MARCH 28 • 2024 | 29
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ryan Robbins has done it all at the JCC
Maccabi Games: inline hockey player for
four years, hockey coach for nine years
and, now in 2024, co-commissioner of ice hock-
ey at the Detroit Games being organized by The
J in West Bloomfield from July 28-Aug. 2.
Robbins, 39, loved his time playing hockey as
a teen, first in Detroit then in Cherry Hill, N.J.,
Staten Island, N.Y., and in Philadelphia. “I’d look
forward to playing every summer, meeting a
lot of different friends and seeing old ones,” he
explained.
During his mid-20s, Robbins, who is from
West Bloomfield, turned to coaching. “I’ve
played ice hockey all my life and always got so
much out of it. It felt right to share my talents
with Jewish teens, to help give them the experi-
ence I’d had,” he said.
For nine summers, Robbins devoted count-
less hours training local teens and taking them
around the country to JCC Maccabi Games
held in Orange County, California; Milwaukee;
Philadelphia; Westchester, N.Y., and many more
cities. “There really is nothing like the Games,
where you get to meet people from all over the
world, hear a multitude of languages, and get to
experience a huge sports competition,” he says.
This year, Robbins, a founding partner of
Robbins and Licavoli PLLC, a firm specializing
in family law, will be co-commissioner of ice
hockey alongside one of his old Detroit hockey
teen teammates Brandon Pomish. “There’s no
money in this. Without people volunteering
their time, the Games just wouldn’t happen,”
he says. “
And where else would you have 2,000
Jewish kids all playing sport at the same time?”
Brad Steel’s journey with the Games started
when his best friend in high school, Michael
Redisch, insisted that he needed to be on the
volleyball team even though he had never
played. However, Steel was a good athlete, play-
ing baseball, tennis and golf, so after practicing
volleyball with his friend a few times, the boys
tried out for the team and that summer were on
their way to Pittsburgh.
“We were housed with a wonderful family
that I’m still in contact with on social media. I
know that, 33 something years later, if we hap-
pened to be in Pittsburgh, they would be happy
for us to stay with them,” Steel says.
Volunteers bring the 2024 JCC Maccabi Games
in Detroit to life.
The Backbone of
the Maccabi Games
ALISON SCHWARTZ SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
OUR COMMUNITY
Brad Steel (left) and Michael
Redisch at opening ceremony,
1992 Games in Pittsburgh.
Lifelong friends Brad Steel
(left) and Michael Redisch
in 2023 at a golf trip.
continued on page 30