44 | APRIL 21 • 2022 

I

t’s survived in an era when many 
recreation slow-pitch softball leagues 
have contracted or disappeared.
It’s powered through a worldwide 
pandemic, not skipping a beat.
It’s time to “Play ball!” in the 
27th season of the Inter-
Congregational Men’s Club 
Summer Softball League. 
Games in the weekly league 
will begin April 24.
Fourteen teams will 
compete in the league this 
season, one fewer than last 
year but enough to fill the 
league’s Greenberg, Koufax and Rosen 
divisions.
“The league isn’t just surviving. It’s 
thriving,” said Steve Achtman, a league 
organizer along with Michael Betman and 
Mitch Kline.
Betman, who started the league along 
with Brad Silber and still plays for Adat 
Shalom Synagogue No. 1, quickly said 
“No” with a laugh when asked if he 

believed in 1996 that the league 
would be thriving nearly three 
 decades later.
But he said he knows why 
 the league is doing so well.
“Camaraderie. Guys like 
 playing with their teammates 
and against the other guys in 
the league,” he said.
“
And the tradition of playing in the 
league has been passed on from many 
fathers to sons. A lot of sons who were bat 
boys have gone on to become players (18 
is the minimum age to play).”
Three teams dropped out of the league 
during the off-season, and two were 
added.
Gone are Bais Chabad Torah Center, 
Adat Shalom No. 2 and Temple Israel No. 

4.
Temple Shir Shalom No. 1 and Temple 
Beth El No. 2 are the new teams.
Each league team is scheduled to play 
20 regular-season games on Sundays 
through July 31 this season, taking time 
off for Mother’s Day, and the Memorial 
Day and July 4 weekends.
Three weeks of double-elimination 
playoffs will end with division 
championship games Aug. 21.
League games will be played once 
again at Keith and Drake sports parks in 
West Bloomfield although Drake won’t 
be available until early June because of 
parking lot work there.
Back to defend their division playoff 
championships are Temple Israel No. 2 in 

It was a season of mixed emotions for 
Ryan Berke.
The 19-year-old forward from 
Farmington Hills had 10 goals and 
16 assists in 41 games for the Jersey 
Hitmen Tier III team in the United 
States Premier Hockey League’s 
Premier Division.
The Wayne, New Jersey-based 
Hitmen finished 17-24-3, in fifth place 

in the seven-team Atlantic 
East Division and missed the 
league playoffs.
“This was the first time in 
my hockey career that I was 
on a losing team,” Berke 
said. “I’ll admit that was frus-
trating at times.
“I didn’t play as well as I 
thought I could, but I was still 
No. 2 on the team in points, and I feel 
I matured emotionally as a player.”
With last season in the rear-
view mirror, Berke said he’s look-
ing forward to a May tryout camp 

for the Hitmen Tier II team 
in the National Collegiate 
Development Conference 
and playing for the U.S. open 
division (ages 19-40) hockey 
team in the Maccabiah Games 
in Israel after a July 2-5 team 
training camp in Philadelphia.
Next season will be Berke’s 
fourth and final season of 
junior hockey eligibility. His ambition 
is to play college hockey, hopefully 
at a Division I school, after his junior 
days are over.

SPORTS

Inter-Congregational 
Men’s Club Summer 
Softball League returns 
for its 27th season.

On Deck

STEVE STEIN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Congregation Shaarey Zedek will defend its Koufax Division playoff championship this 
season.

STEVE ACHTMAN

quick hits

RYAN BERKE 

Ryan Berke

Ryan’s Hope: Move Up the 
Junior Hockey Ladder

continued on page 46

