24 | JULY 18 • 2024
J
N
I
t was a season of
accomplishments this past
spring for the Frankel
Jewish Academy girls soccer
team.
After a having a combined
team with Waterford Our
Lady of the Lakes High
School in 2023 because of low
numbers and posting a 3-4-1
record, the Jaguars were on
their own in 2024 and did just
fine.
They earned a Team
Academic Award from the
Michigan High School Soccer
Coaches Association for their
combined 3.54 GPA during
the spring semester.
On the field, Frankel was
8-4 overall and 3-3 in the
Catholic League Intersectional
Division, good for third place
among the six teams in the
division.
Not bad for a team with
only one senior.
Sophomore Tamar
Fischman and juniors Grace
Kleinfeldt and Naomi Kahan
were named to the All-
District Team, selected by the
MHSSCA. Fischman also was
All-Region and a Division 4
honorable mention All-State
selection.
The architect of the Jaguars’
success on the pitch was
27-year-old Erikson Cela,
the team’s first-year coach. A
former Taylor Truman High
School and travel soccer
player, Cela also coaches the
boys soccer team at Taylor
High School.
All the credit for his Frankel
team’s academic honor goes to
the girls, Cela said.
“They’re students first, then
athletes,” he said. “They were
always talking about their
classes. If they needed to miss
practice to study for an exam,
they did that. They did their
homework on the bus as we
traveled to away games.”
Fischman wasn’t surprised
the team had such as
impressive GPA. She had
a 3.91 GPA for the spring
semester. Her cumulative GPA
is 3.94.
“There’s a collective strong
academic work ethic among
Frankel students,” she said.
Fischman wants to play
college soccer. That’s why
Frankel Jewish Academy girls soccer players earn honors
for their hard work in the classroom and on the field.
Goal-Oriented
STEVE STEIN CONTRIBUTING WRITER
SPORTS
quick hits
BY STEVE STEIN
Israel Is Next Stop in Ryan Turell’s
Basketball Career
So long, Ryan Turell. After playing the last two seasons for the Motor
City Cruise for the NBA’s G League, the 25-year-old Orthodox Jewish
basketball player has signed with a team in the Israeli Basketball
Premier League.
Turell was the first Orthodox Jew to play in the G
League. The 6-foot-7 forward had a great career at
Yeshiva University. He led collegiate basketball in scoring,
averaging 27.1 points per game when he was a senior, but
he wasn’t drafted by an NBA team and was signed by the
Cruise.
In 54 games with the Cruise, which is affiliated with the
Detroit Pistons and plays its home games at Wayne State
University, Turell averaged just 4.4 points per game and
shot 35% on three-pointers in limited playing time. He averaged 14.2 and
11.9 minutes on the court in his two seasons. But he was an extremely
popular player among Jewish fans in Detroit and around the league.
Turell will play for Ironi Ness Ziona in the IBPL, Israel’s top basketball
league. The team made it to the quarterfinals in the league playoffs last
season.
Red Wings Send Jake Walman
to the San Jose Sharks
Defenseman Jake Walman, the Detroit Red Wings’ lone Jewish player, was
traded to the San Jose Sharks last month along with a second-round pick
in the NHL draft for future considerations.
Walman was traded to the Red Wings by the St. Louis Blues in 2022.
He had 12 goals and nine assists in 63 games for the Red
Wings last season.
The 28-year-old Toronto native will join a San Jose team
that has a Jewish coach, Ryan Warsofsky, and another
Jewish player, Luke Kunin. At age 36, Warsofsky is the
youngest coach in the NHL. He previously was an assistant
coach with the Sharks before being named to the top spot
last month.
The last Jewish coach in the NHL before Warsofsky was
Bob Plager. He had a short 11-game stint behind the bench
for the Blues in 1992 before resigning to return to his job as the Blues’
vice president of player development.
Dave Reginak/
Detroit Red Wings
Jake
Walman
Ryan Turell
Motor City Cruise
L TO R: Frankel girls soccer stars
Tamar Fischman, Naomi Kahan
and Grace Kleinfeldt.
PHOTOS BY ALEX VINTER