SPORTS

R

esplendent in their 
Detroit Red Wings-
style uniforms, hockey 
players from Detroit and Grand 
Rapids gave it their best shot a 
long way from home.
They didn’t win a medal at 
the JCC Maccabi Games last 
month in Israel. They won just 
two of five games.
But the memories they made 
during their three-week stay, 
that included the week-long 
Maccabi Games and two weeks 
of immersive educational travel 
around Israel with other athletes 
ages 14-17, will remain with 
them for the rest of their lives.
“Going on that tour around 
Israel was one of the best expe-
riences of my life,
” said Mason 

Marcus. “To take in all those 
significant sites in Israel with 
Jewish kids my age was great.
” 
Nine players representing 
Detroit, two representing Grand 
Rapids and four representing 
New York City made up one of 
the eight teams in the Maccabi 
Games hockey competition.
The Detroit/Grand Rapids/
NYC team practiced just four 
times before the Maccabi 
Games began. Three practices 
were at the Farmington Hills Ice 
Arena. One was in Israel, where 
the NYC players joined with 
their Michigan teammates. 
“We were competitive,
” said 
Detroit/Grand Rapids/NYC 
coach Mark Weiss. “There were 
some very good teams there.
”

After splitting four games in 
pool play, the Detroit/Grand 
Rapids/NYC team lost to Israel, 
one of those very good teams, 
in the playoffs.
“We weren’t the best team 
or the worst team there,
” said 
Marcus, the team captain. “We 
were somewhere in the middle. 
We definitely improved as the 
tournament went on. Our last 
game (the loss to Israel) was our 
best game.
“The competition was good, 
and it was interesting competing 
against different styles of play.
”
The Detroit/Grand Rapids/
NYC team stayed at the Resort 
Hadera by Jacob Hotels during 
the Maccabi Games hockey 
competition.

OneIce Arena in Tnuvot, 
billed as the most modern ice 
arena in Israel, was the hockey 
site for the Maccabi Games. 
The facility has two rinks, one 
an NHL-sized rink where the 
Maccabi Games competition 
was held.
The arena is 10 minutes from 
Netanya, a half-hour from Tel 
Aviv, and more than an hour 
away from the Maccabi Games 
home base in Haifa.
Marcus said the arena was 
nicer than he expected, but he 
described the ice surface diplo-
matically as “playable.
”
Teammate Spencer 
Werner said he was pleasantly 
surprised by OneIce Arena, but 
the ice surface was “soft.
”

Hockey players from Detroit and Grand Rapids team up 
at the JCC Maccabi Games in Israel, then tour the country.

No Medal, 
but Great Memories

continued on page 34

STEVE STEIN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

32 | AUGUST 31 • 2023 

Mason Marcus, 
Preston 
Lumberg, 
Spencer Werner, 
Ellis Bornstein 
and Aiden 
Ben-Ezra enjoy 
sunrise at 
Masada. 

SPENCER WERNER

