When an NHL team wins the Stanley Cup, its players usually drink or eat something — like champagne or cereal — out of the trophy. When Yaniv Besterman's Yavneh hockey team won the elementary school yeshiva league championship last month, his friends in synagogue were thinking along the same lines — although Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux probably never filled the Cup with cholent.
"When they announced at [Teaneck's Congregation] Keter Torah that we'd won, there wasn't really any ovation or applause," said Besterman, whose team won the championship in its first year of league play. "A bunch of people sitting near me just yelled, 'Kiddush, Kiddush.'"
Even though parks all over New Jersey are filled on Shabbat with kids playing basketball, there are few opportunities for youth from different counties to compete in non-organized, five-on-five settings. On April ', the Bergen County YJCC in Washington Township and Young Judaea gave teams of three just that chance, as a team from West Orange and Parsipanny beat out an all-Teaneck squad to place first in a fund-raiser for the Arava Institute.
Richard Kallus (West Orange), Steven Hoffer (West Orange), and Yoni Tammam (Parsippany) won the day's top prize and helped raise more than $900 for Arava (http://www.arava.org), which brings together Israeli, Palestinian, and Jordanian students as well as students from other countries in the Middle East to study environmental sciences.
With her first AAU tournament now over, Marisa Gobuty sounded "electric" over her cell phone. The 16-year-old prep basketball star — who spends half the year in Israel and half in Sarasota, Fla. — had good reason to be elated. Her team, the Finest Basketball Club, had just won the California Classic, the season's opening tournament for elite high school players.
Marisa, as she has since the sixth grade, continues to ascend to higher levels of competition in America and Israel. However, she's decided that she'd rather spend her college years on the western side of the Atlantic.
The smell of banners is in the air, as the yeshiva sports season is coming to a close with a furious series of championship matches. This Sunday saw three headlining trophy bouts, as basketball bragging rights were won in the boys' varsity, boys' junior varsity, and girls' varsity leagues.
The day's greatest prize went to Brooklyn's Magen David Yeshiva High School, whose boys' varsity team beat the top-seeded Frisch Cougars in overtime, 51-48. In a rematch of '004's junior varsity championship game — which Magen David also won — guard Sammy Fallas took home MVP honors with '4 points, six three-point field goals, and five assists. Frisch, which led '9-'3 at the half, was doomed in the extra session by missed free throws and a failed three-point attempt at the buzzer.
There is joke that went around Israel a couple of years ago: Whenever a group of Israelis would pass by a dilapidated field, an abandoned dirt patch, or a rocky expanse on the side of the highway, they would say, "This must be Israel's new baseball field."
While Israel is a country rich in soccer, basketball, and swimming, it never adopted baseball. But change is on the way, as the Jewish National Fund and the Israel Baseball League are partnering to bring baseball fields to several Israeli cities, including Netanya, Tel-Aviv, and Be'er Sheva.
Frank Petracco, TylerBurchell, and Peter Kutyla were members of the 4x100 free medley relay that took 6th place overall.
Paulo Madeira graduated from Montclair State University with a computer science degree and a math minor. Not bad for the start of a resum?. So, Madeira entered the job pool — literally — and never got out.
Madeira, who moved to America from Portugal when he was 17, is finishing his first year as the aquatics director and swim coach at the YM-YWHA of North Jersey in Wayne. The Y just completed its first winning season in the JCC swim league, and is sending six swimmers to the United States Swimming League New Jersey state championships at Rutgers University from March 17-19.
Fourteen-year-olds train five hours a day for the Olympics. High school sophomores get recruited by the National Basketball Association. Even pre-teen Little Leaguers hold press conferences in Williamsport, Pa.
What do American teenagers think about all this?
The answer is off the wall. Well, Off the Wall, actually.
A new publication started by two students at Torah Academy of Bergen County in Teaneck, Off the Wall offers sports news from a high school perspective.
Tell anyone on the basketball team at the Ma'ayanot Yeshiva High School for Girls that Eileen Schwartz used to coach their games, and they will hardly reward you for your grasp of the obvious.
After all, Schwartz has coached basketball and other sports at the Teaneck school for nine years, and is a fixture in its physical education department.
But see what happens when you mention that Schwartz used to coach the players even when she wasn't coaching the team.
"When I took a year off from coaching basketball a couple of years ago, I'd go to the games and coach the kids from the sidelines," said Schwartz, who lives in Fair Lawn.
"Once a coach, always a coach," said Schwartz, "and it's in the blood. You always have something to say."
The only time Schwartz may be at a loss for words is this Saturday night, when she will be honored at the annual Ma'ayanot dinner with the "teacher of the year" award. Schwartz, in addition to coaching, teaches health, phys. ed., and a senior elective on health, fitness, and nutrition.
But don't think that she'll tell the crowd all about it.
"I will only speak very briefly, maybe for five minutes" at the dinner, she said, explaining that "nobody wants to listen to speeches anyway. Nobody's interested."
Schwartz's honor comes at a time of growth for Ma'ayanot athletics. The school's volleyball team — which Schwartz began coaching midway through this season — will participate in its league's playoffs for the first time, and its basketball team was in a 3-way tie as of Sunday for a playoff spot. Meanwhile, the newly created swim team is navigating a slew of meets, and the softball and hockey teams are regularly excellent.
Schwartz was born in Fair Lawn, and attended the Yavneh Academy in Paramus for elementary school. That was before Yavneh had a girls' basketball team, so, along with one other girl, she played for the boys' club.
She went on to play basketball at Bruriah High School for Girls in Elizabeth before making — but not joining, because of Shabbat restrictions — the tennis and softball teams at William Patterson University.
Since coming to Ma'aynot, Schwartz has learned how to use her words to inspire her players.
"I think the kids that I have coached know that it's all about playing with your heart," said Schwartz. "You do your best, work hard, try hard, and enjoy it."
The Schechter Regional High School in Teaneck takes a student-first approach to sports. Students are free to organize and implement any athletic program they want and have ended up with teams for fencing and baseball, among other yeshiva anomalies, in its sports offerings.
So no one should be surprised that the school's ski trip, which was held on January '' at Jimminy Peak in Massachusetts, put students on full display.
Eileen Schwartz thinks yeshiva sports are all wet, or at least they should be.
"I've been trying to start a swim league for quite a few years," said Schwartz, the athletic director at Teaneck's Ma'ayanot Yeshiva High School for Girls. "So far, only The Frisch School in Paramus and Bruriah High School for Girls participate with us, but I want to start a league…. Swimming is a great sport, because if you're not an athlete with a ball, it's a way to be athletic."
Although Ma'ayanot is not a member of a swim league, it does boast a deep pool of sporting options. Schwartz said that when she first came to the school nine years ago, it only had a basketball team. Now, the 10-year-old institution fields teams in nine sports including track, volleyball, hockey, soccer, and others.
"New teams have been established by the girls coming over to me and wanting to start them," said Schwartz, who coaches, and teaches health and phys-ed and a health fitness and nutrition class at Ma'ayanot.
"Recently," she continued, "girls have wanted to start football and fencing teams. I tell them, if you can get enough girls, you can do it."
Last year, three Ma'ayanot teams — hockey, soccer, and softball — made it to the championship game, with the hockey team taking home the crown.
"Hockey has always been the most popular [sport at Ma'ayanot] because in five seasons they've won three or four championships, and they've made the championship game every year," said Schwartz.
This year, the Teaneck school is hoping to send its basketball and volleyball teams to championships, as both are nearing the end of their respective seasons and are in contention for playoff spots.
"We always hope to go for the gold," said Schwartz, "but we'll take it one game at a time."
As for the phantom swim team, Schwartz said that while some schools have expressed interest, it remains difficult to garner the type of participation that is needed in a bona fide league.
"Finding funding and a pool is an issue," said Schwartz, but "eventually something will happen. It is an expensive sport, but the kids can chip in, and it can happen."
And as for the Ma'ayanot's big three — hockey, soccer, and softball — Schwartz sees them swimming once again towards the championship game.
"It's absolutely doable," said Schwartz. "G-D willing, it will happen."-
