metro
GREATER DETROIT CHAPTER OF HADASSAH
Motor On from page 10
OPENING
MEETING
oin Us!
Tuesday,
September 9th
Noon Luncheon
Shaarey Zedek,
Southfield
KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Maccabi hockey coach Bryan Robbins with some of his players in 2013 in
California
Sally Oren
Washington Wife: The complexities and privileges of
Israel's Madame Ambassador in America's capital.
Call by August 10th to take
advantage of early bird pricing.
SHOP
FANTASTIC
BOUTIQUES!
10 -3:30
Contact Hadassah to
purchase tickets:
248-683-5030
greaterdetroit@hadassah.org
DETROIT
JEWISH NEWS
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12
August 7 • 2014
JN
Before the Games, the host mom
made sure she knew what all her ath-
letes liked to eat and then made sure
they were well fed, especially before a
day of play.
In 2008, the Backalars hosted ten-
nis players in their home. It's custom-
ary to show visitors around town, so
they took them to Birmingham. This
year, says Dylan, he plans to show his
guests his hometown.
"I want to show how great Metro
Detroit is, so I'm going to show them
the JCC. We'll probably take them out
to dinner a couple of nights, too," he
said.
Backalar will enter the Frankel
Jewish Academy next fall as a fresh-
man.
Coach Sets, Meets Goal
Bryan Robbins started angling to be a
Maccabi inline hockey coach as soon
as he was too old to participate in the
Games (16 is the cutoff age).
He loves the sport, but more than
that, he loves the Games. He played
hockey for three years, golf for one.
"I actually emailed asking to coach
Maccabi when I was 17, and I was
told you had to be 21," he said. "So
every year I sent an email reminding
them that I wanted to be involved.
Finally, in 2008, they said a hockey
coach position was open," Robbins
said. Detroit's team won the gold
medal that year.
For the last four years, Robbins,
an attorney who lives in Farmington
Hills, has coached. This time will be
the first in his hometown. He's coach-
ing Team Black (ages 13-16) with
assistant coach Ivan Glasser.
"Really exciting," he said. "It will be
great for the kids to be able to play in
front of fans and family"
Hockey players tend not to get a lot
of love during the Games because their
venues are typically far from the where
the action is, but Detroit's JCC has an
inline rink. Friends can come watch
the play in between their games, and
players can check out other games.
"I'm just excited they can have an
audience cheering them on," Robbins
said. "It's tough playing in front of
nobody. But from an overall perspec-
tive, I'm excited the Games are com-
ing back here and we can show off
our city to everyone"
As a veteran Maccabi athlete and
a veteran coach, Robbins, 29, has
viewed the Games from both sides.
Whether you're coaching, playing,
volunteering at a venue or hosting
kids in your house, it's an amazing
bonding experience. And it's a great
opportunity to do community service.
"This is a full 100 hours of nonstop
bonding between Jewish people,"
Robbins said. "The underlying motto
is bringing all these Jewish kids
together. Maybe they end up going to
camp together or visiting each other.
I'm sure it's led to marriages, too"
❑
To volunteer for Maccabi - even for a few
hours - go to www.2014detroit.org and
click on the Volunteer link, or call (248)
432-5500.