Health & Fitness

SPORTS

Coast To Coast

Maccabi teens shine for Detroit.

Steve Stein
Special to the Jewish News

D

etroit athletes competed across the country
in this year's JCC Maccabi Games.
Fifteen boys soccer, girls soccer and track
athletes jetted to San Francisco. Nine U16 boys basket-
ball players and one bowler went to San Antonio.
The biggest group — 84 athletes — journeyed to
Westchester, N.Y., and competed in baseball, boys and
girls basketball, dance, golf, inline hockey, swimming,
tennis and volleyball.
"Our numbers were down and our kids were on a lot
of mixed teams with kids from other delegations. I'm
sure the economy had something to do with that:' said
Detroit delegation head Karen Gordon."But everyone
had a great time.'
Boys and girls ages 12-16 are eligible to compete
in the JCC Maccabi Games, which began in 1982.
Here's how Detroit athletes fared in San Francisco,
San Antonio and Westchester. Information was sup-
plied by the coaches.

Besides running the table in its seven games,
Detroit showed a spirit of sportsmanship in a
round-robin game against Monmouth (N.J.)
The Monmouth goalie was sick and unable to play.
Monmouth was planning to put a player in goal who
had never played the position previously, but Detroit
loaned Monmouth one of its goalies so the game
could be more competitive.
Jordan Emmer, Austin Goodman, Dylan Kamen,
Brian Lipson and Ethan Weinfield rounded out
Detroit's roster.

Swimming
Detroifs Jason Sherbel won five medals, including
gold in the 50-yard breaststroke. He also earned silver
medals in the 50 and 100 freestyle and 100 breast,
and a bronze medal in the 200 medley relay.
Merril Watzman won a silver in the 200 butterfly,
and bronze in the 500 freestyle, 400 individual med-
ley and 200 medley relay.
John Greenberger and Brandon Sherbel each won a
bronze in the 200 medley relay.
The Detroit team was coached by Herb Bernstein
and Cybil Offen.

Baseball
Detroit's most unlikely gold medal was won by the U16
Tennis
boys baseball team. It was Detroit's first gold ever in
Jacob Kroll was the lone Detroit medal winner, earn-
baseball, coming on the heels of a bronze medal three
ing a silver in the boys 14 recreation division, but
years ago and two silver medals several years ago.
Coach Jodi Neirynck praised all her tennis players.
Coach Mort Meisner said his team went into the
Detroiters in San Antonio included, top row: Logan Smith, Max
Ben Beltser, Adam Cutler, Josh Breitman, Rheanna
tournament with only modest expectations. After
Unger, Mitchell Shecter, Omer Oppenheim. Middle row: Delegation
Henney, Ian Kobernick, Alison Margolis, Noah New-
going through pool play with a 3-1 record, "I figured we head Rob Kaplan, Jesse Medina, Jared Kohlenberg, Joey Leshman.
man, Cameron Peres and Jake Singer also competed
would be one and done in the playoffs:' he said.
Bottom row: Coach Eric Leib, Brandon Shulman, Seth Goldman,
for Detroit.
That didn't happen. Detroit beat host Westchester Jerem Fishman Coach Barry Bershad.
There's no doubt that Breitman had a good time in
8-6, then it had to face perennial powerhouse Los
NewYork."Josh got so involved in the Maccabi experi-
Angeles, which had lost only one Maccabi game in
Inline
Hockey
ence that he forgot to call his parents and let them know he
six years.
They're back! After dominating this sport for years, then
arrived safely' Neirynck said."Three days after we got there,
No team had come closer to Los Angeles than 12-0 in its
we finally got him to call home'
first five games in New York, but Detroit pulled off a 7-6 stun- slipping a bit, Detroit has now won back-to-back gold
medals and gone undefeated since 2007, including a 7-0
Behser's division (boys 14 competitive) included a player
ner after falling behind 6-3. Adam McDowell (Huntington
run
this
summer
under
coaches
Mark
Lipson
and
Bryan
from California who is ranked in the top 20 in the nation in
Woods/Berkley High) went the distance on the mound for
Robbins.
his age group.
the victory.
A 5-0 championship game victory over a Montreal
Former Detroit tennis player Eric Wolfe was the team's as-
There was no letup for Detroit in the championship game
team
that
had
allowed
only
three
goals
in
its
previous
sistant coach.
against Philadelphia. Detroit bolted to a 5-0 lead and never
six games gave Detroit its latest gold. Goalie Josh Raider
trailed en route to a 10-6 victory. Ryan Bloom (Bloomfield
Dance
posted the shutout. Jarret Friedland scored twice and
Hills/Andover) was the winning pitcher.
Allison Swimmer won a gold medal for her solo routine,
Zack
Rogow,
Andrew
Murphy
and
Max
Dubin
also
put
Detroit's top four hitters combined for more than 50 hits
and another gold for her duet with Jamie Gildenberg.
the puck in the net.
in the team's seven games. The quartet included Jake Balbes
Detroit's small-group lyrical and small-group jazz squads
Jacob Sharlip, Friedland, Murphy and Rogow were
(Franklin/Birmingham Groves), Matt Fagan (Farmington
also earned golds.
matched up against Montreal's top line and shut it down.
Hills/North Farmington), Mark Meisner (Huntington
Gildenberg won a silver medal in solo, and Jaclyn Nagel
Goalie Jamie Daniels also did a stellar job in the nets
Woods/Berkley) and McDowell.
won
a bronze medal in solo.
for Detroit during the tournament, posting two shutouts
Also on the Detroit roster were Kyle Cameron (Beverly
Hills/Groves), Brett Felsenfeld (West Bloomfield/Walled Lake against Philadelphia/Vancouver.
Volleyball
The tournament got off to a rough start for Detroit's
Northern), Jared Ishbia (West Bloomfield/West Bloomfield
Detroit volleyball coach Ami Ram called the Maccabi Games
Tyler Hantman. He caught an elbow to the face in Detroit's
High), Kevin Mallerman (Birmingham/Groves) and Jason
"an amazing experience" for the coaches and players.
opening game and he needed five stitches to close a cut on
Schreiber (Beverly Hills/Groves).
his chin. Hantman is a tough hockey player and missed just
Gary Bistrow was Detroit's assistant coach.
Coast To Coast on page 92
one game.

September 17 2009

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