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