Cover Story

Detroit Teams

HOUSTON
Aug. 10-15
Delegation head: Ken Bertin.
Volleyball (16-younger): Coaches,
Ken Bertin, Gennifer Roth. Players:
Sarah Nirenberg, Miriam Blake,
LeeAnn Acker, Dina Pilnits, Leigh
Genetti, Debra Gross, Natalie Perach,
Sarah Elkus, Mallory Walter.
Track and Field: Coach Joel
Kashdan. Players: David Sandler,
Jared Anstandig, Nicole Perach.

ST. LOUIS
Aug. 10-15
Delegation heads: Karen Gordon,
Don Rudick
Boys basketball (14-younger):
Coach Barry Bershad. Players:
Andrew Rubinstein, Miles Neumann,
Scott Kirsch, Brandon Joseff, Joshua
Stilman, Josh Laker, Noah Curhan,
Aubey Layno-Moses, Zack Rosen.
Baseball (14-younger): Coaches
Paul Ehrmann, Edward Weberman.
Players: Matthew Silver, Aric Klar,

Ben Swerdlow-Freed, Scott Goldin,
David Henkin, Zack Ehrmann,
Michael Margolis, Bradley Garon,
Danny Sillman, Daniel Kohn.
Softball (16-younger): Coaches
Ronald Silberstein, Gary Bistrow,
Robert Kaplan. Players: Jessica Topor,
Alycyn Goldberg, Stephanie Leeb,
Danielle Dulberg, Michelle Neff,
Natalee Eisenberg, Anne Thomas,
Jaclyn Palmer, Jenna Kerner, Danielle
Kaplan, Sivan Levy, Stefani
Silberstein.
Swimming: Coaches Herb
Bernstein, Dena Fields. Swimmers:
Max Futernick, Michael Spickler,
Gabriel Schubiner, Jason Bank, John
Somerville, Michael Birnkrant, Zach
DeVore, Bowen Vernan, Roman
Sandler, Adam Duke, Jacqui Owens,
Lauren Kaczander, Rebecca Nyquist,
Allison Shatz, Haley Mitchell, Gayle
Myerson.
Table Tennis: Players: Emily Stern,
Nicole Bishop, Andy Korby, Michael
Yashinsky, Joshua Karchin, Dan

Ann Arbor Participants

eighboring cities also have a
long Maccabi tradition.
Windsor teens participate
every even-numbered year. This
started when Maccabi held the big
North American games in even-
numbered years and smaller, region-
al games in odd-numbered years.
Windsor has continued that prac-
tice, even though the North
American Games ended with
Detroit hosting 3,200 athletes in
1998.
The every-other-year, participa-
tion allows Ron Polsky and other
Windsor Maccabi members to
fund-raise and make Windsor par-
ticipation special.
Ann Arbor has also fund-raised to
defray expenses. This has included
running the coat room at the annu-
al Washtenaw JCC Auction, selling
candy and holding car washes.
Delegation head Jean Christian is
leading 18 Ann Arbor athletes and
four adults to St. Louis Aug. 10-15.
Ann Arbor's team-sport athletes
are combined with other teams, but
the Ann Arbor athletes are housed

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2003

68

together. Boys soccer players
Bennett Stein and Dan Tobers will
be combined with S. Hampton
Road, Va., Omaha and Israel. Sarah
Christian will join a soccer team
with Milwaukee and Dayton play-
ers.
Boys basketball players Brio
Margolis, Ben Kelltnan, Albie
Silverman and David Haber will
team with Omaha. Alex Moyer will
be part of a baseball team com-
posed of athletes from Philadelphia,
Atlanta, Nashville, Tenn., and
Youngstown, Ohio. Paula Silverman
will team with volleyball players
from St. Louis and Nashville.
Ann Arbor has its own dance
team: Erica Riba, Erin Margolis,
Emily Silver, Rachel Rebner and
Julia Berman.
Ann Arbor athletes in individual
sports include: David Zimet, table
tennis; Shayna Petit and Ari
Preston, tennis; and Zachery
Auerbach, bowling.
Ann Arbor coaches are Todd
Frye, Annie Durbin and Darrell
Jacob. LI

Wolf, Samuel Yashinsky.
Tennis: Coaches Janice Bloom,
Carol Frenkel. Players: Jonathan
Epstein, Michael Brodsky, Todd Jaffe,
Jordan Yellen, Brandon Yellen,
Michael Kaufman, Zachery
Friedman, Katie Wallace, Emily Jaffe,
Rena Rosenzveig.

NEW JERSEY
Aug. 17-22
Delegation heads: Harold Friedman,
David Stone
Boys Basketball (16-younger):
Coach Steve Weiss. Players: Andrew
Garon, Samuel Faye, Levi Stewart,
Bradley Garden, Joshua Segel, Josh
Cohen, Cary Rosen, Mitchell Weiss,
Shawn Achtman.
Girls Basketball (16-younger):
Coaches Joyce Lemkin, Bradley,
Emily Friedman. Players: Kimberly
Lemkin, Rebecca Weiss, Rochelle-
Leigh Rosenberg, Emily Shepley,
Sarah Nagel, Ellery Schwartz,
Jennifer Weiss, Fallon Garfield-
Turner, Lauren Robbins.
In-Line Hockey (16-younger):
Coaches Richard Zussman, Walter
Schram,. Steven Friedman. Players:
Aaron Fisher, Bradley Friedman,

x-FACTOR from page 66

the same, but the level of play has got-
ten better. They have more experience."
This is one of the first years that
Bertin had to cut athletes after
February's tryouts. Thirty-five teens
tried out for the two nine-girl volleyball
squads. Since February, the girls have
practiced weekly at the JCC.
Those who come to practice "see the
most playing time," Bertin said, with
the less-skilled athletes playing more
against the less-skilled teams at the
Maccabi Games, or against "the ones
we can't beat."
And "once in a while, we find that
kid — the X Factor kid," said Bertin.
"That's the one who makes everybody
else on the team better. It's not necessar-
ily the best player. It's the one who has
the mindset, who is the spark plug, who
just drives everybody else to be better.
"They have the inner strength. They
know what to do. They make few mis-
takes and will admit their mistakes
when they make them."
This year, Bertin believes, he has X
factors on both teams: Miriam Blake,
13, and Hannah Miller.
He also is blessed with fine assistant
coaches: daughter Gennifer Bertin
Roth, Steve Click, Stacy Rothenberg

Benjamin Gordon, Cory Charlupski,
Zack Schwartz, Kevin Lipson, Evan
Pomish, Brandon Schram, Jeremy
Konheim, David Zussman.
Girls Soccer: Coaches Stuart Bass,
Lindsey Fox. Players: Hannah Gross,
Stephanie Parrish, Leah Glowacki,
Veronica Rubens, Nicole Aaron,
Samantha Unger, Ricki Friedman,
Stephanie Plaine, Michelle Ellis,
Emily Rosen, Rebecca Plaine, Sara
Zupmore, Jillian Rubin, Samantha
Lovan, Stephanie Lovan.
Volleyball (16-younger): Coaches
Ken Bertin, Steve Click, Stacy
Rothenberg. Players: Tedi Milgrom,
Lauren Elkus, Abby Siegel, Carly
Wayne, Joey Herman, Lisa Goode,
Lindsey Scher, Hannah Miller,
Lauren Schwartz.
Bowling: Bowlers: Benjamin
Golsky, Ben Kaplan, Evan Berman,
Erika Mandell.
Dance: Coach: Lois Langberg.
Dancers: Laura Langberg, Allison
Bornstein, Danielle Katz, Lilly Zoller,
Carly Kaufman, Alyssa Maiseloff,
Danielle Platt, Amanda Goldin.
Golf: Coach Jamie Frankel. Players:
Bradley Weiss, Jason Bendix, Jesse
Gross, Alex Tapper.

and, helping at practices, Jordan Glass.
Click is the first non-Jew that Detroit
Maccabi has approved as an assistant
coach. A friend from several volleyball
leagues, Click, according to Bertin, "has
a 15-year-old daughter and loads of vol-
leyball experience" — a big help on
both counts.
Roth, Rothenberg and Glass are all
former Maccabi players under Bertin
and continue to play together in coed
leagues. -
Roth played Maccabi volleyball for
three years and has been an assistant
coach for her father for eight years.
She also played intramural volleyball
in college, but at 5'1", "I was a bit too
small for the Michigan State varsity."
She met her husband through the
Maccabi Games.
Bertin said his daughter is "very bal-
anced, with terrific compassion for the
kids. And she is not shy — she will tell
me if she thinks I did something inap-
propriate, and she's often right. She
likes to emphasize to the kids what they
did right more than what they did
wrong."
"After eight years, she also has all the
[volleyball] charts and philosophy,
adds the 5' 8" Bertin, "and, at 5'1",
she can hammer the ball better than I
can.

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