Health & Fitness

INCLUSIVE SPORTS/ ON THE COVER

Novi's Jared Lonnerstater, 11, listens to Coach Ed Krass as Jake Vinton and Ben Taub, both 14 and of Farmington Hills, and Naftoli Zuckerbrod, 10, of Oak Park

(in blue jersey) look on.

A League Of Their Own

Friendship Circle's new gym offers team sports that make all players winners.

Ronelle Grier
Special to the Jewish News

A

player in a Flyers jersey takes a
pass, streaks to the opposing end
and gets off a hard shot right on
net. The puck trickles past the goalie, right
through the five-hole. It's a goal! Cheers
echo across the rink as the Flyers gather
around their teammate to celebrate.
This scene could take place at any
hockey game in any venue, except that
these Flyers are from Friendship Circle,
not Philadelphia. Their names will not

be found on any National Hockey League
(NHL) roster. These players are in a league
of their own, motivated by their parents,
each other and their coach and mentor,
former physical education teacher Ed
Krass of West Bloomfield.
Krass was not ready to hang up
his sneakers after he retired from the
Southfield public school system after 45
years. When he heard about plans for a
new gymnasium addition to the Ferber
Kaufman LifeTown building on the Meer
Family Friendship Campus in West
Bloomfield, he realized it was the perfect

opportunity for the next phase of his career.
Krass approached Friendship Circle
directors Bassie and Rabbi Levi Shemtov
and offered to develop an inclusive sports
league that would include floor hockey,
basketball, soccer and newcomb, a game
similar to volleyball except that the players
catch the ball and then throw it back over
the net.
"This year, I decided to extend the olive
branch that is sports to a different group
of kids — kids that may be in wheel-
chairs; kids that can't control their bodies;
kids that have autism, Down syndrome

and more Krass said.
The Shemtovs thought it was a great
idea and decided to start by creating the
Friendship Circle Floor Hockey League.
Krass spent the first two weeks teach-
ing the 24 players, who range in age from
9-13, the fundamentals of the game,
including rules, terminology, positions
and basic skills such as how to hold the
stick. Then the participants were divided
into four teams — the Flyers, the Capitals,
the Blues and the Kings — named after
some of the top NHL teams.

League on page 60

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November 18 • 2010

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