LW/Sports

Levick, whose daughter Lisa is on
the team, has coached Little League
baseball and written columns on
coaching in area newspapers and pro-
fessional journals.
Lisa Levick, 14, will be a freshman
at North Farmington High in the fall.
Another North Farmington freshman,
Anna Grinshpun, also made the
squad. Her brother Boris played soc-
cer last year and got her interested in
Maccabi.
The average age of the girls on the
Detroit 13-16 team is 14, with the
oldest 15.
Detroit's track and field team, on
the other hand, has many veterans.
The 41 athletes make up Detroit's
biggest team. Head coach Joel Kash-
dan has been coaching Maccabi since
1985, after assisting when the Games
were in Detroit in 1984.
"In 1984, there were already many
people involved. The late Jay Robin-
son brought a lot of people in like me
and put us in our 'place'. Since I was
a runner, I was put with the track
and field team," Kashdan said.
The toughest track competition
this year, Kashdan believes, will come
from Seattle and Great Britain, which
is "really tough, really good and has a
lot of track clubs."
One of Kashdan's assistants is
Chad DeWolfe, a four-year Maccabi
athlete. DeWolfe is entering his third

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1998

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102 Detroit Jewish News

year at Western Michigan and
coached at Portage Northern High
School.
He swept the Maccabi sprint
events in Los Angeles in 1995, and
does all the workouts with the team
to build relationships with the run-
ners. "It is definitely a fun atmos-
phere," DeWolfe said.
One of his new Maccabi runners,
David Goldman, 14, is following in
his sister Tracie's Maccabi footsteps.

giate Athletic Association for their
excellence in the classroom and on the
basketball court.
If you see Ellis on the street, he
probably won't regale you with tales
of fast lay-ups, tense tip-offs or a
stream of top grades. Although that's
LYNNE MEREDITH COHN
his story, the 6'7" power forward is
Special to The Jewish News
modest. After graduating this year
with a 3.85 GPA from Hopkins, he'd
van Ellis has always been an
rather hang out with family and catch
All-American guy:
up with old friends from
good student, good
North Farmington High
athlete, over-all good
Eva n Ellis School, from which he gradu-
person.
rips down a ated in 1994. He heads off to
But now, it's official. The 22-
rebou nd in a medical school next month.
year-old Farmington Hills native
game earlier
Ellis' status as Academic All-
was named Academic All Ameri-
thi s year.
American for his region is "a
can at the end of his college bas-
real tribute to what he's given
ketball career. Five men from six
us on the court and in the
states in his college region — which
classroom," said Bill Nelson, head bas-
includes the state of Maryland, where
ketball coach at Hopkins.
Ellis was co-captain of the Johns Hop-
Ellis also received the Johns Hop-
kins University men's basketball team
kins Men's Basketball Scholar/Athlete
— were selected by the National Colle-

The NCAA recognizes a
Detroiter for his
academic and athletic
abilities.

MARK KELLER • PROPRIETOR

Mercury

Coach Jeff Gruca defends 14-year-old
Jeff Perlman.

All American

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"I am looking forward to the overall
experience: using team skills, working
together and cheering on the team,"
Goldman said. He runs the 100 and
400 meter events.
Fourth-year veteran Elyse Simon
from Birmingham Groves runs the
100, 200, 4x100 and 4x200 relays
and is always watching for "that one
person who you strive to beat." She
wants to help with the team next year
when she is too old to compete in
Maccabi.
Joyce Brodsky-Serri is coaching the
first Maccabi dance team. Her 14
athletes will compete in tap, jazz, bal-
let, hip-hop and lyrical as soloists or
in duets, quartets and larger groups.
Brodsky-Serri hopes the girls will be
able to choreograph their own pieces in
the future, but this year they will use
dances they have already performed.
"Dancers are athletes too," said Brod-
sky-Serri, who believes the new dance
events will draw more young women
into the Maccabi Games. .
An example of that is Ashley
Levine, 12, who has been dancing at
Annette and Company since she was
3. She loves dancing competitively
and will be performing a tap solo to
"Forever Your Girl" by Paula Abdul.
"If there was not a dance team I
would not be participating, so I am
glad that there is a team," said
Levine. ❑