Jewish futsal coach named best again

JEWISH futsal coach Zvi Ben-David has been named the NSW Futsal Premier League Coach of the Year for the second time, with the president and head coach of the Mascot Vipers leading the club to great success over the 2012/13 season.

“Yeah, it’s a proud achievement for me,” Ben-David told The AJN.

“It’s a very good award, but it’s a real credit to the kids. I have wonderful players, but as a coach, it’s harder sometimes to manage the best, because they have egos and want to play all the time.

“So I have to be honest with the players and the parents and be fair, and they thank me for that.”

The Vipers took out several of the top gongs at the recent Football NSW Futsal Premier and Super League Awards, which is a credit to Ben-David, who has run the futsal club since its establishment in 2005.

“We were the most successful team this season; we won four most valuable player awards across four age groups and we won four golden boots,” Ben-David said.

“The standard of the league was very high, so it’s a credit to the magnificent players,” he said.

“And futsal is a great game of development for kids. We have a lot of possibilities at our club, we’ve even got a couple of players in Europe and we’ve developed them into a great bunch of kids.”

Ben-David has been heavily involved in futsal since 1984, when he played with the Queensland state team after moving from Israel.

In that time he has taken part in three Maccabiah Games as a player and coach, as well as helping start up the original Maccabi Futsal team, the Eastern Suburbs Lions in the 1980s.

“I’m very passionate about the game, I love it,” Ben-David said.

“I started playing when I was six in Israel and continued it here in Australia.

“When I moved to Sydney, Louis Platus knew I was a good player and I went to the Maccabiah Games. After that, I put a team together of Jewish players and we played in the national league, where we travelled everywhere.”

On his return from coaching the futsal team at the 2005 Maccabiah Games, Ben-David was asked to assist in the establishment of the Mascot Vipers, which he reluctantly accepted at the time, and has led the club ever since.

“After Maccabiah in 2005, I was going to give the game away,” Ben-David said.

“But a friend of mine asked me to help him with the new team, and I ended up falling in love with the kids, so I’ve been in charge since day one.”

Ben-David also started up the Street Vipers, which is a street football team that won last year’s national title.

The side went on to represent Australia in the international event in Malaysia, where Ben-David led the Vipers into the semifinal against Holland, who were the defending champions and had former international star Edgar Davids as their patron.

The Vipers put up a fight against the star-studded line-up, but were eventually defeated 3-2.

Ben-David said the team will be out to defend its national crown in May and earn a spot at this year’s international championships in China.

The event will take place in Sydney on May 4 and 5, and will be televised on ESPN.

Ashley Shenker