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September 19, 2003
Success at Maccabi Games
An eventful trip starts with a power failure but finishes with
five medals.
ALAN SLATER SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH BULLETIN
Forty-five very tired but very happy teenagers returned last month
from the Jewish Community Centre Maccabi Games in Tenafly, N.J.
Fifteen coaches, chaperones and more than 25 parents and siblings
accompanied the athletes to this year's games.
Tenafly was just one of three host cities this year. In total, approximately
6,000 athletes and 1,100 coaches attended the games in Tenafly,
St. Louis and Houston in August.
More than 1,700 athletes and 300 coaches from 40 delegations (and
six countries – Canada, Great Britain, Israel, Mexico, Venezuela
and the United States) participated in basketball, baseball, bowling,
golf, in-line hockey, soccer, softball, swimming, table tennis and
tennis at the event in Tenafly. These Olympic-style games, which
took place Aug. 17-21, gave athletes the chance to participate in
a high-quality, international sporting event and the chance to meet
Jewish kids from all over the world. They witnessed a moving tribute
to the Munich 11 during the opening ceremonies, created Surgidolls
for sick Israeli children during their Day of Care and Sharing,
traded pins and clothing with other athletes, and spent time with
their host families throughout the games.
The trip to New Jersey started at 6 a.m. on Aug. 14 at the Vancouver
airport, when eight athletes and two coaches started out on what
turned out to be an eventful 27 hours. We departed Vancouver on
time and arrived at Toronto airport at 2 p.m. There, we met up with
other athletes and parents and got in line to clear customs and
immigration. After waiting for more than an hour, the power went
out! After another hour of waiting, airport officials finally announced
that all flights out of Toronto had been cancelled.
Decision time: Do we try find a hotel for 43 athletes and adults
and try to fly out the next day, or do we find some other way to
get to New Jersey? Michael Fugman and Garry Zlotnik came up with
the idea to try and find a bus. With poorly working cellphones and
their Visa cards, they set off on their mission. Within a half an
hour, they returned triumphant.
After notifying our hosts in Tenafly about our predicament and letting
our families in Vancouver know that we were OK, everything finally
came together. The bus arrived at around 7:30 p.m. and we were off
on an 11-hour journey that took us through Niagara Falls and finally
into New Jersey, arriving at the JCC there at 7 a.m. But the trip
was not over for two of the adults, who, upon arriving at their
hotel, found it in darkness and their rooms cancelled. The last
adult was finally checked into my hotel room at 5 p.m. Electricity
returned to the hotel at around 10 p.m.
The games officially started on the Sunday evening with the opening
ceremonies at the Continental Arena. Competition started early on
Monday morning. The first day ended with a host family evening where
the families entertained our athletes with tours of the city and
barbecue parties. Tuesday started with more sports competitions
and ended with Carnival Night at the JCC. Wednesday continued with
more sports, with the day ending with a trip to the Rexplex Sports
and Entertainment Complex. Thursday was the final day of competition
and that evening the closing ceremonies were held at Farleigh Dickinson
University.
This year, our athletes returned home with five medals, our biggest
medal haul ever.
The boys U16 basketball and girls U16 soccer teams did not have
any medal success on the field but they were certainly very competitive.
The girls team, led by the Smolen twins (Alex and Sami) and Danielle
Slater, had the most difficult four-game round robin draw, playing
the three top teams. They finished the round robin section in sixth
place, then played Springfield and won (6-1), advancing to play
Toronto, where they lost (4-1) in a very competitive game. The boys
basketball team, led by Jesse Ratner-Decle and Cale Shapera, finished
first in their pool, with a 3-1 record, but lost in the quarterfinals
to the eventual bronze medalists, Hartford.
The boys soccer team, led by Daniel Lithwick and Jordan Miller,
finished with a 6-1 record. They went on to beat Central Jersey
6-2 in the bronze medal final.
The golfers were most successful, with three golfers advancing to
the finals. They brought home two medals, a silver medal (Max Kaplan)
and a bronze (Zachary Pollock) for daily low round scores. The only
tennis player finished third in his section, but did not advance
to the medal rounds. And the last two medals came in racquetball,
with Corbin Ordel bringing home a silver and Sam Mickelson a bronze.
The organizing committee is already planning for the 2004 JCC Maccabi
Games. In 2004, Vancouver is planning to send a girls dance team,
a boys U14 soccer team and a girls U16 soccer team to Boston. We
are also looking at the possibility of taking a girls U16 basketball
and a boys U16 baseball team. The committee would like to increase
the number of individual sport athletes next year, so they are also
looking for boys and girls who would like to compete in bowling,
golf, swimming, table tennis and tennis.
For more information, call Alan Slater at 604-272-7394 (home) or
604-278-5881 (work).
Alan Slater is head of the Vancouver delegation of the
Jewish Community Centre Maccabi Games.
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