For Long Beach girl, faith and country, with sports

The Maccabiah Games —  an international, multi-sport event for Jewish and Israeli athletes of all religions — is often referred to as the “Jewish Olympics.”

Thousands of athletes compete in a large number of events every four years, battling it out in archery, baseball, volleyball, basketball, chess, cycling, fencing, field hockey, golf, gymnastics and more.

Hannah Austin, of Long Beach, will be one of this year’s athletes, representing the American volleyball team as one of the under-18 players at the games in Israel in July.

Austin, 16, went to the Hebrew Academy of Long Beach in Woodmere and is now a junior at Yeshiva University High School for Girls in Holliswood.

Austin mostly played soccer growing up, but since it’s only a one-season sport, she wanted to find something else to compete in during the offseason. That’s how she stumbled across volleyball.

“I need sports to ground me,” she said. “They help keep me sane.”

She started learning and playing volleyball as a freshman two years ago. Although she hadn’t been playing for too long, she picked it up quickly, and sent in her film to Maccabi USA. She was chosen to play alongside other girls to represent the country.

“I’m very excited to go because most of the girls on my team who are going aren’t religiously affiliated,” Austin said. “This might sound weird, but I want to take it upon myself to show them why certain aspects of Judaism are so great. Then maybe they will start to have some of the same values that I do.”

Austin and her team will be in Israel for the games for about three weeks, from July 1 to July 23. While she’s excited to be going there, it won’t be her first time. She was most recently in Israel in January, when she did an exchange program and went to school there for a month.