54 | SEPTEMBER 17 • 2020 

Billy Slobin didn’
t think there would 
be a high school football season this 
fall.
So the strength and conditioning 
coach for the North Farmington High 
School football team is perfectly 
happy with what the truncated prep 
football season will look like: Each 
team will play six regular-season 
games and make the state playoffs.
“I was not a proponent of a spring football 
season. You need to keep the clock ticking, 
play football in the proper time of the year,” 
Slobin said. “I want to use the winter and 
spring to train players for the next fall season, 
get them prepared physically and mentally.
“I’
m elated for our North Farmington kids 
and their families that there will be a fall foot-
ball season. Coaches have many seasons in 
which to coach. Kids have a finite amount of 
time to play and spend time with their team-
mates and coaches.”

The Michigan High School Athletic 
Association’
s Representative Council 
voted Sept. 3 to reinstate fall sports 
after Gov. Gretchen Whitmer issued an 
executive order the previous day that 
allowed organized sports to resume in 
the state.
The MHSAA had made football a 
spring sport Aug. 14, but left the door 
open for a fall season.
The North Farmington football season will 
begin Sept. 17 with its Week No. 4 game at 
Rochester Adams. Games in the first three 
weeks were scrapped.
Instead of playing Traverse City West at 
home on Oct. 23 in Week No. 9, the Raiders 
will play host to Birmingham Seaholm.
Slobin was the strength and conditioning 
coach at Farmington Hills Harrison High 
School for 34 years before the school closed 
in 2018. This is his second season at North 
Farmington.

quick hits
BY STEVE STEIN 

Inter-Congregational Men’
s Club 
Summer Softball League’
s 25th year 
was historic for many reasons

STEVE STEIN CONTRIBUTING WRITER
I

t was a season like no other in 
the Inter-Congregational Men’
s 
Club Summer Softball League.
The major reason, of course, was 
the COVID-19 pandemic. There 
were rule changes. Players wore 
masks and social distanced. Using 
hand sanitizer was an important as 
catching a fly ball with two hands. 

There were no post-game high-fives 
between teams.
The rule changes weren’
t uni-
versally popular. But having dou-
ble-elimination playoffs for the first 
time in the weekly league’
s 25-year 
history was well received.
“It would have been nice to 
spread the playoffs over three weeks, 
but two weeks were fine,
” said Steve 
Achtman, a league director along 
with Michael Betman.
Also getting applause was a deci-
sion to name a recipient of the Jeff 
Fox Sportsmanship and Michael 
Yendick Good Heart awards from 
each of the three divisions for the 
first time since the league went to a 
divisional setup in 2017.
“It was a tough season, but I’
m 
glad we had a season,
” Achtman 
said.
“It was a trying season,
” said 
umpire-in-chief Rob Landaw, one of 
the league’
s seven umpires.
“But given what’
s going on in the 
world, we were fortunate,
” Landaw 
said. “Everyone in the league — 
players, umpires and directors — 
made it work.
”
Jeff Sandler was manager of the 
Adat Shalom Synagogue No. 1 team 

sports HIGHlights

NMLS#2289
brought to you in partnership with 

‘It Was a Tough Season, 

But I’m Glad We Had a Season’

ABOVE: Temple Israel No. 6 softball team celebrates its Greenberg 
Division championship.

CAROLYN KLINGER

COURTESY OF THE 
SLOBIN FAMILY.

Jeff Fox was a beloved member of the Temple 
Shir Shalom team in the Inter-Congregational 
Men’
s Club Summer Softball League.
Since his death in 2011, the league has 
presented the Jeff Fox 
Sportsmanship Award to the 

league’
s best sport.
This year, for the first time 
since the league went to a 
divisional setup in 2017, the 
league presented the award 
to a player in each of the 
three divisions. Each man-
ager nominated a player for 
the award, and the recipients were selected 
at random.
Jeff Kaplan (Greenberg Division), Lonnie 
Myers (Koufax Division) and Eric Wolfe (Rosen 
Division) are the 2020 award recipients.

BRANDON ACHTMAN

Eric Wolfe

