Maccabiah Club returns Aug. 22

By DEBORAH MOON

article created on: 2010-08-15T00:00:00

This year, the Portland Maccabiah Club will launch a year-round program with the event that has concluded a summer of activities in past years.

All Jewish athletes or prospective athletes ages 12 to 17 are invited to a day of competition and information on sports opportunities in the metro area. The Portland Maccabiah Club kickoff will be 1-4 p.m., Aug. 22 at the Mittleman Jewish Community Center. After a half hour introduction to the program, youth can choose to do drills in one of four sports—basketball, soccer, tennis and water polo. Following drills, coaches in each sport will divide youths into teams for tournament play.

“Our number one goal for the next year is to get Jewish kids to come out and play and work together in the Jewish community,” said David Tauber, who took the club reins from founder Jodi Berris as she has recruited new leaders for the numerous programs she has launched under Portland Jewish Events.

“Jodi started something great and special,” said Tauber. “I came in and thought, ‘What is our big picture?’ I sat down with our coaches and we decided we wanted to think big.”

So Tauber and his coache Becca Sigan, Jonah Schrogin and Rachel House decided they want to expand Jewish youth’s exposure to the benefits of sports as well as unite youth from across the community.

“Sports brings people together,” said Tauber, noting interest in the World Cup is a good example of how diverse people can come together around sports.

Tauber also said that youth learn responsibility, maturity and skills for working with a team when they play a team sport.

“In school many kids complain about group work,” said Tauber. “But in the workplace, they are going to be working in groups. That’s real life. Sports help acclimate kids to that.”

This year, the Portland Maccabiah Club will offer one event per quarter, starting with the Aug. 22 event, geared toward inspiring youth to compete and bringing youth together in a Jewish setting. In future years, Tauber hopes to recruit enough athletes to enable Portland to field a team or join another team in the region to compete in the national Maccabiah games for teenagers. Currently Portland is ineligible to recruit its own team since the Mittleman Jewish Community Center isn’t a member of the Jewish Community Center Association, which sponsors the national competition. However, Portland teens have competed with Seattle teams in the past.

For several years Portland was able to field team when the MJCC was a member of the JCCA. Mara Shlachter served as the Portland delegation head from 1995 to 2004, when the city fielded frequently large teams.

Tauber hopes to one day return Portland to that level.

At the Aug. 22 event, organizers plan to have information on a variety of youth sports clubs and other options for those interested in joining a team. Subsequent quarterly events will focus on increasing kids skills and competitive level as well as how to have fun with sports at whatever level a person is.

Cost for the Aug. 22 program is $10, with scholarships available.

The Portland Maccabiah Club has fan page on Facebook. Go to Facebook and search for “Portland Maccabiah Club.”

Register online at www.portlandjewishevents.com; click on Portland Maccabi Club.