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

