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SoCalHoops Tournament News

Maccabi Games: SoCal Area
Players Head East--(Aug. 13, 1999)

Most people who frequent SoCalHoops know that about this time every year we're out of the region attending the Maccabi Games. We've followed the teams and players from SoCal, and actually coached the LA Team two years ago which won a gold medal at the Seattle Games, and the Orange County team last year which won the gold medal in the Detroit Games. Well, this year, we're back again with Team Los Angeles and we're in New Jersey, actually in Philadelphia over the weekend, until Monday when we'll be in New Jersey, making some visits to Temple and other schools in the area in addition to watching some scrimmages this weekend with some of the top players in the area against some of the local SoCal guys who are in town early. Among them are David Gale (5'-11" So. PG/SG) Buckley, Craig Weinstein (5'-10" So. SG/PG) Harvard-Westlake, Will Sheslow (6'-0" So. SG/PG) Montclair Prep, David Fisher (6'-5" Jr. SG/SF) Hamilton, Matt Bendik (5'-10" Jr. G) Palisades, Robbie Wizenberger (6'-1" So. SF/SG) Harvard-Westlake, Charlie Kranzdorf (6'-1" So. SF) Montclair Prep, Adam Sacks (5'-10" Sr. PG/SG) Agoura, and Jeff Delson (6'-2" Jr. SG/SF) Agoura. Several guys who were eligible elected not to make the trip, guys like Eric Geffner (6'-5" Sr. SF/SG) from Harvard-Westlake, Adam Allegro (6'-5" Jr. SF) from Agoura, and Dustin Villapigue (6'-9" Jr. PF) from Simi, but there will be other big men from SoCal in attendance, including Harrison Schaen (6'-8" Fr. SF/SG) who is just entering Mater Dei this fall. Fisher and Bendik were members this July of the US Junior Maccabi Team which won the Gold Medal at the Pan American Maccabi Games in Mexico City. Also participating on the US Men's Team were Doug Gottlieb (6'-0" Sr. PG) from Oklahoma State, the NCAA assist leader last season, and David Bluthenthal (6'-8" So. SF/PF) from USC, and their team also won the Gold Medal in their division against some great international competition.

Given the events of Tuesday in Los Angeles with the shootings at the North Valley Jewish Community Centers everyone at the Games in New Jersey is especially sensitive to the security concerns, but as they say, life goes on, and we'll be featuring reports and updates on some of the SoCal players at the Games and providing news throughout the week on some of the players from the East Coast and other regions we'll be seeing at the Games. And about the security concerns, well, they've got them handled. Here's an article which ran in today's Philadelphia Daily News detailing what's happening:

'Security fine' at Maccabi Games - official

by Bob Cooney
Daily News Staff Writer

The venues have all been planned. The athletes are flooding in and the preparations under way for almost a year have been finalized.

The International Maccabi Games, a sporting event for more than 1,300 teen-aged Jewish athletes, are coming to South Jersey next week, despite the drought, despite the unbearable humidity and despite a gunman named Buford O'Neal Furrow Jr., who decided to spray bullets in a Jewish Community Center in the suburbs of Los Angeles.

"The shooting hasn't affected any of our plans," said Debbie Orel, director of membership and marketing at the Betty and Milton Katz Jewish Community Center in Cherry Hill, which is the host of this year's games. "The games will go off as scheduled and all the events will take place as planned."

Officials said the shooting didn't cause any security changes. "Security is fine," said one official. "We're prepared."

The opening ceremonies for the games will take place on Sunday evening at the Apollo of Temple and the four-day competition will open early Monday morning at various venues in and around Cherry Hill.

Events include basketball, baseball, bowling, golf, in-line hockey, soccer, softball, swimming, table tennis, tennis and track. The athletes are all between the ages of 13 and 16 and have traveled from as far as Israel to compete. The games started in 1982, drawing inspiration from the World Maccabiah Games, which is the premier sporting event for Jewish athletes that is held every four years in Israel.

The event has gotten so big that there are four host cities this year. Besides Cherry Hill, athletes will also compete in Rochester, N.Y., Columbus, Ohio, and Houston. Each host city must find housing for all visiting athletes. That wasn't too big a problem for Cherry Hill, Orel said. "Every one of the 300 athletes from our delegation that participates must host two visitors," she said. "And we started working on other host families about a year ago. So that wasn't too hard to get done."

The days these kids will spend with each other will be more than just a sporting event. Besides the thrill of competition they will share in social activities and perform community services which include preparing meal trays for 1,000 hospital patients, assembling personal care boxes for homeless shelters, renovating a farm, constructing a house with Habitat for Humanity and painting a mural at a Camden elementary school.

"We're ready," Orel said. "We wanted to be the host of the games and we've worked extremely hard to prepare for it."

And nothing is going to stop them.