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Feb. 22, 2008
Local youths excel in games
Athletes return from Pan-American Maccabiah bearing medals.
JORDAN CHITTLEY
Competing against about 3,000 athletes from 30 different countries, Canadian Jewish athletes took home 14 medals at the recent Pan America Maccabiah Games in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Out of the 175 Canadian athletes, four were from the Vancouver area, including Taylor and Sam Sekhon, who won a bronze and silver medal, respectively, on their under-19 and under-16 basketball teams.
"Basketball was definitely part of the reason I chose to go, but what makes the trip most appealing to me is the travelling aspect," said Taylor. "It's not often you get an opportunity to travel with different and, for the most part, unknown people that you really do have a lot in common with."
The part that all the athletes have in common is their Judaism. While these games can be billed as an Olympic-style competition with a number of different sport and competitors from many countries, what separates this competition is that it is about much more than the sporting events.
"I enjoyed competing against Jews from across the world," said Taylor. "It was definitely nice to play against the different styles of basketball different countries play ... it was definitely a refreshing change of pace from Vancouver."
"It was just an amazing Jewish opportunity ... because they are representing the Jewish community," said Taylor and Sam's mother, Lori Fugman, when asked why she thought it was important for her boys to attend the games. "I just feel it is wonderful when Jewish youth can get together, celebrate who they are and what they can do in their accomplishments."
Part of the problem with having a "Canadian" team compete is that coaches have to select the best players from across the country, even if they haven't played together before. Although Sam's under-16 team consisted of six players from Toronto, one from Vancouver, one from Montreal and one from Calgary, it didn't affect their cohesiveness come game time.
"We had a lot more camaraderie," said Sam. "We were all really close, we connected well on this team and that is probably a reason why we did well."
The ability to play together also helped them come back and pull the score to within five points after being down by 20 to the Americans in the finals, almost winning the gold medal. That cohesiveness came from coach Michael Epstein, who not only covered all positions with talented athletes, but also chose team players. He said he picked Sam because of his basketball and football backgrounds, which showed that he was physically a good athlete and a team player.
"We got along well," said Sam about his coach. "We had a nice little bond."
"Sam was one of our key guys, great heart, great desire, overall great athlete, an absolute pleasure to coach him," said Epstein, adding that he was surprised at the amount of talent in Vancouver and that he wanted to take two more from the area, but one had a family commitment and the other had financial restraints. It cost $6,000 for each athlete to attend the games, but luckily for Taylor and Sam, both of their teams did fund-raising and had corporate sponsorships that significantly reduced the overall cost.
Buenos Aires was a good location for the games, with its approximately 200,000 Jews comprising the largest Jewish community in Latin America. The only problem was the heat at this time of year.
"There was no air or fans in the gym, so that created an advantage or disadvantage, depending on what weather you are accustomed to," said Epstein. However, Taylor, Sam and the other Vancouver athletes – Michael Rosenbloom and Ryan Sidhoo – were able to overcome this obstacle, all taking home medals.
The Pan Am Maccabiah are held every four years, in the time between when the Maccabiah, where Jewish athletes from around the world compete for their country, are held in Israel. The 18th ("chai") edition of the world Maccabiah games will be held in July 2009 in Israel.
Jordan Chittley is a Vancouver freelance writer.
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