A perfect season for HAFTR

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Hawks, Lady Hawks undefeated

By Michael Orbach

Issue of February 19, 2010/ 6 Adar 5770

It’s a good time to be a Hawk.

Both the boys’ and girls’ varsity basketball teams at the Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway, the Hawks and the Lady Hawks, are undefeated this season. This marks the first time that either HAFTR varsity team has gone undefeated and the first time in Yeshiva League history that one school has fielded two undefeated varsity teams.

For the boy’s team, the string of victories came out of nowhere, according to coach Joey Hoenig.

“It was pretty much an unknown team,” explained Hoenig, who lives in Lawrence. “There was one kid from last year that was coming back — Mikey Gindea, he’s a superstar no question about it — but he was the only one coming back that we knew was a starter.”

However, the combination of Gindea with fellow starters Shelby Rosenberg, point guard Jonny Daniel, forward Yoni Kestenbaum, and Joey Borgan, the team proved to be unstoppable. Rosenberg, Hoenig pointed out, is 6’3 and “still growing”; he’s one of the few Yeshiva League athletes who can dunk.

The team is 14-0 in the regular season. Add in tournament competition and the team’s record during the 2009-2010 school year jumps to 27-1, with a lone 6-point loss to Ramaz in one of the earliest games. Hoenig described his team as “easygoing” and “relaxed,” a contrast to Hoenig’s own intense demeanor.

“They’re actually too calm sometimes,” Hoenig said. “When their backs are against the wall, they begin to play. I believe that’s all part of their success.”

This is Hoenig’s first undefeated team; he has been coaching in the Yeshiva League since the 1980’s.

“It’s a milestone for me,” he said.

The team is also the first he’s had that didn’t require any disciplinary action.

“Every year you had kids who needed to be suspended; this year, I didn’t have any issues. They’re doing very well this year, and they’re davening every morning, it’s a nice combination,” he said.

Plenty of close matches

While the team remains undefeated, Hoenig stressed that there have really not been many blowouts and most teams are pretty evenly matched. During a tournament held in Baltimore, a Toronto team led at halftime by close to 20 points. Two games against the HANC Hurricanes have been tight; one November game was won with a buzzer beating shot by Mike Gindea to earn a score of 49-48. A rematch ended with a Hawk victory in overtime.

“It’s not like we walked over everybody,” concurred Jonny Daniel, co-captain of the team with Gindea. “Our final game we were losing at half-time by five points.”

“It’s really one game at a time,” Daniel continued. “You take one game, one quarter, one play at a time; if you put that together you play your best ball. Just focus on one game at a time, and never look ahead or behind.”

Going undefeated in the Yeshiva League isn’t unheard of. Two years ago the HANC varsity team went undefeated in the regular season but lost in the playoffs.

“I don’t want to jinx myself. We still have three playoff games left and the last two undefeated teams lost in the playoffs,” said Hoenig. “I’m hoping not to repeat their demise.”

The girls’ great season

Equally impressive but not as surprising, is the story of the Lady Hawks.

Eight of the current members of the varsity team were part of the HAFTR Junior Varsity basketball team that dominated the Yeshiva League with back-to-back championships and an undefeated 2007 season. For the juniors on the team this could be their third opportunity to win a championship.

“They just are the nicest girls,” said JV Coach Renee Greenspan. “Forget how talented they are; they’re the nicest bunch of girls. There’s not a selfish girl on the team. I’ve been coaching for 14 years and this group of girls is the most talented group of girls I’ve seen. They’re not tall — they’re short — but they have such tremendous hearts.”

For the coach of the varsity Lady Hawks, Irwin Koppelman, the highlight of this season hasn’t been the team’s 12-0 record.

“It’s been very fun for me,” Koppelman said. “It’s not often a coach can say how fun it’s been. The highlight of [one] tournament had nothing to do with basketball. It was at the Baltimore tournament on Friday night and Shabbat oneg when we sang zemiros (Shabbat songs)... It had nothing to do with basketball; it had to do with the bonding of the team. That they’ll remember years from now.”

Turning up the heat

Nearly half the games the team has played have not been close, Koppelman said. In the last game of the regular season, against Heschel, the Lady Hawks began the fourth quarter down by two points. Alyssa Greenberg was guarding a girl a foot taller than her, Koppelman recalled.

“People were snickering [and said] she should have backed off,” but Greenberg did not, he said. “I think it really carried over. They saw how hard she wanted [to win].”

The team turned it around with an 18-2 point run and finished with a score of 41-23.

Koppelman couldn’t say for certain which Lady Hawk has been leading the scoring; either forward Danielle Miller, guard Alyssa Greenberg, or her sister, point guard Stephanie Greenberg.

“I can tell you they’ve been scoring a lot of points,” he explained. “[But] it’s been spread out across the team... They’ve taken to it and I can honestly say this team, as a group, is much better than the individual parts. They see it and see the only way they’ll win is as a team, and it’s been a team effort all the way through.”

Co-Captain Danielle Miller was equally pleased.

“I think the biggest thing is, our team is so close,” she said. “I’m an only girl and [my teammates], they were like my sisters. It’s more than basketball.”

Rabbi Gedaliah Oppen, principal of HAFTR High School, praised both teams for not only their athletic abilities but for their “chesed” and the “achdut” they displayed.

“In the name of Hall of Famer, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar,” Rabbi Oppen said, “’One man can be a crucial ingredient on a team, but one man cannot make a team.’ We can all learn a valuable lesson from our HAFTR Hawks and Lady Hawks about the importance of teamwork — working together, b’yachad, as one. We wish our teams continued success both on and off the court.”

Both teams are set to begin the playoffs in March, though both coaches already view the season as a victory.

“As long as we give our full effort it’s a successful year,” Koppelman said. “We learned a lot, all of us. Regardless, the girls are going to give their all. Do I want to lose? No. But it’s more important to learn things.”