ONE YOWPRICE...

GREAT

GIFTS!

Give someone you love a gift subscription to the
Detroit Jewish News. It's delivered to their home
every Friday for only $52.00. ($70 out of state),*

Plus they'll receive the
new 01/02 edition of
JN SourceBook in
early September!
It's the complete guide
to everything Jewish in
metropolitan Detroit,

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

❑ Please bill me

• • • • • • • • •

❑ Payment enclosed Charge my: ❑ Visa

• • • • • •

❑

MasterCard

Card #

Signature

One Direction

(Required)

My Name

Phone

(

)

My Address

City

Zip

State

❑ Send the gift subscription to:

Name

Phone

(

)

Address

City

State

Zip

Gift Card Message

DE12,01T JEWISH NEWS

For faster service call:

248.354.6620 or fax 248.354.1210

7/6

2001

74

"I want our kids to be athletes and
go out and learn to compete and to
compete year-round, to be athletic and
to be able to do tasks. So I definitely
think it helps ... especially wrestling. It
helps him on the football field, from a
leverage standpoint, a toughness
standpoint."
Gitler admits the three-sport grind
"took a while for me to get used to.
Especially after football or wrestling
practice, it was tough coming home
and doing homework. But you just
have to get yourself used to it
"Once you're in the program of
going home, you eat dinner, you do
your homework and go to bed, you
sort of get used to doing that."
Gitler has always enjoyed strong
support at home from his mother,
Carol, and older brother Ben, who
played college football at Albion and
was the MIAA defensive player of the
year last season. Gitler's father, Melvin,
is divorced from Carol and lives in
New York. Gitler's family belongs to
Congregation Beth Shalom, where
Jack became bar mitzvah.
"My mom's there for just about
everything," Gitler says. "My mom
and my brother, we have a lot of talks
about things. One of the things that's
come up lately is about doing track in
college. It's definitely there if I'd like to
do it, but my mom is pretty much
against it. So I'm just going to take her
word and not do it."

Allow 2-3 weeks for delivery.
www.detroitjewishnews.com

Concentrating on one sport is a major
adjustment, Gitler admits, but he says
he's excited about his decision
"because I will be able to focus on that
one sport 12 months a year.
"Once the season's over, the weight
lifting program starts right off. During
the summer, I probably won't be home
very much because I'm going to stay
up at school and be with the team,
doing summer training and workouts.
I know that I'm going to miss the
other sports, but just playing the one
sport I can focus on so much and
learn so much about it."
Gitler's non-football highlights
included the Division I state champi-
onship in discus his junior year, and
second place finishes in both wrestling
and shot put as a senior.
His senior football season "didn't
turn out the way we wanted it to," he
said, noting Berkley's 3-6 record.
Individually, however, Gitler earned
numerous honors, including first team
All-State notice. The versatile Gitler
had 59 tackles, including 6 1 /2 sacks,

ran for 555 yards and nine touch-
downs on offense, and punted 19
times for a 43.6-yard average.

Teaching And Football

Gitler received interest from Big 10
schools Michigan State, Indiana and
Illinois, as well as several Mid-
American Conference (MAC) schools,
including Eastern and Central
Michigan. He chose Western because
"they have probably the best teaching
school out of all the schools, and that's
what I love. I love working with ele-
mentary kids, and they have a very
good elementary education program.
"Also, the football program right
now is at the top ... they've either won
or tied for the MAC championship
the last four years."
WMU football coach Gary Darnell
says signing Gitler "was one of the eas-
ier choices that we had this year. We're
really excited that he chose to come to
Western ... He's the kind of person we
like. His idea of working hard in the
classroom as well as on the football
field, that's what we've been able to
attract ar Western and that's what
makes us excited."
Darnell adds that the 6-feet-3, 250-
pound Gitler "plays about as hard as
anybody that we saw on tape this year
... He plays hard every snap. He can
make effort plays. Some guys have
ability, but you rarely see them make
plays. But he is a guy who makes plays
on ability and on effort."
Darnell prefers to red-shirt his fresh-
men, but says Gitler has a chance to
play this season.
"He's truly one of the guys who has
the ability to contribute early ... If we
were to get in trouble at defensive end,
he's mature enough and aggressive
enough that he could factor in" this
season.
If his college football years go well,
Gitler may delay his entry into the
teaching profession and seek a profes-
sional football career.
"It's definitely a goal, to play in the
NFL," Gitler says. "There's nothing
better in my mind right now then to
go and play there ...
"There's been one guy (Aric Morris)
who's gone out of Berkley in the last
five years and who's in the NFL right
now." (Morris played safety for
Michigan State and now for the NFL's
Tennessee Titans.)
"It's awesome to watch a game, and
you're watching it to see a person, and
you think, 'I know that guy.' It would
be awesome to think that I could be
that guy." 111