Detroit 14U boys basketball players like the taste of their bronze medals. Joining
them are their coaches and Detroit 16U boys basketball players An Eizen and
The Detroit girls fast-pitch softball team won a gold medal in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Dylan Backalar.
Medals At Maccabi
Swimmers lead the way with a baker's dozen.
Steve Stein
Contributing Writer
were assistant coaches.
A basketball player from another del-
egation heard that the son of Dan Gilbert
— best known in the sports world as the
owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers and
LaBron James' boss — played for Detroit.
"So he ended up asking A.J. who was
Dan Gilbert's son. A.J. said he'd never
heard of the guy:' Fishman said with a
laugh.
W
e continue our coverage of
the 2015 JCC Maccabi Games
& ArtsFest with news about
Detroit swimmers, girls fast-pitch softball
and 14U boys basketball teams and the
teens who participated in ArtsFest. All the
events were in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Pool Haul
Detroit's swimmers brought home 13
medals.
David Schmall was the leader of the
pack. He won a gold medal in the 50
backstroke, a silver medal in the 100 back-
stroke, 50 breaststroke, 100 butterfly, 200
medley relay and 400 medley relay and a
bronze medal in the 50 butterfly and 50
freestyle.
Aaron Zelmanov and Taylor Golden
Wise each won a silver medal in the
200 medley relay and 400 medley relay.
Michael Umansky won a bronze medal in
the 400 medley relay.
Detroit coach Ronda Brodsky said she
had a blast meeting people from all over
the world like she did at previous Maccabi
Games, noting there were large delegations
of swimmers in Fort Lauderdale from
Great Britain and Australia.
"But the best thing as a coach is to see
the same coaches year after year with
some of the same swimmers:' she said. "It
gives you a welcoming feeling and the kids
build off that:'
There always are plenty of memorable
incidents at the Maccabi Games. One this
year involved Detroit's swimmers. Brodsky
said a swimmer from Philadelphia was
listed as being from Detroit so before he
received a medal, "I gave him a Detroit
shirt to wear on the podium:'
The JCC Cares community project for
all the swimmers involved working at a
100 September 10 • 2015
Detroit swimmers David Schmall, Taylor Golden Wise, Michael Umansky and Aaron
Zelmanov won 13 medals.
Feeding South Florida food bank.
"We learned a lot about teamwork and
how much faster we got things together
when we worked as a team:' said Brodsky,
who helped the swimmers pack up boxes
of food.
Megan Satawa, Grace Sherbin, Jordyn
Taylor, Jacqueline Spizizen, Alexandra
Kamin and Jessica Verona.
For its JCC Cares community project,
the team did volunteer work at the Boys &
Girls Club in Fort Lauderdale.
Gold Times Two
A.J. Who?
It was another golden Maccabi Games for
the Detroit girls fast-pitch softball team,
which won its second consecutive gold
medal after winning at home in 2014.
After struggling in pool play in Fort
Lauderdale, losing three of four games,
Detroit never lost again. It won an extra-
inning game to qualify for the champion-
ship game.
Aaron Sherbin was the team's coach and
Larry Frommer and Zoe Schmerin were
the assistant coaches. Players were Lucy
Appel, Hannah Cherrin, Jenna Frommer,
Sydney Gordon, Jordyn Kravitz, Sarah
Lynch, Isabel and Samantha Randel,
The Detroit 14U boys basketball team won
a bronze medal. Coach Jeremy Fishman
knows why.
"We won the medal mostly because of
the hard work of the kids who deserved
it most, the ones who always showed up
ready to play and always had a good atti-
tude he said.
The team's JCC Cares community proj-
ect was to create cards for sick children
who were patients at a children's hospital.
Blake Zamler, Evan Vine, Benny Fellows,
Jack Gurwin, Jordan Salesin, A.J. Gilbert,
Mitchell Sherr and Gabe Barish were on
the team. Sander Eizen and Jefrey Fishman
You Gotta Have Art
Seven teens from Detroit participated in
ArtsFest.
Celia Lipton, Benny Kirshner and Jake
Rubin were in acting/improv. Caitlin
Finery and Lily Kollin were in musical the-
ater and Rachel Millman and Riley Steam
were in visual arts.
Other ArtsFest categories are culinary
arts, performance dance, rock band, star
reporter and vocal performance.
More than 100 teens from Israel,
Canada, Australia. Great Britain, Poland
and across the U.S. participated in ArtsFest
in Fort Lauderdale, double the turnout for
ArtsFest in 2014 in Detroit.
The annual ArtsFest Showcase was held
at the Epstein Center for the Arts at Nova
Southeastern University in Davie, Fla. The
showcase gives ArtsFest participants an
opportunity to display their talents for an
audience. It's a culmination of three days
of workshops with artists-in-residence.
Culinary arts students made appetizers
that were served to audience members as
they entered the Epstein Center and visual
arts students displayed sculptures in a gal-
lery.
Two of the artists-in-residence in
Fort Lauderdale — Lisa Melinn (acting/
improv) and Eric Gutman (musical the-
ater) — are from the Detroit area.
❑
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