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