HAFTR Hawks win Scott Satran Memorial Tournament

The Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway (HAFTR) not only hosted a memorial tournament, won it, but school families opened their homes to students from eight yeshiva high schools in the New York area and Baltimore on the weekend of Jan. 8-9.

Home favorite HAFTR faced off against the Beth Tfiloh Warriors from Baltimore, another tournament favorite, in the championship game at Lawrence Middle School on Jan. 9. Behind tournament MVP, team captain and guard, Dovi Grosser, who averaged 21 points per game through the five-game competition, the Hawks flew over the Warriors 79-58.

HAFTR also dominated the post-tournament honors as team captain Shelby Rosenberg (fresh from his sublime medal winning performance in the International Maccabi games), team captain Adam Schwartz and Josh Teperman earned All-Star honors.

The annual tournament recognizes the legacy of Scott Satran, a former HAFTR hockey and basketball player, who died at 20, nearly 24 years ago. Competitive hoops is one facet of the weekend as the players spend time together in the Five Towns and get to know each other.

The Rambam Ravens from Lawrence finished third in the tournament and the HANC Hurricanes from Uniondale were the tier 2 champions with Jared Stein earning MVP honors.