sports

CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: U.S.
hockey player Jaxon Perlmutter
shows off his Maccabiah Games
gold medal.
Rabbi Brent Gutmann from
Temple Kol Ami has some fun
on the diamond during an
InterCongregational Men’s Club
Summer Softball League game.
The Frankel boys tennis team
celebrates qualifying for the
Division 4 state tournament for the
third straight time.
Brad Golder (12) and Scott Hutten
celebrate Temple Shir Shalom No.
2’s playoff championship win over
Congregation Shaarey Zedek in the
InterCongregational Men’s Club
Summer Softball League.
Novi Detroit Catholic Central
wrestler Jackson Ross is thrilled
about pinning his Davison opponent
in the Division 1 team state
championship match.

Plenty Of
Sports News In 2017

STEVE STEIN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

I

t was another busy year for local Jewish sports news
in 2017.
Here are some of the highlights, listed in chronolog-
ical order of when they appeared in this column. Also on
this page are some of the top local Jewish sports photos
of 2017.
• Jackson Ross, a Jewish student at Novi Detroit
Catholic Central High School, finishes third at 215
pounds in the Division 1 individual wrestling state tour-
nament, earning All-State honors for the second straight
year. A week earlier, Ross helped Catholic Central capture
the Division 1 team state title by pinning his opponent
during a 35-22 victory over Davison.
• West Bloomfield resident Aaron Fogarasi survives five
hours of competition (with a few breaks) and wins the
annual fundraising Shushan Hold ’Em Poker Tournament
presented by the B’nai B’rith Great Lakes Region and
Temple Israel Brotherhood.
• Sheldon Larky of West Bloomfield is honored by the
Michigan High School Athletic Association for his 30
years of service as an MHSAA soccer referee.
• David Vinsky, a Northwood University freshman out-
fielder from Farmington Hills, is named the Great Lakes
Intercollegiate Athletic Conference’s Rookie of the Year
for baseball.
• Archie’s Army from the Brotherhood-Eddie Jacobson
League wins the team championship at the 76th annual
International B’nai B’rith Bowling Association tourna-
ment in Waterford.
• Alex D’Ascenzo helps the Cornell University women’s

tennis team win its first Ivy League title since 1996 before
graduating and starting her pursuit of a doctorate in
physical therapy at the Massachusetts General Hospital
Institute of Health Professions in Boston.
• Coach Barry Brodsky leads the Birmingham Marian
girls soccer team to its sixth Division 2 state champion-
ship in Brodsky’s 16 years as coach and first since 2012.
• Harry Glanz of West Bloomfield buys a baseball auto-
graphed by Hank Greenberg during a live auction at the
Hank Greenberg Memorial Golf Invitational. Glanz pays
$850 for the baseball, which was donated for the auction.
• The Frankel Jewish Academy boys golf team qualifies
for the Division 4 state tournament for the third consecu-
tive year and comes through with its best showing, finish-
ing in eighth place.
• Jaxon Perlmutter of Bloomfield Hills helps the U.S.
junior boys (ages 15-18) hockey team win a gold medal at
the 20th Maccabiah Games in Israel.
• Eleven Detroit dancers win 20 medals in 17 dances in
the JCC Maccabi Games & ArtsFest in Miami, Fla.
• For the first time, multiple champions are crowned
in the InterCongregational Men’s Club Summer Softball
League. The growing 18-team league was split into three
six-team divisions based on competition level.
• Swimmer Jim Berk of West Bloomfield wins four gold
medals in four races at the Michigan Senior Olympics.
• Rob Alvin, Sheila Johansson Cohen, Bill Fagenson,
Jack Levitt and Noah Ruden are inducted into the
Michigan Jewish Sports Hall of Fame. James Dworman,
Sheldon Larky, Al Must and Larry Singer are Pillars of

Excellence Award winners.
• Former Hazel Park Raceway publicist Gordon
Waterstone, now associate editor of a Lexington, Ky.-
based harness racing industry magazine, is inducted
into the Harness Racing Museum & Hall of Fame’s
Communicators Hall of Fame.
• Ed Kozloff of Huntington Woods receives a
President’s Award from the Road Runners Club of
America for his 42-year tenure as Motor City Striders
president and for directing more than a thousand races
that have resulted in more than $40 million in charitable
contributions.
• West Bloomfield High School graduate Elizabeth
Larky-Savin is one of the inaugural recipients of the John
Bieniewicz Memorial Scholarship presented in honor of
the late soccer referee who suffered fatal injuries in 2014
when he was punched by a player during a men’s league
game in Livonia.
• The Frankel Jewish Academy boys tennis team,
coached by Michigan Jewish Sports Hall of Fame induct-
ee Larry Stark, competes in the Division 4 state tourna-
ment for the third straight year and ties for 10th place.
• Jeff Ellis qualifies for the Amateur American
Powerlifting Federation national meet once again. The
West Bloomfield resident is hoping the third time is a
charm in 2018 after not competing in the national meet
in 2016 and 2017 because of injuries. •

Send sports news to stevestein502004@yahoo.com.

jn

January 4 • 2018

23