By Louis Pasek, Special to JTNews
Thirty-four teens from the Stroum Jewish Community Center will be representing Washington State in this year’s Maccabi Games. These young athletes will compete in six different sporting events: girls’ volleyball, boys’ basketball, boys’ soccer, swimming, dancing, and tennis.
The boys’ basketball team (ages 15-16) is defending their bronze medal from 2002, and hopes to beat San Francisco for the top honors this year.
Maccabi, the “Olympics for Jewish teens,” is one of the premiere Jewish sports meets for youths age 12–16. This annual competition, where each participant can compete in one of 13 different sporting events, ranges from golf and bowling to basketball and football. Over 6,000 Jewish teenagers will be competing from the United States and five other countries. This year, the competition will be in St. Louis, Mo., Aug. 10–15.
Maccabi is not only about the games, however. Its mission: “To cultivate a deeper understanding and instill an appreciation of Jewish values within Jewish youth, enrich their Jewish identity in an informal setting, and encourage their identification with the state of Israel.”
The Maccabi Games encourages the players to stay with host families while competing. There is also a “Day of Caring/Day of Sharing,” intended to teach tikkun olam — repairing the world — by volunteer works. The Games also include “hang time,” which helps Jewish youth relate to themselves as Jews, Jewish culture, and the State of Israel.
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Here are the stories of some of this year’s local competitors:
Matt Wyszogrodzki, 15, plays on the boys’ basketball team. He will defend his team’s bronze medal from 2002. It is his second year at the Maccabi Games. He says, “we have a good chance of winning again.” Wyszogrodzki spends about an hour on the court about three times a week.
In his first year at Newport High School in Bellevue, the incoming junior took double duty on the court: “I played JV [Junior Varsity] and I sat Varsity as a freshman,” he says. Regarding the Maccabi team, Wyszogrodzki says he feels the practices have gone pretty well.
“We all played before, so we all know what we’re doing as a team. We have a really good time, [we] scrimmage a lot,” Wyszogrodzki says. The team is made up of 10 players who compete against teams from Boston to San Francisco (last year’s gold medal winner), and even teams from Israel and Venezuela.
Wyszogrodzki is excited about more than the competition, however. Because he enjoyed it so much before, he is again staying with a host family this year.
“The host family is a real big part of it,” he says. “It’s kind of like you’re at home… It’s quite an experience, to get to know another family and stay with them.”
Last year, for his tikkun olam project, Wyszogrodzki made cards for people in Israel. “It’s always better to give than to take,” he says.
Except for when it comes to San Francisco. Wyszogrodzki says he hopes to trade in the team’s bronze medal for gold. They will beat San Fran, says Wyszogrodzki, “if they’re there.”
Ilana Matt wants to serve up a victory for the Washington State girls’ volleyball team at this year’s games. At 16, Matt wants to help set the team this year so they can spike a win. Matt used to do gymnastics, but says she has loved volleyball ever since the fifth grade, when her friends introduced her to the sport. She also enjoys volleyball because she says, “I like to be different.”
Matt plays indoor volleyball. She practices with both her Maccabi team and her team from the Northwest Yeshiva High School. Although she works for the Stroum Jewish Community Center, she practices when she can.
“Every other weekend,” she says, “for an hour, like an hour and a half.”
Since the beginning of summer however, the team has practiced much more. Matt says her team has “improved a lot” over the past year. Personally, Matt says she thinks she has come a long way.
“Last summer, I wasn’t so strong in some of the skills,” she says, “but I’ve gotten it down pretty solid.”
She says she used to get only about half of her overhand serves over the net.
Now, she says, “it’s more like 90 percent of them over.”
She says she has also improved her setting — where one player sets up the ball so another player can spike it.
Matt is also eager to meet her host family. “I’m excited to meet a new family, away from home,” she says, “and see how they live and how religious they are.”
The host family mom has even been in touch already, Matt says. “She was asking me what kind of snacks I want.”
Incoming eighth grader Marissa Altchech is attending the Maccabi Games as a dancer. She has been a dance devotee for seven years at the Backstage Dance Studio, but this is her first-ever competition at the Maccabi Games dance meet. She will do a solo tap dance to “Brown Eyed Girl.” Altchech will also perform with two other girls; all three will dance to music from the movie Josie and the Pussycats.
Altchech’s mother Diana hired a choreographer for the Maccabi Games from the Gotta Dance studio. “This particular solo was not competed anywhere else,” Diana says.
The performance will be judged on “technique, on choreography, performance presentation, and overall appearance” according to Diana. Marissa has special costumes, says her mother, for both performances. For Josie and the Pussycats, a jazz performance, the outfit includes little ears, and tails.
Diana says she doesn’t think her daughter’s mind will be just on performing, however.
“They’re really representing the Jewish Community Center and the Seattle community,” Diana says. “I think they’re going to be off trying to support the rest of the team.”
For her part, Marissa says she is very excited to meet new people, including her host family. She also hopes to participate in the Day of Caring/Day of Sharing because, she says, “I feel it will be really nice to give back to the Jewish Community.”
“I just want to try something new,” she adds.