INSIDE:

food

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the scene

Basketball Team Plays
For The Fun Of It . . . 96

BBYO Has Busy
Winter Schedule . . . . 98

sports

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Vehicles And Guests
At Auto Show . 100

Photo courtesy Towson University

AFTER A FEW TWISTS AND TURNS,

AN ORTHODOX JEWISH

HIGH SCHOOL STAR

HAS FOUND HIS PLACE

IN COLLEGE BASKETBALL.

MIKE ROSENBAUM
Special to the Jewish News

ost Jews in college or professional sports prefer to be high-profile athletes,
not high-profile Jews. They'll gladly speak to reporters from Jewish publica-
tions and will answer questions about their Jewish identity.
Generally, however, a Jewish athlete will say that he'd rather be known as a
player, not as a Jewish player. Tamir Goodman is different.
Towson (Md.) University's freshman guard acknowledges that "I am a basketball player,
and that's something that's hard to do. You want people to know that you're the best basket-
ball player that you can possibly be. But at the same time, I know that it's because of my
faith that got me where I am today. And I've got to thank God for that. I've got to acknowl-
edge that."
Indeed, Goodman's high profile is due as much to his Orthodox Judaism as it is to
his basketball ability.
The Baltimore native began playing at age 8. By the time he was a sophomore at
Talmudical Academy, he realized he could be a Division I college prospect.
As a high school junior, he was one of the Baltimore area's highest-scoring players,
averaging 35 points and seven assists per game. Goodman played his senior year at
Takoma Academy, a Seventh-Day Adventist school that observes the Sabbath from sun-
down Friday to sundown Saturday. He transferred because Takoma plays a higher cal-
.
iber of basketball competition.
Goodman averaged 25 points and nine assists as a senior at Takoma. He then played
in a high-level summer league, which included the Milwaukee Bucks' Sam Cassell.
During his junior year, Goodman was offered an athletic scholarship bi, , the University
of Maryland, which competes in the perennially tough Atlantic Coast Conference.
Goodman verbally accepted the scholarship offer only after lie informed the school that he
wouldn't play, practice or travel on Shabbat.
TAMIR GOODMAN on page 93

Iff

Tamir Goodman

91