Health & Fitness

Build

great ath etes.

DMC Sports Medicine and Franklin Athletic
Club present a new center dedicated to
sports enhancement and injury prevention
for teams and individuals.

-

Sticking To It

at

Join us for a Grand Ope in4

Lacrosse team battles first season.

Saturday June 14, 2008, 9 aim,-N on

Steve Stein
Special to the Jewish News

T

DMC Sports Performance
Academy
At Franklin Athletic Club
29350 Northwestern Highway
Southfield, MI 48034

Tour the new Academy, meetthe physical therapists
and certified athletic trainers, and learn about the
specialized training available - sports specific
training; speed-agility-quickness classes; team
training; coaches clinics; transitional rehab.

Demonstrations on the latest in training equipment
• Makoto
• Trazer
• Dartfish Video Analysis

DMC
Sports Performance
Academy

For more information, please call (248) 356-5232.

REFRESHMENTS

A42

June 12 • 2008

SPORTS

PRIZES

Hsi

GIVEAWAYS

he new West Bloomfield High
School boys lacrosse team
went 2-12 in its first season
this spring. But a more important num-
ber to associate with the team is 22.
"We started with 22 players and fin-
ished with 22. Nobody quit;' said Coach
Nevin Kanner.
That's a particularly impressive sta-
tistic considering that 15 of the 22 play-
ers had never picked up a lacrosse stick
before this spring and West Bloomfield
suffered some lopsided defeats, like 14-
1 and 22-1. The Lakers didn't face any
other first-year teams.
Also, each player's family had to shell
out $621 for things like equipment,
officials, uniforms and coaches' sala-
ries. The program isn't being funded by
the school district.
The players' perseverance paid off.
West Bloomfield improved greatly from
the beginning to the end of the season.
"Everyone told us that ... fans, officials,
opposing teams;' Kanner said.
Walled Lake Central beat West
Bloomfield 14-1 in early game. In the
Lakers' final regular-season game, WL
Central took a 3-1 lead into the fourth
quarter and won just 5-1.
Both West Bloomfield victories came
against Oxford, a second-year program.
In the second win, the Lakers rallied
from a 2-0 deficit with eight minutes
left to earn a 3-2 victory. They beat
Oxford 2-1 earlier in the season.
West Bloomfield goalie and team
captain Joey Roberts, one of six
seniors on the team, was bombarded
by shots in just about every game, but
he hung in there.
Ben Tobin, another senior and an
assistant captain, suffered a season-
ending knee injury in one of West
Bloomfield's early games, but he stuck
with the team. "I felt so bad for Ben. He
would always beat me to practice when
we were practicing indoors at 5:30 a.m.
before the season started;' Kanner said.
Kanner sees a bright future for his
fledgling program. "The most impor-
tant factor in our long-term success
is getting lacrosse into our middle
schools; Kanner said. "I told the kids
on our team to stay in touch because
when we win a state championship
some day, we'll all gather on Orchard
Lake Road when the sign announcing
the championship is put up!'

Kanner, a former college lacrosse
coach at Michigan State (1976-80) and
Miami of Florida (1990-94) who played
lacrosse at Michigan State, is the direc-
tor of this summer's inaugural Laker
Lacrosse Camp. Sessions are scheduled
for 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. July 14-18 and July
28-Aug. 1 at the West Bloomfield High
School football field. Players ages 8-17
of all skill levels are invited.
"We'll focus on fundamentals. Even
when you're a college player, you need
to work on fundamentals," said Kanner,
a West Bloomfield resident.
To register, contact West Bloomfield
School District Community Education,
(248) 865-6462. For more camp infor-
mation, send an e-mail to Kanner at
jnkanner@comcast.net .

Selig Mania

-

An appearance by Baseball
Commissioner Bud Selig garnered the
18th annual Hank Greenberg Memorial
Golf Invitational some national media
coverage. A story on MLB.com focused
on Selig receiving the Hank Greenberg
Lifetime Achievement Award two days
before the commissioner returned to
his hometown of Milwaukee to receive
the Jewish Family Services Lifetime
Achievement Award.
A Detroit Free Press story noted
that Selig's plane landed at Oakland
International Airport about the same
time as a plane carrying Democratic
presidential candidate Barack Obama.
The two met for the first time before
Selig headed to Tam-O-Shanter
Country Club in West Bloomfield and
Obama went to Troy High School for a
campaign speech.
Steve Greenberg, Hank
Greenberg's son and the deputy base-
ball commissioner under Fay Vincent,
presented the Greenberg Award to Selig.

Beam Them Up

Twins Daniel and Adam Cooper,
Eli Weil and Jeremy Weinstock
were members of the Sports Club
of West Bloomfield's Boys Level 6
gymnastics team that won the state
championship. Daniel and Adam also
finished first and second in all-around.
Among the team's coaches were
Grigory Astrakhan and Slava
Levit. 0

Please send sports news to
sports@thejewishnews.com.

