Hoops competition builds friendly bond

Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway (HAFTR) High School, in conjunction with the Hebrew Academy of Nassau County, hosted the third annual girls’ inclusion basketball tournament last week.
This tournament, called LATCP (Let All The Children Play), brings together students from four yeshiva high schools with children from Kulanu, and provides the Kulanu students the opportunity to enjoy themselves and play basketball with members of the yeshiva teams. Kulanu Academy in Cedarhurst serves children who have disabilities. HAFTR and Kulanu students have a close association, and students enjoy spending time together.
On Dec. 4, players from Frisch (New Jersey), Kushner (New Jersey), HANC (Uniondale) and HAFTR (Cedarhurst) all arrived at the HAFTR gym with their game faces on, ready to play. Members of each team were housed at different homes of HAFTR students for the weekend. On Friday night, the girls headed to Young Israel of Lawrence-Cedarhurst (YILC) for a beautiful Shabbat dinner followed by fun activities to help the girls get to know each other. The girls returned to YILC on Saturday morning for Shabbat prayers followed by a big lunch and lots of singing.
On Saturday night, the teams from Frisch and HAFTR competed for the championship. The gym was filled with many HAFTR students ready to cheer on their friends. Rachel Gelnick, a senior member of the team, said, “During our regular season, Frisch beat us once. However, we had just beat them the day before in the tournament, so I knew that this was going to be an intense game and require our best efforts.”
Both teams are strong teams who play on similar levels, and each had a great chance of taking the championship. However, in the end, Frisch defeated HAFTR 48-41. All four teams contributed lots of excitement and spirit to the tournament, making it a very successful one.
We look forward to sharing many more happy times with our friends at Kulanu and the other yeshivas. Playing competitive sports is a wonderful opportunity to foster friendly competition, build teamwork and confidence, and form close bonds with others.