sports
‘X’ Marks the Spot for Gold Medal
STEVE STEIN
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
J
axon Perlmutter has had a
great summer.
The 17-year-old
Bloomfield Hills resident was a
member of the gold-medal win-
ning U.S. junior boys (ages 15-18)
hockey team last month at the
20th Maccabiah Games in Israel.
Make that the undefeated
gold-medal winning team. The
U.S. team won all five of its
games, winning four double
round-robin games before beat-
ing Canada 5-2 for the champi-
ABOVE: The gold-medal winning U.S. hockey team at the Maccabiah Games in
Israel. TOP RIGHT: Jaxon Perlmutter with his gold medal.
ROAD TO GOLD
Results of the U.S. junior boys hockey team’s games at the 20th
Maccabiah Games in Israel:
• July 9: USA 12, Israel 0 (double round-robin).
• July 11: USA 3, Canada 2 (double round-robin).
• July 12: USA 5, Israel 2 (double round-robin).
• July 13: USA 7, Canada 6 (double round-robin).
• July 16: USA 5, Canada 2 (championship).
Note: Games were played with three 20-minute periods.
onship.
Pais Arena Jerusalem was the
Maccabiah Games’ hockey venue.
The arena is home to the
Hapoel Jerusalem team of the
Israeli Basketball Premiere
League. Former NBA star Amar’e
Stoudemire plays for that team.
“I got to use Stoudemire’s lock-
er,” Perlmutter said.
Permutter also got to visit
many of the important sights in
Israel, represent the U.S. and the
play the sport he loves during his
trip.
The U.S. team won the gold
medal even though it didn’t have
many practices.
There were two practices in
Philadelphia, Pa., before the
team flew from Newark, N.J., to
Tel Aviv, a few practices on a
small rink in Tel Aviv while the
team was touring, and two prac-
tices at Pais Arena before compe-
tition began.
That’s not a lot of time togeth-
er on the ice for players who
wanted to win a gold medal, but
Perlmutter said it didn’t matter.
“We had a lot in common,” he
said. “We’re Jews, and we love
playing hockey. That made it
easy to connect.”
Permutter said the team had
two goals and achieved both.
“Goal 1A was to have a good
time. Goal 1B was to win a gold
medal,” he said.
“I don’t think it was a big
surprise that we won the gold
medal. We had a lot of good play-
ers, many from prep schools, and
we took the tournament
seriously.”
Beating Canada three
times was particularly sweet
for Perlmutter, who lived
in Toronto until moving to
Bloomfield Hills with his
family three years ago.
There were 21 players on
the U.S. roster. Perlmutter, a
6-foot-1, 160-pounder, was
one of 12 defensemen along
with seven forwards and
two goalies. He had seven
assists during the tourna-
ment.
Perlmutter said most U.S. play-
ers came from the New York-New
Jersey area. He was the lone
player from Michigan.
He wasn’t able to attend try-
outs for the U.S. team in June
2016 in Philadelphia because of
another hockey commitment,
but film clips and coaches’ rec-
ommendations got him on the
roster.
Hockey players love to give
their teammates nicknames, and
Perlmutter’s unusual first name
made him an easy target for his
U.S. teammates.
“X,” he said when asked what
his teammates and coaches
called him.
“I like that nickname. I’ve been
mostly called things like, ‘Perl,’”
he said.
This was Perlmutter’s second
trip to Israel. The first was a
decade ago for his brother’s bar
mitzvah.
An incoming senior at
Bloomfield Hills High School,
Perlmutter plans to return to his
high school hockey team this
winter.
He played travel hockey for the
Michigan Ice Hawks last year. He
was on his high school team as a
sophomore.
Perlmutter hopes club hockey
at the University of Michigan is
in his future. His brother Jake,
22, is a U-M grad and his brother
Jamie, 20, is a senior at U-M.
With a 3.9 grade-point average,
Perlmutter certainly is strong
enough academically to be
accepted into U-M.
About 7,000 Jewish athletes
from 80 countries joined 2,500
Israeli athletes at the 20th
Maccabiah Games, an Olympics-
style event. It ran from July 4-18.
Held every four years, the
Maccabiah Games is the world’s
third-largest sports event. •
Please send sports news to
stevestein502004@yahoo.com.
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August 10 • 2017
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