UNDERDOGS RULE
Orthodox roller hockey team skates — and scores — for God’s glory.
NORTH ARLINGTON, N.J.— College roller hockey teams from across the Northeast, including Pennsylvania State University, competed at an indoor arena here recently, shooting, skating and stickhandling with gusto as they battled to climb the standings and win for their teammates and for school pride.
But one team, the Maccabees of Yeshiva University, was playing for something loftier — religious devotion and the quest to bring glory to Orthodox Jews.
“When we go out there, wearing Yeshiva across our chest, it reflects not just on our school but on our whole religion,” Avi Margulies, 22, one of the team’s founders, said after the team improved its record to 14-2.
In their second season, the Maccabees — named for a band of ancient Jewish freedom fighters — are doing their faith proud and bringing athletic acclaim to this college in northern Manhattan better known for training religiously devout students than turning out powerhouse sports teams.
This unlikely band of Orthodox Jewish students is tearing up the Eastern Collegiate Roller Hockey Association, against teams with few or no Jewish players and more resources.
The 16-player squad was founded last season with little fanfare or financial assistance from the university. The players spend most of their time immersed in intense studies of the Talmud and the Torah, but Sundays are for hockey.
Because of Sabbath restrictions, they cannot play the usual Friday and Saturday games scheduled by the league. Instead, they must play multiple games Sunday mornings, starting as early as 7 and playing up to four games, sometimes back to back against fresher teams.
On a recent Sunday morning at the New Jersey rink, the Maccabees’ fans far outnumbered — and stood out — from those rooting for the other teams. The men wore skullcaps and the women dressed in prim dark skirts.
Joe Klein, part of a group of classmates at the rink, said the team’s credo was “Play hard to pray hard” and likened the team to a biblical David bringing down Goliaths.
“They live for the fact that they’re going to be the underdogs,” said Akiva Blumenthal, another Yeshiva student.
After all, most of the teams at the rink hailed from large universities like Penn State and the University of Delaware, with well-established hockey programs that receive money from their schools and are unencumbered by religious strictures.
The Yeshiva team showed up at the rink before 7 a.m. and squeezed into a cramped locker room. Putting on a uniform included pulling a helmet over a yarmulke and strapping padding over a white, tasseled religious shawl, known as a tallit.
They already had finished a lengthy prayer session and were facing a grueling three games.
Last season, they played in Division 4, which is for newer teams. They lost one game all season and won the league championship, earning them the right to play this season in the more competitive Division 2 league against teams like Boston University and Northeastern.
Still, they are currently in first place and are a favorite to win the league championships in March in Pennsylvania. The Maccabees will most likely qualify for the national championship in Florida in April, said William Bourque, the commissioner of the Eastern Collegiate Roller Hockey Association, and their performance there could enable them to move to the top division, whose teams have bigger budgets that include team buses and plane travel to games.
Bourque said he was impressed by the team’s quick success, especially since new teams typically struggle to achieve a winning record.
“It’s very rare that a team comes in and becomes a top team right away,” he said. “They’re probably the hardestworking team out there. They probably don’t have the most talented players, but they have the best teamwork. They want it more than anyone else.”
The game is essentially played on an ice hockey rink with a hard surface. Body checking is forbidden but play is still scrappy, with plenty of contact. Players use a hard plastic puck and wear in-line skates and padding.
Maccabee players and supporters regard the team’s unlikely accomplishment as something of a miracle.
“Growing up as an Orthodox kid, you can’t play in the roller hockey leagues because they don’t cater to the orthodox lifestyle,” said Amir Gavarin, who also helped start the team and is the captain. “So you wonder if you can play with the gentiles. We’re trying to prove to the community that we can hang with them.”
The team is largely an outgrowth of the avid floor hockey scene in orthodox high schools in and around New York City. Some top players who ended up attending Yeshiva University were recruited by Margulies and Gavarin.
Many of the players, including one of the goalies, Joseph Robin, had to develop skating skills. Two of the team’s stars, Avi Edell and Ari Drazen, grew up in Canada playing ice hockey and had to learn how to play on wheels instead of blades.
Being a club rather than a varsity sport means the team is not eligible for athletic department funding, school officials said. Still, the team is hoping to persuade the school to provide some financing, Gavarin said.
The players had to raise money to buy uniforms and equipment, pay league fees, cover travel expenses and even to hire a coach, Ely Gemara.
Players said their travel logistics could be as challenging as their opponents. While other teams show up in team vans, the Maccabees scramble to assemble car pools.
With kosher and Sabbath restrictions, even hotel stays are tricky. Team members often stay with orthodox families, sometimes sleeping on attic floors or in cold garages.
There also was the necessity of packing their own kosher food — which usually meant cold meals — and fitting morning, afternoon and evening prayer sessions between car trips to games across the Northeast.
The toll of travel hit the team at its very first game, in Rhode Island. After praying in a cold, dark parking lot, the team seemed in a daze as their opponents scored 15 seconds into the game.
The Maccabees, however, woke up and rallied to a lopsided 23-5 victory. By season’s end, several of the players won league honors, but could not attend a Friday night banquet. Instead, league officials presented the awards the following Sunday in a locker room.
There have been awkward moments. Last season, at a rink on Long Island, the opposing team could not conceal its surprise after walking into a locker room to find the Maccabees in fullthroated prayer together in Hebrew.
“You should have seen the shock on their faces,” Gavarin said.
Some hard-core fans travel hours to road games.
At the rink in New Jersey, they were crestfallen when the team blew a 4-1 lead against Stony Brook University, and lost 5-4 in overtime. But they revived when the Maccabees beat Delaware University and trounced Penn State in a game that featured Drazen and Jesse Gordon combining on a dazzling Maccabees goal.
The two players initially met while studying the Talmud in Israel before playing together. Now they make up the team’s first offensive line.
“We’re opening up a whole new viewpoint and worldview for Orthodox kids,’’ Gavarin said, “because they can see that if you work hard enough you can play with anybody.”