12 Feb 2012 | 19 Shevat 5772
Joseph Leichman
Aliza and some of her fellow hockey players.
When Aliza Hiller was first featured in this column, her three-sport stardom at Teaneck's Ma'aynot Yeshiva High School for Girls was almost overshadowed by her preternatural obsession with her number 6' jersey. One year later, Aliza is a Ma'ayanot graduate, and headed to study in Jerusalem for a year before starting Queens College. Fittingly, when Hiller got her diploma, she took her number with her: Ma'ayanot retired "6'" — the only number retirement in the school's history.
As of Wednesday, July 5, MySpace.com. the uber-popular online community, had roughly 90,738,401 members. Josh Feit was not one of them. As of the same date, there were hundreds of thousands of high-school kids either filing papers in offices for summer internships or sitting in the basement playing PS'. Again, Josh Feit was not one of them.
The rising senior at Pascack Hills High School is a real life "gamer." Seven days a week, Feit plays baseball, auditioning his skills for college scouts and prepping for his last season at Pascack Hills. So he doesn't have time for MySpace, or for pushing papers. He's way too busy on the baseball diamond.
In Fair Lawn's B'nai Brith adult softball league, most teams take after their moniker. In the Hank Greenberg division, the first-place Sea Dogs are the top dogs. The Tailgaters look like they showed up early, with heady play that puts them just behind the Dogs. And the Noshers, at a stellar 4-1, are eating up the competition.
This year — for the first time in a decade — the "Rambammers" are still around at mid-season. At 4-3, Jerry Schranz's club has a dozen games left to try to clinch their first playoff berth since Michael Jordan was playing baseball. Schranz, the team's coach, captain, and pitcher, took over the moribund 'Bammers in '001. The once-illustrious franchise finished last season with an even 8-8, and are hoping for better in '06. And just like its fellow teams, Schranz's group takes after its nickname.
"The Rambam (Maimonides) was a very religious fellow, with unorthodox practices — kind of like us," said Schranz, 31, who grew up in Spring Valley, N.Y., and moved to Fair Lawn in '000. Such behaviors include practicing in the dead of winter, recruiting talent on TeaneckShuls and local eateries, and hosting team-building weekends.
"The league is-a great [way] to strengthen the ties between Jewish adults, and it provides a networking environment and relaxing atmosphere for guys anywhere from 18 to 50 years old," said Schranz. "We bring out the families to the games, play to win, and have fun."
Fans can check the standings for both divisions —Greenberg and Sandy Koufax — at http://www.rgmathletic. com/softball. Those who do will see that there is at least one team with a misleading name: at 1-6 (and that one win coming via forfeit), the Mavens have been anything but softball experts. But Schranz isn't shedding any tears for the Mavens: Many of them are breakaway Rambammers.
"Some of the Mavens used to be Rambammers who decided to start their own team," said Schranz. "They've only been around for two years and haven't quite 'gotten there' yet. They're actually our arch-rivals, even though they have a worse record."
That, however, is the extent of the acrimony in the B'nai Brith league. Some of the players are Orthodox, while others are Conservative, Reform, or unaffiliated.
"Playing on a team gives the players a lot to look forward to on Sunday morning," said Schranz. "It's great being a Rambammer."
It's hard to say whether the Ma'ayanot soccer team or its coach is a more interesting story. This much is certain, though: Without Michael Sce, there would be no yeshiva girls' indoor soccer league. And without Ma'ayanot's squad, there wouldn't be one of the more remarkable turnaround stories in yeshiva league history.
The Teaneck girls' high school beat The Frisch School last week 8-3 in the league's championship game, snapping the Frisch Cougars' run of six straight championships. Frisch had actually won every title in the league's history and had lost only one regular season game during that stretch. But the challenge was more than welcomed by Ma'ayanot — which co-founded the league along with Frisch and which, for the first two years of league play, didn't win a single game.
Call them the anti-Frisch, but Sce says a changing of the guard was in order.
"We feel that we're getting better every year," said Sce, whose team was 6-' during the regular season, "and we've beaten all 11 teams in this league except for Frisch. Maybe it's time for Frisch to step down."
Sce is no stranger to competitive sports. A Jewish convert now living in Teaneck, Sce grew up immersed in athletics. He played football at Long Island's St. Francis Prep — Vince Lombardi's alma mater — and played football and rugby in college. Six years ago, when his daughter Estee wanted to start a soccer team, she knew exactly where to go.
"Estee told me, 'We need a coach, and it's going to be you,'" said Sce.
So Sce, along with organizers at Frisch, put the girls' yeshiva soccer league together. And despite the machismo associated with being an ex-high school football star, Sce has deep convictions about women's athletics.
"I believe girls learn a lot about themselves through sports," he said. "The statistics prove [that girls who play sports] have lower [teen] pregnancy rates, lower risks of cancer, and an increased likelihood of finishing college."
The biggest challenge, though, was teaching his players to act a little more like the boys.
"They say men should get in touch with their feminine side, but girls in indoor soccer need to get in touch with their masculine side," laughed Sce. "Most of my players are mild-mannered girls. In the beginning, other schools were much more physical than we were, and we had girls that would come away bruised and in tears."
Just like in the real estate game, doubles tennis is all about location, location, location. Even a great singles player can get lost in the doubles game, since where you hit the ball matters more than how hard you can hit it, says Fair Lawn High School tennis player Lenny Goldenberg. Think of it as placement over power.
Then again, the Fair Lawn junior's tennis career is a lesson in geography.
Seven of coach Matt Markman's tennis players call themselves the "Red Army," since they are all Russian. They are also all Jewish, and they are all starters.
And they're all pretty good.
"It is a nice thing that we're all Russian, since we're all alike in some way," said Goldenberg, who was born in America to Russian parents and grew up in Fair Lawn. "If we want to talk to each other privately when other people are around, we talk in Russian."
Fair Lawn's recent tennis success, though, is no secret. At the season-ending Bergen County tournament, their first (best) and second singles players, as well as their second doubles team, got to the tournament's quarterfinals. Meanwhile, their third singles player reached the semifinals. Goldenberg didn't fare quite as well, as his first doubles team, which was seeded fourth in the tournament, lost to Ramapo in the second round.
Goldenberg was still encouraged by his progress.
"I felt that, compared to last year, I did a lot better," he said. "I improved a lot this year, and fortunately, so did my partner."
The "Red Army" — Goldenberg, Leo Garber, Leon Kapulsky, Freddie Rozenshteyn, Danny Khaylo, Eugene Mirsky and Mark Shapovalov — reflect tennis' growing popularity in Russia. Long considered a country rich in hockey and poor in just about everything else, Russia is becoming a hotbed for well-trained tennis talent.
"If you watch the U.S. Open or the French Open which is going on now, a lot of young Russian girls are coming in at 16, 17 years old," said Goldenberg on Tuesday from Markman's office. "Take Maria Sharapova, who came in to her first grand slam (Wimbledon '004) as an underdog and won. The training in Russia is just harder than it is here."
Goldenberg plans to attend a college where he can continue playing tennis. But he also has more academic things on his mind, like studying chemistry and business law, and finding a good job.
After all, placement is everything.
