AUGUST 17 • 2023 | 51

and sixth in the 200 breast-
stroke.

He won one ribbon in 
2019 in Albuquerque, New 
Mexico, placing fourth in the 
200 breaststroke, and one rib-
bon in 2017 in Birmingham, 
Alabama, placing eighth in 
the 200 breaststroke.
He won his lone National 
Senior Games medal in 
Minneapolis in 2015, a silver 
in the 100 breaststroke. He 
also won a ribbon there for 
a sixth-place finish in the 50 
breaststroke.

Normally held every two 
years, the National Senior 
Games got off schedule when 
the 2021 Games were can-

celed because of the COVID-
19 pandemic.
Berk said everything 
went off without a hitch 
in Pittsburgh. That 
wasn’t the case last year 
in Ft. Lauderdale, where 
transportation and pool 
issues (no swimming was 
allowed for one day because 
of toxic levels of chlorine 
in the water) impacted the 
National Senior Games, as 
did daily thunderstorms. 
Berk attends Temple 
Israel and Adat Shalom 
Synagogue. 

Send sports news to 

stevestein502004@yahoo.com.

PHOTOS COURTESY JIM BERK

The swimming portion of the 2023 National Senior Games was 
held at the University of Pittsburgh’s Joseph C. Trees Pool. 

It looks like there 
will be a showdown 
for the B’nai B’rith 
Golf League team 
championship Aug. 
24 at the Links of 
Novi.
Brothers Adam 
and Ryan Vieder, 
who topped the 
team standings in 
the first half of the 
season, are most 
likely not going to 
repeat in the second 
half. So they will 
need to face the 
second-half winners 
in a title match.
In the team standings through 
July 28, Mitch Lefton and Stu Zorn 
led the way with 63 points, one 
more than second-place Gary 
Klinger and Dale Taub, two more 

than third-place Jody 
Mendelson and David 
Swimmer and three 
more than fourth-
place Lyle Schaefer 
and Ryan Stone. The 
Vieders had 35 points 
and were in last place 
among the 12 two-
man teams.
Zorn was 
well in front in 
the race for the 
league’s individual 
championship, which 
is a season-long 
competition, on July 
28. He had 79.5 
points, eight more than Klinger, 
who was in second place.
This is the weekly league’s 11th 
year, and the first time the team 
competition was split into two 
halves.

Mitch Lefton and Stu 
Zorn.

GARY KLINGER

They’ll Tee It Up for the Title

Four teams were undefeated after the first 
day of the two-day Inter-Congregational 
Men’s Club Summer Softball League dou-
ble-elimination playoffs.
Temple Beth El No. 1 and Temple Shir 
Shalom No. 2 were both 2-0 in the Greenberg 
Division playoffs and Congregation Shaarey 
Zedek was 2-0 and Congregation Shir Tikvah 
was 1-0 in the Koufax Division playoffs follow-
ing games played Aug. 6.
Temple Israel No. 6 was the regular-season champion in the six-team 
Greenberg Division. It was 0-1 in the playoffs after the first day. Shir Tikvah 
was the regular-season champion of the seven-team Koufax Division.
The league plays on Sundays at Drake and Keith sports parks in West 
Bloomfield.

Ryan Turell, an 
Orthodox Jew who 
spent last season, his 
first as a professional 
basketball player, with 
the Motor City Cruise of 
the G League, was one 
of five league players 
who were profiled in an 
Amazon Prime Video 
documentary.
Destination NBA: A G 
League Odyssey aired Aug. 8. 
The documentary also includes 
interviews with former G League 
players who made it to the NBA. 
Fifty-five percent of players on 
NBA rosters in the 2022-23 sea-
son played in the G League, the 
NBA’s minor league. 

If Turell earns a 
spot on an NBA roster, 
he would be the first 
Orthodox Jew to do so. 
The 6-foot-7, 190-pound 
forward wears a kippah 
on the basketball court 
and has said he’ll con-
tinue to do so in the 
NBA.
Turell, 24, was select-
ed by the Cruise in the 
first round of the 2022 G League 
draft. He was the 27th overall 
pick of the draft. He averaged 27.1 
points per game in his senior year 
at Yeshiva University in New York 
City, tops among men’s collegiate 
basketball players.

Avery Gach’s stock in the world 
of college football recruiting 
continues to rise.
The Birmingham Groves 
High School junior was recently 
ranked the No. 2 high school 
football player in the state, 
according to 247Sports’ 
composite rankings. He’s the 
No. 12-ranked offensive lineman 
and No. 124 overall prospect in 
247Sports’ nation-wide rankings 
for his class.
Earlier, Gach earned a five-star 
ranking from recruiting guru Tom 
Lemming. Five stars is at the top 
of Lemming’s recruiting scale.

A 6-foot-5, 290-pound 
offensive lineman, Gach has 
received offers from more than 
30 colleges, including Michigan 
and Michigan State. He’s the 
most heavily recruited Jewish 
high school football player in 
the state in recent memory.

INTER-CONGREGATIONAL MEN’S 
CLUB SUMMER SOFTBALL LEAGUE

Four Teams Perfect in Softball Playoffs

Ryan Turell Profiled in Documentary

Ryan Turell

MOTOR CITY CRUISE

Avery Gach: No. 2 
Prep Football Player 
in the State

Avery Gach

MURRAY GOLDENBERG/CLASSIC 
PHOTOGRAPHY

