Touch takes off in Jewish community
THE Maccabi Touch Football Club has enjoyed a strong start to the 2012-13 summer competition on the back of unprecedented growth in the last six months.
THE Maccabi Touch Football Club has enjoyed a strong start to the 2012-13 summer competition on the back of unprecedented growth in the last six months.
Under a new committee, the club’s membership has swelled from a couple of teams to more than 250 members playing the sport five days a week.
The club boasts nine senior teams in the Eastern Suburbs Touch Association’s weeknight competitions, a junior side for the first time in a number of years and seven teams taking part in the Beach Touch Australia Pro Circuit this weekend at Maroubra Beach.
“This is a watershed year for touch football at Maccabi,” club president David Weiner told The AJN.
“We now have a club in every sense of the word, catering for males and females of all ages and abilities, throughout the entire week.
“And we want to continue to spread the word to provide opportunities for everyone to play the game under the Maccabi banner. This is hopefully the start, not the end product, for a hugely popular sport in our community.”
The biggest fillip for the club – and Maccabi sport – is a brand new Sunday Social League played in Woollahara each weekend.
The 14-team league, run by Simon Molnar, has attracted more than 120 brand players to the sport.
“This competition is the talk of Maccabi,” Weiner said.
“It brings our 18 to 30-year-old age group together through sport and there is an amazing atmosphere down there each Sunday afternoon.
“The competition is only in its teething stages, but I can only see it getting bigger and better.”
Weiner said that the sport has always been popular among the Jewish community, but people haven’t always been aware of the club.
“We’re a sport that doesn’t actually need to compete with others,” Weiner said.
“Our competitive and social league teams are packed with soccer, futsal, rugby, basketball players. It’s a great way to keep fit and also an exhilarating sport to play.”
On the field, the club has enjoyed an encouraging start to the season, with all nine senior teams having wins in the opening weeks of competition.
The club has two sides – Maccabi Mob (two wins) and Maccabi Naturals (one win) – in the association’s premier men’s division for the first time.
In division eight, Mob 2 (two wins) and Maccabi United (one win) have started the season encouragingly, with Sam Cantori, Zac Seidler, Ben Kochan, Tim Gonski, Josh Gottleib and Ben Trollip impressing.
The club now also fields mixed sides on both Monday and Tuesday nights. The Maccabi Goldies continue to fly the flag for the club’s stalwarts, while the other three teams have allowed the club to introduce a new generation of girls from school competitions into the club’s senior teams.
AJN Staff
Photo: Rohan Lee/Inferno Sports
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