Area athletes at Maccabi’s

Nearly a dozen athletes from Agoura and Oak Park participated in this summer’s Maccabi Games among 3,500 other Jewish competitors in Montreal and Baltimore. Athletes ranged in age form 13 to 16 and represented nine countries and the U.S.

They competed in basketball, baseball, bowling, golf, in-line hockey, soccer, softball, swimming, tennis and table tennis. Security was tight in Baltimore where 2,000 athletes in 50 buses were accompanied by federal and local law enforcement agencies–along with a helicopter escort–when they visited the Holocaust Museum in nearby Washington, D.C.

The 14-and-under L.A. baseball team went undefeated during a week of games. Jason Novak, an Agoura High School sophomore, pitched the Gold Medal game, striking out 11 in a 10-2 win over Rockland, the New York team.

Behind the plate for the Gold Medal game was Miles Rattet of Agoura, who had to tolerate 98-degree heat and high humidity in full gear. Greg Gelber, also an AHS sophomore, had a hot bat and averaged .769 at the plate. Phil Grossman of Oak Park hammered a home run earlier in the week.

In Montreal, Drew Norton and Jonathan Fersht, both of AHS, were key players on the 15- and 16-year-old squad that defeated Toronto, 10-0, in the Gold Medal game. Their team also went undefeated.

Aaron Glucksman and Noah Nudell of Agoura Hills helped capture a Gold Medal for the boys soccer team that participated in Montreal.

Also in Montreal, Alexandra Novak, Rachel Lauterbach and Jamie Rachwarger played as teammates on the 15- and 16-year-old girls’ basketball team that captured a Bronze Medal in a 50-42 victory over Team Australia.

Novak, a junior, was also an athlete-reporter for the Maccabi Games Online Magazine.