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