Blue-haired clowns, diminutive Queen Esthers and oversize M&Ms mingled with intense young athletes at the Marin Jewish Community Center on Feb. 28 as two major events converged to send the facility into overdrive.
As fate would have it, the JCC’s annual Purim Carnival coincided with the first round of tryouts for boys’ basketball, girls’ softball and soccer for the 1999 Maccabi Youth Games. Though the Sunday tryouts for the San Francisco Bay Area Maccabi delegation are held annually at the MJCC, this year’s event took on a different spirit as hundreds of young people converged on the San Rafael complex.
Costumed children, walking hand-in-hand with parents and grandparents, wandered about the colorfully decorated halls and rooms downstairs.
Upstairs in the gymnasium, however, the mood was serious as young athletes vied for a spot on the Maccabi basketball team.
The 17th annual Maccabi Games, which will take place in August in Houston and Rochester, N.Y., attract more than 4,500 Jewish youth from 13 to 17 for a week of athletic competition and camaraderie, according to Bob Miller, who heads the local delegation along with Joanne Bernstein.
The athletes are encouraged to try out for more than one event, said Miller, since only 150 kids will be selected, and “if they are not chosen in one sport, they might me chosen in another.”
The Maccabi Games have become a highly coveted opportunity for youth, offering not only an athletic competition, but also a Jewish learning opportunity.
“There is a big opening procession at the beginning of the games,” Miller said. “The yeshiva kids come in and some of our kids say, ‘Look at those,’ and then they come and beat the daylights out of our kids on the field or the court.”
Kids also learn about mitzvot, according to Miller. “Once, about three years ago, they sent a delegation from Russia, and they didn’t have shoes. Many of the American kids asked them their sizes, and were giving their shoes away. It became a badge of honor to be barefoot. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house.”
Besides participating in the various sporting events, the teens take part in a “day of sharing, day of caring.”
“The kids go out and do civic things for the community they’re visiting, like visit an old-age home or clean up a park,” said Miller. During their seven-day stay with volunteer host families, the teens participate in social events in the evenings, services at the local synagogue and other activities.
“It is not just an athletic event,” said Miller. “It is a Jewish event, and it’s a big honor to be chosen.”
Boys’ basketball coach Peter Pollard agrees. This is Pollard’s 11th year coaching, and he finds the games “a tremendous program for the kids, combining a love for athletics with a great Jewish experience in the host city.”
Fourth-year girls’ basketball coach Bradley Solomon called the games “a fantastic experience.
“If it weren’t rewarding, we wouldn’t give so much of our time, and it’s considerable,” he said, “Some of these kids have no real exposure to Jewish activities in their home life. The Maccabi Games affords them the opportunity to compete athletically at a very high level — some go on to compete at the college level. These are really Jewish all-stars from 100 miles around, so you get kids who might never have met becoming friends.”
Noting that “21,000 people were watching the opening of last year’s games,” Soloman said the event is “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for these kids to participate in the largest Jewish teen program in the Untied States.”
Maccabi team tryouts in the South Bay were held Sunday.
The competition is broken down into team and individual sports, as well as by gender and age, in nearly 20 different categories.
The Bay Area Maccabi contingent draws competitors from as far away as Santa Cruz and Sacramento. Scholarships are available on a sliding scale, based on financial need, and usually cover up to half the cost of the trip. The remainder can be raised through the athletes’ own fund-raising efforts.
For more information, call (408) 448-1934