A proud parent

April 25, 2009 - 8:52 PM by David · 1 Comment
Filed under: General, Immigrant Moments, Israeliness, Life, Sports

sarit1 Alright, this is delicate. I don’t want to sound like I’m bragging, but I don’t think there’s any way around it.

I didn’t think I’d be raising Torah scholars when my wife and I started having kids some 20 years ago. But I was hoping they’d find their own way to express their Zionism and sense of being Israeli. I guess she could have done this anywhere, but the fact of the matter is second daughter Sarit chose to stand out in volleyball here in Israel. And she’s made herself, her family and her friends proud to know her by the way she’s conducted herself these last few years.

Through no initiative of my own, The Jerusalem Post identified her as a sports person of note in their weekend magazine column ‘Holding Court’.

“When she came to me in seventh grade she was very quiet and delicate,” recalls her coach, Oron Ashery. “She asked just to practice and not to play, and since then she’s just grown and grown in the sport. She’s a very special player in the group. She’s the captain of the team, which made the Final Four. She’s been a significant member of our starting six for a while. Sarit is very brave. Over the years she’s gained confidence, and goes after balls that other players don’t even bother with. She makes it to every practice and helps organize the team – she’s the one who maintains the contact between the players.”

And

It’s pretty likely that when Sarit Brinn’s doctors do a chest X-ray, they see a volleyball beating inside her heart. The 17-year-old Ma’aleh Adumim senior and team captain is so devoted to her sport – which this year saw her team, Tali Beit Hinuch, come out of nowhere to claim third place in the high-school league with a 9-6 record – it’s taken over her life, and she loves it.

Not content to just play for her high-school team, Sarit also joined Hapoel Beit Hinuch Jerusalem in a women’s league that includes older players, and her club finished first, advancing to a higher league for next season.

So when she’s up at 2 a.m. making up the class work that she missed because she’s been at one of three practices or two games a week, it just doesn’t faze her. “It gives me energy to play,” she explains in a phone interview recently near the end of the regular school league season.

At home, she can be like any other teenager at times. But the story did capture her big heart, her dedication and her enthusiasm. Now, if we could just get her take out the garbage.

Share with others

Tags: Israel, volleyball, Zionism

A TV volleyball star in Israel

January 22, 2009 - 10:47 AM by David · 1 Comment
Filed under: Immigrant Moments, Israeliness, Life, Sports

Queens of the volleyball court

While we used to only have one TV station here, now media options are almost as diffused in Israel as they are in the US.

HOT, YES, satellite TV, we’ve got it all – and you can watch alot of the same crap that’s on American TV any time you want. Still, there was something a little precious about the whole country being tuned into one show, having that common bond, and knowing that the next day your co-worker almost certainly watched the same thing as you did last night.

So the fact that my 17-year-old daughter played yesterday in a high school league volleyball game broadcast live across the country on Israel TV doesn’t hold the same weight it might have once held. But it was still pretty darn thrilling nonetheless.

As captain of her Beit Hinuch Jerusalem team, she had read a little statement on mike with the other team’s captain and shake hands before the game. The best of five series was well played and action packed, with Sarit’s team only succumbing in the final tie-breaking match.
Hearing the commentators intone with perfect Hebrew inflection “Sarit Brinn” everytime she returned a ball or made a save, was a huge kick. And the one time they called her “a smart player” put me over the top.

I wish the whole country had been watching the broadcast, but even if it was just my wife, my older daughter and myself cheering and stomping on the floor, it provided one of the great moments of my aliyah. Zionism through volleyball.

Share with others