Taylor Dubin follows through. ALAN HITSKY Associate Editor T aylor Dubin of West Bloomfield knows just what she wants out of her first JCC Maccabi Youth Games: competition, new friends and a good time. The 13-year-old tennis player, who will be a freshman at West Bloomfield High School next month, will be part of the 148 Detroit Jewish teen athletes who will compete Aug. 7-12 in St. Paul, Minn., or San Antonio, Texas, or Aug. 14-19 in Richmond, Va. Thirteen athletes from Ann Arbor, plus two from West Bloomfield, will participate at the fourth Maccabi host city — Dallas, Texas — from July 31 through Aug. 5. Dubin is excited about her first Maccabi Games. She heard about the annual Jewish teen Olympics from friends who com- peted last year. She has several friends on the Detroit delegation's tennis team, plus others who are competing in other sports. "I hope the competition is not too easy — I want to learn from my mis- takes," Dubin said last week. "But I hear it's pretty challenging." Fellow tennis team member Alex Fishman, 15, of West Bloomfield has goals similar to Dubin's. He participat- ed last year in Columbus, Ohio, and is looking forward to playing in St. Paul. Fishman made it to the semifinals of the backdraw (losers' bracket) in sin- gles last year and also played doubles. He will be a sophomore at Bloomfield Hills Andover High School in the fall and has been playing tennis for five years at the Sports Club in West Bloomfield and in U.S. Tennis Association tournaments. "Maccabi was a lot of fun" last year, Fishman said. "I'm looking forward to meeting new kids" and being with Maccabi friends from tennis and from school. The Games incorporate competi- tion, social activities and social action events, and have evolved since the first teen Games were held in Memphis in 1982 and in Detroit in 1984. Long-time Maccabi volunteer Dr. Alan Horowitz of West Bloomfield is president of the Detroit Maccabi Club. He pointed out that the Games have changed from one large competi- tion every two years at one site to smaller competitions every year at multiple sites. "It makes it easier to manage," he said. "The kids are going to have just SPORTS Detroit area teens are ready for the JCC Maccabi Games to begin. The Ann Arbor delegation will be competing in Dallas from July 31 to Aug. 5. Fifteen athletes will be accompanied by coaches Todd Fry and Scott Forrester, and delegation head Jean Christian. Ann Arbor's age13-14 boys soccer players will be on a mixed team with players from New Orleans, Nashville, Boston and Phoenix. The team includes Noah Tobes, Noah Trobe, Alex Perlman, Will Scheiman, Noah Share, and West Bloomfield residents Eytan Keidar and Zachery Bergman. Sarah Christian will compete in girls 15-16 soccer with players from Northern Virginia, Nashville, New Orleans and Columbus. Michele Freed and Hannah Segaloff will compete in girls 13-14 basketball with players from Memphis, Northern Virginia, Miami Beach and Atlantic County. Ann Arbor's tennis team includes Michelle Silver, Ethan Cohen and Jeremy Cohen. Bowlers are Dana Margolis and Justin Moyer. The Detroit Maccabi Club will host a kickoff meeting and barbecue for Detroit Maccabi athletes and their fam- ilies at 4:30 p.m. Sunday, July 31, at Camp Ruth, the day camp behind the JCC on the Eugene and Marcia Applebaum Jewish Community Campus in West Bloomfield. The meeting will include travel and Games informa- tion, and distribution of team uniforms. Maccabi Results Following the Games, coaches are asked to submit their competition summaries via e-mail to ahitsky@thejewish- n ews. co m. Coaches or parents can submit action photos to the same address (300 DPI in JPG format) with an identify- ing caption.