32 | JANUARY 11 • 2024 J
N

SPORTS

T

he most “feel good”
sports story of
2023 took place in
July during the hot Israeli
summer in an ice arena in
Tnuvot, Israel.
Players from Detroit,
Grand Rapids and New York
City made up one of the
eight teams in the ages 14-17
JCC Maccabi Games hockey
competition. The Detroit
team didn’t win a medal, but
it won the hearts of everyone
who knew the story of Sully
Popour.
Popour was one of the
two players on the team
from Grand Rapids. He also

was one of the youngest
and smallest players in the
hockey competition.
He had just turned 14 a
month and a half before the
Maccabi Games. He was
5-feet tall and weighed about
85-90 pounds.
After a couple games,
Detroit hockey coach Mark
Weiss faced a dilemma.
Even though no-check
hockey was being played at
the Maccabi Games, Weiss
was concerned about the
possibility of Popour getting
hurt as the games became
more intense.
Instead of having Popour

ride the bench, Weiss
decided to put him behind
the bench as his assistant
coach. Team captain Mason
Marcus supported the
decision after hearing from
Weiss about it.
Before asking Popour if he
was willing to be an assistant
coach, Weiss spoke on the
phone with Melissa Popour,
Sully’s mother, who was in
Israel, and got her take on
the idea.
“I was worried about Sully
getting hurt, too,” she said.
“And he said he wanted to go
home. He felt like he didn’t
fit in. I told him he was
going to stay. He was there to
play hockey.
“Then I got the call from
Mark. I really appreciated
that he thought outside the
box when it came to Sully.
I cried on the phone. Sully
liked the idea about being an
assistant coach. He actually
was excited about it.”
Sully’s former teammates
called him “Coach Sully”
after his promotion.
The story doesn’t end
there. Harold Hersh, coach
of the Montreal hockey
team, heard about Sully from
Weiss.
After talking to his players,
Hersh asked Sully to be his
assistant coach, too.
Sully coached half of
Montreal’s semifinal game
and the entire championship
game, wearing a Montreal
jersey. Montreal won the title
game, so Sully won a gold
medal.
The Montreal players
adopted Sully as one of their
own, often inviting him to
join them at team lunches

and dinners.
“They were very nice to
me,” Sully said.
Hersh said he looked at
Sully being a part of his team
as a life lesson for his players.
“I hope my players learned
that being supportive and
welcoming doesn’t cost a
thing,” he said. “If you’re able
to lift up someone, you never
know the difference you can
make in their life.”
Hersh and Sully each
received a Midot Medal for
representing one of the six
values of the Maccabi Games.
So did Weiss, for teaching
Gal Shiratsky, an Israeli
Maccabi Games volunteer at
the ice arena, how to skate.
Back home this winter in
Rockford, a suburb of Grand
Rapids, Sully is an eighth-
grader at Lake Michigan
Academy in Rockford and
playing house league hockey,
as he has done for years.
He’s had a growth spurt
since last summer. He’s
now about 5-4 and weighs
about 100 pounds. He’s the
youngest of Tim and Melissa
Popour’s two children. His
sister Aiden is 23.
Sully’s mother said she’s
happy he went to Israel
last summer for both the
Maccabi Games experience
and the tour of the country
that followed the sports
competition.
“Why did Sully go to
Israel? I told him he was
going,” his mother said with
a laugh. “It was a once-in-
a-lifetime opportunity for
him to play hockey and
meet other Jewish kids from
around the world. And I’ve
always wanted to go there.”

The heart-warming story of hockey
player turned assistant coach
Sully Popour, who took home two
medals from the JCC Maccabi
Games in Israel.

Coach Sully

STEVE STEIN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

JCC Maccabi Games volunteer Gal
Shiratsky shows off Detroit hockey
coach Mark Weiss’ Midot Medal.

MARK WEISS