There was a time, perhaps, when girls just wanted to have fun. Now, they want to win – and then have some fun.
Girls teams were a big part of Toronto’s contingent at last month’s JCC Maccabi Games and ArtsFest in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and the girls did their share of winning, bringing home gold, silver and bronze medals.
The Toronto Blue girls 16 and under (16U) soccer team, one of two fielded in the competition, won a gold medal as well as a bronze. The 16U girls basketball team won a gold medal, as did the 14U team. The boys 16U basketball team won silver, losing to Philadelphia in the finals by a score of 67-57, while the boys 14U team earned a gold medal by defeating Hart/EB 65-49. The contingent of six swimmers (not all of them girls) came home with 24 medals in all.
Not bad for a city that, only five years ago in Baltimore, sent a team of 10 athletes in all. This year’s contingent was 90 strong, making it the second-largest team at the competition, said Alex Voihanski, head of the Toronto delegation.
Altogether, some 1,600 Jewish teens participated in the sports competitions and arts events, from across the eastern United States as well as from Great Britain, Israel, Poland and Australia.
Forty members of the Toronto team were girls, and the most dominant athlete on the team, in any sport, was a girl, Voihanski said.
He was referring to Samantha Brown, the shooting guard for the 16U basketball team, who will “age out” and no longer be available to participate in next year’s Games, which are for athletes 13-16 years old.
In her two years leading the basketball team, she’s averaged 35-40 points a game. In the gold medal contest this year against Philadelphia, she scored 26 points in a row despite being double- and triple-teamed, pacing the Toronto team to a 52-45 win.
“She was literally unstoppable. Without question she is the most dominant athlete we’ve had since we took over six years ago,” Voihanski said, referring to the time when he and Jeremy Blustein of JCC Chai Sports assumed responsibility for the Toronto team.
Girls are turning to sports like never before, and many are getting their entrée through programs offered by JCC Chai Sports. The organization’s house league soccer program alone serves about 100 girls, he said.
Overall, “women’s sports are getting humongous” in Toronto, as girls and their families see the benefits of it plus the growing opportunity of earning scholarships in sports programs at colleges south of the border.
In other JCC Maccabi results, swimmer Chad Walt won gold medals in the 200-metre freestyle event as well as the 200-metre backstroke. He added to his haul with silver medals in the 14U 50-metre freestyle, 100-metre butterfly and 50-metre breaststroke, along with a bronze in the 200-metre individual medley.
Megan Pearlman won a bronze medal in the 50-metre butterfly for girls 14U and a silver in the 200-metre backstroke and 50-metre backstroke.
The boys 16U baseball team finished out of the medals, while the boys 16U soccer team likewise finished without any hardware.