Maccabi NSW

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MACCABI NSW NEWS

Karp to lead Australia to Brazil

Maccabi Australia’s preparations for the Pan America Games in Sao Paolo in December have begun in earnest, with the announcement that former Australia and Melbourne Victory player Tal Karp will be the open women’s football side’s player-coach.

Karp, who represented the ‘Matildas’ at the 2003 FIFA women’s World Cup and 2004 Athens Olympics, enjoyed a distinguished career at the top level, and has now turned her attention to inspiring the next generation of young Jewish footballers.

“It feels fitting,” Karp said. “Maccabi was the first club I ever played for as a seven-year-old in Perth.”

“Now that I no longer have the pressures of training and competing for the Matildas or at W-league level, being involved again with Maccabi feels right.”

Nominations have opened for participants wanting to represent Australia in South America, and Karp, as well as team manager Sydney Kahn, want to take the young side that travelled to Israel in 2009 to the next level.

With an eye on Maccabiah 2013 as well as the competition in Sao Paolo, both Karp and Kahn have put the call out for talented Jewish players of all ages across the country to throw their hands up for selection.

Karp has already taken up an ambassadorial role with the North Caulfield club in Melbourne, and this new coaching role will allow her to play a hands-on part in the growth of Jewish women’s football in the community.

“I think we can build a strong new generation of creative, talented, athletic Jewish soccer players,” Karp added.

“Maccabi clubs are doing a great job locally. Its now really important for us to boost the number of girls in the game and help build the players coming through so that we can make more of an impression on the international stage.

“I’m very excited to be a part of that building process.”

Team manager Sydney Kahn hailed Karp’s appointment as a sign that Maccabi Australia is serious about women’s football.

“For any Jewish sports person to have the opportunity to be coached and play with a player of Tal’s calibre – that opportunity doesn’t come around very often,” Kahn said.

“If they have a passion for soccer and they have the opportunity to be coached and work in a tournament environment with Tal, it’ll be an unbelievable opportunity.

“(Her appointment) is an amazing coup for us and anyone remotely enthused by the game should be beating our doors down.”

Maccabi Australia President and Pan America Head of Delegation Lisa Borowick added: “We are thrilled to have Tal spearheading our team to Sao Paolo. It’s great to have her also involved at an ambassadorial level at Maccabi club level. It will be a huge boost to our women’s football program.”

With these goals in mind, Karp hopes to attract the best players available for trials, most likely in July, which will be the first step in what will be a professional and high quality preparation.

“I’ve been fortunate to have had some wonderful coaches and wonderful playing experiences,” said Karp, who holds an Asian Football Confederation C-level coaching license.

“I hope to share some of my experiences with these young girls to help them in their playing careers.” Players in their development phase will benefit by joining.

“In Brazil, I really want us to be able to present a competitive, fighting force, while keeping our development goals in mind. I think over time we can be successful.

“It’s very exciting to be competing in a country that I consider to be the home of football, and to get the chance to play against some of the best female footballing countries in the world.”

The former Melbourne Victory skipper was part of the 2005 Maccabiah Games squad and now plays with Victorian Premier League club Bundoora United as she focuses her on her legal career.

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For more information contact team manager Sydney Kahn. Phone: 0412341544 or email: skahn@maccabi.com.au

For more information on representing Australia at the Pan America Games in Sao Paolo, visit Maccabi Australia’s information page.

SOLOMON – AUSTRALIA’S 400M TRACK KING

Steve Solomon might be Maccabi NSW’s incumbent Junior Sportsman of the Year, but this is a young guy who now has mainstream Australian sport talking.

Solomon won the 400 metres at the Melbourne Track Classic at Olympic Park on Friday night, and did so by running a personal best 46.12 seconds while mowing down Commonwealth Games silver medallist Sean Wroe and beating 2006 Commonwealth champion John Steffensen and relay medallists Joel Milburn, Kevin Moore and Ben Offereins.

The win had him dubbed the ‘next big thing’ in Saturday’s press, and Solomon admits the whole experience is a huge confidence boost for his athletics ambitions.

“Coming into the final 100, I could see they had a bit of a lead on me, but I was feeling great,” Solomon told Maccabi News.

“I wanted to give it everything; I got closer to them bit by bit.

“I had that drive to dig deeper, find some more energy and timed it perfectly to go over the line – or fall over the line – first.

“Hitting that home straight in a 400 – you’re in pain – it takes lot of mental strength in that last 100 to pick it up – and I’m really glad I was able to.

“Every time I watch the video coming down the home straight- I get goose bumps; I really did fight hard for that.”

Solomon earned his spot after his 46.44 run at the All Schools event in December. Given the calibre of the field, Solomon was hoping the night would yield a PB, fourth place finish and a tremendous learning experience.

He certainly exceeded his expectations.

“I was kind of intimidated to be competing there because it is notoriously one of Australia’s biggest meets,” he added. “I was just really excited when I got the confirmation that I’d received a lane.

“It’s ironic in a way because my mates didn’t understand the full magnitude of the race itself; and so they are like, of course you’re going to win it.

“But then I really took it on board. I shouldn’t go into a race wanting to come 4th.”

First will do, thank you very much, and the win gave Solomon a bit more than Maccabi News to contend with after the race.

“I finished the race; and I was 90% sure I had it; not 100% sure; I looked at other guys reactions and realised I had stolen it.

“I then rushed to do the main interview and I was full of adrenalin.

“It was weird doing interviews under so much lactic – what I was thinking came out quite differently!

“But it was great to have all the press – to get used to the experience of doing a race and doing the post race interview.”

The whole night was a great learning curve. From what Steve describes as a good, strong warm up, to being “really impressed how I stuck to my race plan”, to finding that extra morsel of energy to burst home at the end, the night is something Steve can use to ignite his career.

He’s off to the Australian Junior Championships in Sydney this weekend, with the Sydney Track Classic to follow the week after. And he knows the stakes have been raised.

“The expectations are raised both from others and myself.

“I’m pretty optimistic about the future at the moment but I’m not getting to far ahead of myself.

“But things are on track and if they continue as they a

STEIN AWARDED LIFE MEMBERSHIP

Harry Stein has been awarded life membership of the lawn bowls club as recognition of 21 years of service.

Stein, who stepped down as president and was replaced by Maccabi NSW’s patron Louis Platus, received the award as a complete surprise at last week’s AGM.

“I didn’t know anything about it. It came as a surprise When it was confirmed I had life membership, I was just bewildered. I didn’t expect anything like it,” Harry reflected.

“I just worked for the club because I wanted to work for the club; it was my personal interest to keep the club going.

“Maybe they thought; 10 years as president – what I’ve done for the club, it’s a good innings!”

Harry reflects fondly on his time involved, which includes 17 carnivals, but says one of his favourite achievements was the creation of MAI lawn bowls carnivals at Surfers Paradise.

“It was something new which we started; we opened it up to all those people who would have gone to carnival and made a holiday carnival out of it at Broadbeach Bowling Club.

“And I did well in that first one, and remember winning the pairs with Harry Stern. Stern and Stein … a bit of double there!”

Maccabi NSW’s lawn bowls guild, with around 120 members, thrives with a social role that plays a bit part alongside the competition down at Double Bay Bowling Club.

“They do enjoy themselves,” Harry added.

“We lose members, we get members, some have their own ideas. We’ve now got a very big contingent of South Africans; they’re all champions.

“We have outings, mystery bus trips, we just had 94 people on a recent harbour cruise and when we go on the mystery bus trip people fight for seats.

“We do a great job; you’re only as good as the people who support you – and this year we’ve got 14 on the committee.”

2011 Lawn Bowls committee: President Louis Platus OAM;  Vice Presidents Peter Goldman and Harry Stein; Honorary Treasurer Terence Joffe; Honorary Secretary Shmuel Abrahams; Bowls Secretary Bernie Garden; Publicity Office Dafna Orbach; Committee Members Barrie Brickman, Sol Caganhoff, Sam Ginges, Sid Glick, Philip Joel, Rod Silber, John Wineberg.

SHOCK LOSS FOR MACCABI HAKOAH IN FUTSAL FINAL

Maccabi Hakoah’s mens futsal side suffered a shock 2-1 loss to Breakers FC on Saturday night in the NSW Super League grand final.

Despite romping to the minor premiership, it was one of those days for the Blues – as you can tell by the unusually low score line.

“It just shows how well the other team defended,” club president Gareth Naar told Maccabi News.

“It was a small court, they camped in their third, it was up to us to break them down. They had all their players in front of goal and hit us on the counter attack.

“We had chances, the ball flew past five or six times, we hit the post.

“But they didn’t even come into our half. They just sat back and waited.”

A disappointing end, yes, but a resoundingly successful season overall for Maccabi futsal, who still have the chance to clinch the New Zealand futsal league on the weekend of March 5/6.

The challenges don’t stop there either, with a mid-year trip to Vienna for the European Maccabi Games in July is on the cards.
The club will also be participants in the inaugural Australian F-League in April. Football New South Wales believes it will go ahead, and if so, it will be Maccabi’s chance “to play against the highest level of clubs” in the country. It will field a mens team, and possibly, a womens side.

“It could be a first national league for Australia, with Victoria team and ACT team. It will be the first futsal tournament played under international rules in Australia.

“It’s catering for the dedicated futsal player, designed to have totally all year round futsal players.”

The summer futsal season officially concludes on Sunday with the final of Maccabi’s popular social competition at Rose Bay Secondary College, with the final to kick off at 7.20pm.

The good news is that the competition will return in mid-March at Rose Bay Secondary College on Monday and Wednesday nights. It’s a good opportunity for corporate sides, or people who work and want to play a sport at night, or play outdoor football on the weekends, to have a game.

KINGS LEAD MACCABI TOUCH’S FINALS CHARGE

The Maccabi Kings have enjoyed a remarkable season in the top men’s division of Eastern Suburbs touch football.

A brilliant start to the season had the Kings undefeated and top of the ladder until injury hit late in the campaign, but the fourth placed finish is good enough to earn a berth in the finals, and the team will play their first semi tonight.

It will be a tough test, with tight playing regulations and a season-ending injury to Danny Glattstein leaving the side with six players for the match.

But this crop – Anthony Halprin, Ben Nemeny, Jimmo Vink, Josh Stein, Yoni Sonnabend, Yotam Hatzvi - are certainly talented and fit enough to do the job for Maccabi and advance to the preliminary final.

In mixed competition, the Maccabi Mobags advanced to the second week of the division 1-2 finals with a thrilling win over Touch It. Injury has cruelled this season for the side, but they had enough points on the board from the early rounds to sneak into the semis, led by Daniel Kochan, Nathan Ezekiel and Nicky Goldberg (below left).

In the same division, the Maccabi Lions were extremely unlucky to bow out of the semis this week despite a great show, including an incredible 6 try haul from Adam Zinman (above right). Yotam Hatzvi scored two and Romy Ehrlich one off a 25 metre long ball from Daniel Ezekiel.

Finally, the Goldies played a semi-final last night and lost and so their season is over, after finishing the regular season in 4th. Players’ player on the night were Adam Haber  (3), Rebecca Joseph (2), Richie Eisenstein (1).

Maccabi womens touch is back on the agenda too … by Lauren Cohen

After a few seasons off, Maccabi entered a Women’s team into the Queens Park touch competition.

Thrown into the top division, we started off the season with a few fantastic wins!! Our team – Marissa Abel, Danielle Blumberg, Lauren Broit, Lauren Cohen, Tali Ezekiel, Mel Godfrey, Nicky Goldberg, Bec Josef, Linda Rosen, Shoshana Shields – played together as if they had for years, attacking their defenders with 3 hit ups and then using creativity to throw the ball around and look for gaps with the last 3 touches. Our team of budding stars soon realised we had a great combination of speedsters, as well as those with precision passing, stepping and defending!!!

We did our best with a team that seemed to have an average height of about 5’2 compared with some opponents who looked like thoroughbreds, but we put our hearts and souls into every game, and gave it our best shot, even surprising ourselves with how well we could do – all we needed was our great communication skills.. and as with most groups of girls… we were good at that!!

The season has been lots of fun, as well as good exercise and a great opportunity to meet other girls in the community who also enjoy sport!!!

We hope more girls will be interested in playing next year, either in the girls teams or in one of the many mixed teams Maccabi enter into the competition.

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