OCTOBER 20 • 2022 | 31

playoff appearances. Groves 
scored only 118 points last 
season, its lowest season 
point total since 2007.
“Friday nights are my 
focus. That’s my mindset,” 
Gach said.
Gach is a staple at right 
tackle on Groves’ offensive 
line for the second straight 
season. He’s also getting 
some snaps at defensive end 
this fall.
Last season, Gach became 
only the fourth freshman 
to start for Groves football 
coach Brendan Flaherty, 
who is now in his 22nd 
season in charge of the 
Falcons. The other freshmen 
starters during Flaherty’s 
tenure were a fullback and a 
defensive end.
“It’s tough for a freshman 
to play on the offensive line 
on a high school varsity 
football team because of the 
physicality involved, but 
Avery is tough and strong,” 

Flaherty said last fall. 
“And he’s fearless. He isn’t 
intimidated.”
David and Amy Gach are 
Avery’s parents. The family 
lives in Bloomfield Hills.
Avery’s father made a 
name for himself as an 
athlete at Berkley High 
School, where he played 
football, basketball and 
baseball and was on the 
wrestling team before he 
graduated in 1996.
David Gach had offers 
to play college football at 
Division II and Division 
III schools, but he decided 
to go to Michigan State to 
study business. He didn’t 
play sports in college.
It was a family affair 
for the Gach family last 
Friday (Oct. 14) when the 
Groves football team hosted 
Berkley. 

Send sports news to 

stevestein502004@yahoo.com.

Avery Gach holds Archie 
Griffin’s Heisman Trophy 
at Ohio State.

AMY GACH

quick hits
BY STEVE STEIN 

Jewish athletes are making 
news:
— Josh Nodler got off to a 
great start with his new college 
hockey team. The University 
of Massachusetts senior 
forward from Oak 
Park scored the 
No. 13-ranked 
Minutemen’s first 
goal of the season 
Oct. 8 in a 2-2 
tie vs. American 
International. With 
UMass down 2-0 in 
the third period of 
its opener, Nodler 
took a feed in the 
slot and scored 
at 12:52. The goal 
came in the Michigan State 
transfer’s 100th collegiate 
hockey game. Nodler was 
selected in the fifth round of 
the 2019 NHL draft by the 
Calgary Flames. This is his final 
season as Flames’ property.
— Yale University junior 
forward Elle Hartje from 
Bloomfield Hills is a candidate 
for the Patty Kazmaier 
Award, presented annually 
to the nation’s best Division 1 
women’s hockey player. Hartje 
had a breakout season for 
Yale last year as the Bulldogs 
played in the NCAA Frozen 
Four for the first time in team 
history. Hartje’s 35 assists 
set a team season record, 
and her 51 points were the 
second most in a season in 
team history. She also led Yale 
in blocked shots (46) and led 
ECAC Hockey by scoring 1.42 
points per game. Hartje was 
named to the ECAC Hockey 
pre-season all-league team 
just before the start of this 
season.
— Elon University junior 
soccer player Ben Rosenblatt 
from Huntington Woods 
missed his team’s first 11 
games this season because of 
an injury. He returned to action 
Oct. 8 and had the only shot 
on goal of the game in Elon’s 

scoreless tie against Colonial 
Athletic Association opponent 
William & Mary. Rosenblatt 
was alone against the William 
& Mary goalie in the game’s 
54th minute when his shot 
from near the top 
right corner of the 
6-yard box was 
kicked away. It was 
the eighth shutout 
of the season for 
North Carolina-
based Elon (7-3-2, 
4-1-1).
— Former 
Bloomfield Hills 
resident Jason 
Boschan, whose 
Run4Papa 
campaign to raise money 
for research and awareness 
for Alzheimer’s Disease and 
related dementia has taken 
him to all seven continents 
to run a marathon, is on a 
quest to run a half-marathon 
in all 50 states. The Charlotte, 
North Carolina, resident ran 
recently in the Amica Newport 
Half-Marathon in Rhode Island 
and received a $1,000 award, 
one of 10 presented annually 
to randomly chosen Amica 
Newport runners who are 
running to support a charity. 
All of Boschan’s Run4Papa 
runs are self-funded. All 
donations go to Northwestern 
University’s Mesulam Center 
for Cognitive Neurology and 
Alzheimer’s Disease. Papa is 
pediatrician Dr. Louis Heyman 
of Bloomfield Hills, Boschan’s 
late grandfather, who died in 
2013 at age 88 from dementia.
— Senior offensive lineman 
Mica Gelb from Washington, 
D.C., the lone practicing Jew 
on the University of Michigan 
football team, played a 
career-high nine snaps in the 
Wolverines’ 59-0 win over 
UConn on Sept. 17 at Michigan 
Stadium. Gelb’s mother, Betsy 
Shapiro, was a tennis star at 
Bloomfield Hills Andover High 
School and U-M.

Names in the News

UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS

Josh Nodler

continued on page 32

