51.0°,
Overcast Girls’ hoops team wins silver at Maccabi Games
First time 5Towns JCC represented in annual event
For the first time ever the Jewish Community Center of the Greater Five Towns was represented in the Maccabi Games that this year took place for the most part in the northern Israeli city of Kiryat Shmona.
A girls’ under-17 basketball team comprised of four players representing the Five Towns JCC, three from the Westchester JCC and one from Pennsylvania won the silver medal at the Games held between July 24 to Aug. 5.
Michael Alon, of Lawrence, coached the team that also included three girls, Lara Decter, Rebecca Jedwab and Jordana Alpert also from Lawrence, who attend the Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway High School in Cedarhurst.
“That was the goal to finally get the Five Towns involved in the Maccabi Games and to bring back the silver and have the delegation succeed the first time is great,” Alon said.
The eight-member team never practiced together as a whole team as scheduling conflicts and prior commitments got in the way. However, during the 10 practices they did have stateside between May and July they recognized a familiarity to their styles of play — fast breaks, defense, trapping and steals — and they began to jell.
“We knew how we played,” Decter said about her and Jedwab and Alpert, “and I know how Amanda [Povman] (Westchester JCC) played as I played with her at the MVP camp.”
Decter, Jedwab and Alpert played on HAFTR’s junior varsity last season and expect to be varsity players this season. Decter, a three-point shooter, learned to play basketball from her father David and brother Eliot, who is two years older.
“I really like the competition,” said Decter, who is a shooting guard. “I became better through practice, because practice makes perfect.”
The team’s run was nearly perfect as they won five out of seven games, losing both times to a team representing Florida from Boca, including the gold medal game. But, Alon said his team played well despite the conditions. “What they accomplished was tremendous winning games where it was 115° in some gyms,” said Alon, who coaches at the Hebrew Academy of Nassau County.
