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SoCalHoops Tournament News

Big "SoCal" Contingent To Attend JCC
Maccabi Games In Detroit--(Aug. 11, 1998)

Many of you who remember our earliest coverage here at SoCalHoops will recall that we focused on several of the JCC Maccabi teams, including last year's Los Angeles Maccabi basketball teams, specifically the teams from LA who played at the games held in Seattle and Pittsburgh; two of the teams won bronze medals, while last years' 13-14 team won the gold medal in Seattle. In fact, there have been more than a few players who have played Maccabi basketball from SoCal who eventually went on to D-I college careers, most recently David Bluthenthal (6'-8" Fr. F) whose Westchester team won City, Southern Section and State Championships in CIF Division I, and David Abramowitz (6'-0" Fr. PG) from USDHS, one of the most exciting passers in this year's college incoming freshman class, who will attend San Diego State; USDHS also won a CIF and State Championship this year in Division III. And this year's crop of SoCal players attending the Detroit 1998 Continental Maccabi Games this summer from August 17 through 23 is just as exciting as ever.

Of course the Maccabi Games are about more than just basketball, but to those who follow hoops, it's a weeklong opportunity to watch some of the best teams of 16-15 and 14-13 year olds from all over the world compete. This year, the games will feature teams from L.A., San Francisco, Chicago, Kansas City, Pittsburgh, Philly, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Washington D.C., Atlanta, Toronto, Mexico, Israel, and many other cities and countries. In all, there will be more than 80 teams, with the majority in the older age brackets.

For those not familiar with the Maccabi concept, it really is much more than a basketball tournament, and it's not run like a typical tournament, with games from 8:00 a.m. until close to midnight. Instead, the players are housed with "host families" from the host community, in this case Detroit. In addition to basketball games, there are baseball, soccer, volleyball, golf, swimming and many more competitions going on throughout the week. And because the real idea of the games is not just the competition but also the cultural and social events (it is after all a coed event, with girls' swimming, softball, track & field, girls basketball, soccer and more), the guys (and the girls) really want to do more than just watch and play hoops; they also want to be with and support their friends (and the girls want to watch the guys, and vice-versa) in all of the the other events taking place at the competition venues all over northern Detroit. Remember, we're talking about more than 3,000 boys and girls, all in one place, away from their parents and far from home, between the ages of 13 and 16. Big fun if you're a teenager. So the competition in all the sports really only takes place from 8:30 each morning until about 4:00 p.m., after which the focus is on socializing and other fun events. And notwitstanding these obvious distractions, there's still plenty of basketball action for the true fan and fanatic. Maybe not 18 hours a day, but it's still plenty, especially during the "dead period" of August.

This year, because of the sheer numbers of athletes descending upon Detroit (more than 3,000 boys and girls), the host community was really forced by limited housing and reduced venues to restrict the numbers of athletes, and therefore each "delegation" (i.e., each regional JCC) was limited to only one boys basketball team and one girls team. Of course, if given the chance, most delegations would be bringing two or more teams in each age bracket if there were no restrictions, but then this would turn the Maccabi Games into a basketball tournament, and as we've said, there's really alot more going on than just basketball. And practically speaking because of certain unique circumstances existing among and between the three local SoCal delegations, it's probably more accurate to describe the LA, Long Beach and Orange County delegations as a single "SoCal" delegation. Most of these players know each other, have played with and against each other, on previous Maccabi teams, club teams and school teams. The geographic makeup of these teams truly reflects the true "megalopolis" nature of the SoCal Ventura-LA, Orange area: There are players from the Metro area of LA and Orange County on the 15-16 Long Beach team; likewise the Orange County 13-14 team features players who live as far north and west as Agoura Hills and as far south as Orange County's Irvine; and the Los Angeles team features players from Ventura and LA counties.

We intend to feature in-depth previews of the LA, Orange County and Long Beach teams, but for now here are the rosters. Each of these teams features some of the top players in the SoCal region and we're sure that among them will be at least a few D-I prospects.

Team Los Angeles Roster

The Los Angeles 15-16 team, which is co-coached by Howard Abrams of Van Nuys Montclair Prep and Steve Goldstein of LaSalle High in the San Gabriel Valley features some great players, including (alphabetically):

Adam Allegro (6'-5" So. F) from Agoura High (Agoura)
Matt Bendick (5'-10" So. G) from Los Angeles Palisades High (Los Angeles)
Adam Drell (6'-5" Jr. F/C) from Chatsworth High (Chatsworth)
David Fischer (6'-3" So. G) from Los Angeles University High (Los Angeles)
Darren Freedman (5'-9" Jr. G) from Encino Crespi (Encino)
Chad Garson (6'-4" Jr. SG/F) from Studio City Harvard-Westlake (Calabasas)
Eric Geffner (6'-5" Jr. G/F) from Studio City Harvard-Westlake (Sherman Oaks)
Josh Lewis (6'-4" Jr. F) from Los Angeles University High (Los Angeles)
Kelly Ross (5'-10 Jr. G) from Oak Park High (Agoura)
Darren Tarlow (6'-5" Sr. F) from West Hills Chaminade (Calabasas)

Team Orange County Roster

The Orange County 13-14 team is more of a composite team than the other two boys' teams from the region, and features several players from last year's teams which competed in Seattle and Pittsburgh, winning Gold and Bronze Medals respectively. Sponsored in part by Double Pump and adidas (who graciously donated equipment and shoes-- yeah, it's a shameless plug, but so what), the team is co-coached by Jerry Gale and Lee Garson and features (alphabetically):

David Gale (5'-10" Fr. G) from Sherman Oaks Buckley (Sherman Oaks)
Charlie Kranzdorf (6'-0" Fr. F) from Van Nuys Montclair (Reseda)
Johnny Munz (5'-5" Fr. G) from Canyon High (Anaheim)
Harrison Schaen (6'-6" 8th Grade) from Huntington Beach
Will Sheslow (6'-0" Fr. G) from Van Nuys Montclair (Agoura Hills)
Aaron Stein (5'-10 Fr. G) a transfer from Buckley to Van Nuys Montclair (Encino)
Matt Susson (5'-9" Fr. G) from Irvine (Irvine)
Brian Trump (5'-11" Fr. F) from Van Nuys Montclair (Calabasas)
Craig Weinstein (5'-10" Fr. G) from Studio City Harvard-Westlake (Encino)

Team Long Beach Roster

The Long Beach 15-16 team is mostly the same team which competed in Seattle as a 13-14 team, with a few additions and deletions. The team is coached by Marv Nachlis, and by assistants Marc Neuwman and Joe Stern, who is an assistant coach at Cypress High. The team features (alphabetically):

Josh Barrad (6'-5" Jr. F/C) from Los Alamitos
Matthew Barranick (6'-0" So. PG/SG) from Anaheim Canyon High
Geoffrey Gibson-Bittle (6'-3" So. G) from Long Beach Poly (moving to Wash. D.C)
Brian Harmatz (5'-7" Sr. G) from Cypress High
Alex Nachlis (6'-1" So. F) from Los Alamitos High
Ryan Nugeotte (5'-8" So. G) from Chadwick Prep
Brian Rakusin (6'-5" So. C) from Los Alamitos High
Greg Schiesel (5'-8" Jr. G) from Irvine High
Jonathon Sender (6'-3" Jr. SG/SF) from Redondo Peninsula High
Aaron Szeckel (6'-4" So. SG/SF) from Irvine Woodbridge High

We'll have some more detailed profiles of most of these players in the next few days, together with complete schedules for the tournament. Stay tuned.