Sports

It's Time

Detroit Maccabi in-line
hockey team prepares
to bring home the gold.

•

Evan Pomish and Zachary Friedman listen to coach Brandon Pomish.

or a little stick work is part of the game," he said.
Pomish played in a Maccabi game against a Long
Island team; a kid two-handed him with his stick
and knocked him out.
o organizers and delegation heads, the pri-
Pomish became a coach in 2002, and the in-line
mary factor of the JCC Maccabi Games is to
team rolled over the competition by an average of
give all participants a quality Jewish experi-
10 goals. He took last year off from coaching and
ence and allow them to interact with other Jewish
joked
that he was the reason that the team lost.
youngsters.
Zachary Friedman, 16, the
The actual competition may run sec-
leading scorer of the 2002
ondary in their minds, but don't tell in-
team, played Maccabi tennis
line hockey coach Brandon Pomish or
last year. He also joked that he's
the 11 players who are looking to take
the reason the in-line team took
back the gold medal they lost last year
second place.
to Montreal.
"We have a young, talented
"Our expectation is for a gold
team
[this year] and
medal," said Pomish, 21, who started
I think we'll do very
as a player on the first Detroit Maccabi
well," he said.
in-line hockey team in 1997 (They
Friedman plays on
placed second.) "I'm competitive by
the West Bloomfield
nature — I've played hockey for over
High School varsity
15 years."
hockey team.
When they lost the gold medal, he
His Maccabi teammate, Evan
bawled his eyes out. "It's a very aggres-
Pomish,
15, and Brandon's
sive game," said Pomish, who turned
brother, takes the game more
coach in 2002. "It's not like any other
seriously. "Ice hockey is my
sport in the games. Even though it's a
Delegation head Karen Gordon
life," he said earnestly. "I'm in
game of what Maccabi likes to call
the rink five days a week; on
good spirit,' it's very, very competi-
my days off, I'm training and
tive."
working out."
Pomish said the sport is supposed to be no con-
His goal is a Division I college scholarship and it
tact, but he doesn't mind aggressive players.
doesn't matter where he plays.
The kids shouldn't be going out "looking to kill
Brandon Pomish said that picking 11 kids from a
each other, but I believe a little bump on the boards

HARRY KIRSBAUM
Staff Writer

field of 30 who tried out in April was difficult. Half
of the team is made from three families but every-
one had to try out, he said. "We narrowed it down
to the players I thought could regain the gold."
About 140 Jewish athletes and 20 coaches, delega-
tion heads and chaperones from Detroit will join
more than 5,000 Jewish teens from the United
States, Canada, Israel, Mexico, Great Britain,
Poland, Australia and Venezuela at the 2004 JCC
Maccabi Games in three citites over the next two
weeks.
Karen Gordon, a Detroit delegation head who has
been involved in Maccabi since 1986, said Detroit
always sends a strong team.
"We're always sending a lot of kids," said Gordon.
"The whole point of going to Maccabi is
not necessarily sports. If the kids come out
of there with a wonderful experience, I
don't care if we won every game or lost
every game. They're there for the experi-
,,
ence.
Alan Horowitz, Detroit Maccabi president,
agreed. "Competition is really a secondary factor in
selecting individuals to participate in the games," he
said. "The primary factor is to give each individual a
quality Jewish experience and allow them to interact
with other Jewish youngsters."
For a couple of in-line hockey players, interacting
is one thing — winning is another.
"This team will take us to the Promised Land,"
said Evan Pomish.
Adding a familiar Detroit Piston phrase, Friedman
said, "I guaransheed it." ❑

Coy Eli
STO RY

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2004

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