hillel,
and new financial support will really get the ball rolling.

LONNY GOLDSMITH

Staff Writer

F

ur years ago, Hillel Day
chool began its athletic pro-
gram with a boys basketball
team.
Its success, measured not necessarily
in wins and losses but in participation,
opened the door last December to plans
for a more significant athletic future.
Cheerleading for the basketball games
was added last year, as was girls volley-
ball.
The boys tennis team started last

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1997

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spring, and this fall brought girls
and boys cross country and girls
tennis.
"Last year the desire to have sports
here really picked up," said Alita Cyrlin,
Hillel athletic director. "We really had
to begin thinking about the direction
we wanted to go in. Now we are pretty
well represented as a middle school in
the main sports."
There is talk of even more expansion
within the Hillel athletic department
with the addition of girls soccer in the
spring and the potential of starting boys
soccer next fall.

"The reception has been great from
everyone so far," Cyrlin said. "Last year,
the girls really wanted to play volleyball
and got enough people to do it. Already
this year we have 20 girls who are inter-
ested."
All the sports are open to sixth-
through eighth-grade boys and girls.
There are two basketball teams: a sev-
enth- and eighth-grade team.
Deborah Anstandig was one of the
12 girls that played on last year's volley-
ball team.
"I had never played before, and I'm
not really athletic," the seventh-grader

said. "I liked being part of the first-ever
team at Hillel."
The first-year cross country program
fielded 38 boys and girls in sixth, sev-
enth, and eighth grades. The team prac-
ticed four times a week, running two
miles each day.
"It was really fun," said Amy Gross; a
seventh-grader who was on the inaugur-
al team. "It was great winning our first
competition. We didn't win a lot, but
we had a lot of team spirit."
Dena Roth, an eighth-grader, has
already retired from one sport in antici-
pation of high school athletics.