maccabi games

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SoCalHoops Recruiting News

L.A. Maccabi 14-U Takes Gold In Montreal;
16-U Team 3rd In Baltimore--(Aug. 27, 2002)

Each year Los Angeles fields two teams to attend the JCC Maccabi Games, (not to be confused with the Maccabiah Games, held every three years in Israel). The JCC Games are held annually at various host cities around North America, usually in large metropolitan areas of the U.S. This year, regional games were held in Omaha, Nebraska; Memphis, Tennessee; Montreal, Canada; Baltimore, Maryland; and Springfield, Massachusetts. For the 2002 games, Los Angeles fielded two teams, a 15-16 team which traveled to Baltimore for one of the larger regional games, and a team of 13 and 14 year olds for boys basketball, which went to the Montreal venue. And while the LA 15-16 team finished out of the gold for the second year running, taking third place by defeating a team from Washington D.C. after dropping a heartbreaker of a semifinal by a score of 43-41, the 14-U team was a bit more successful, taking a Gold medal home for the third consecutive year by defeating a tough team from Brooklyn in the Montreal finals by a score of 90-65. The L.A. 14-U team was made up mostly of players from the westside of LA and the San Fernando Valley, and included two returning players from the 2001 team, Daniel Gabler of Calabasas HS and Zach Evans from Chaminade in West Hills. The remainder of the team was all newcomers, including Jon Jaques, a freshman from Harvard-Westlake, Craig Partovich, a freshman from Montclair Prep, Joseph Broder, Andrew Schotz, Jeremy Gross, Steven Gurvitz, Jeff Selzer and Eric Belz. Coaches this year were Rich Miller, head coach, and Danny Gipsman, an assistant coach, both of whom hold the same positions at Malibu HS. In the final game against Brooklyn, Evans scored 22 points as did Gabler, while Jaques added 14 points.

For those not familiar with the games, the JCC Maccabi Games, typically involve more than 4,500 players in any given year, at a series of games which are usually held at three or four sites across North America. Not since the 1998 games in Detroit has there been a single "national" games with all the athletes at one venue, because no single community has been willing to commit the resources necessary to host the large number of athletes for such a large set of games. This year, more than 1500 athletes from 43 delegations, including 10 foreign countries, competing in numerous sports attended the games held in Montreal. Opening ceremonies were held at the Molson Centre where the Montreal Canadians play icx hockey. In addition to basketball, the athletes also engage in a cultural exchange of sorts, living with "host" families rather than staying in dorms or hotels, and they also spend at least one day doing charitable work in the host community. This year the LA basketball team worked with the local Montreal Special Olympics committee working with handicapped children.

Congratulations to all the Los Angeles team members from both the 16-U and 14-U teams. Pictured below is the Los Angeles 14-U team.

Pictured from left to right are--Top row : Coach Rich Miller, Zach Evans, Jon Jaques, Andrew Schotz, Jeff Selzer, Daniel Gabler, Eric Belz, Craig Partovich, Assistant Coach Danny Gipsman. --Bottom row: Steven Gurvitz, Jeremy Gross and Joseph Broder.