Nassau Coliseum was a home for hoops on Jan. 3 hosting a tripleheader of games as a part of the Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway Scott Satran Memorial Tournament.
HAFTR’s varsity boys and girls basketball teams played the Hebrew Academy of Nassau County squads, respectively. HAFTR won both contests with the girls 44-31 win and the boys 64-42 victory. HAFTR also captured the alumni showcase 31-26. Satran was a former HAFTR basketball and floor hockey player who died at 24 nearly 25 years ago.
The event raised money for the Israel ParaSports Center (formerly the American friends of Israel Sport Center for the Disabled) a world-renowned athletic rehabilitation center in Israel.
After the girl's game, professional wheelchair basketball players from the IPSC played a game with members of the HAFTR varsity team. Brooklyn Nets wheelchair basketball manager Joe Mendez, wheelchair basketball player for the Nassau Kings, Tony Fitzgerald, and Kings manager Jack Lopez, took part in the friendly game and showed the athletes how difficult it is to play wheelchair basketball.
“We have programs that take people who are able-bodied and disabled and bring them together to play sports so they understand exactly how challenging it is,” said Jennifer Fink, the national executive director for the Parasports center.
Founded in 1960, the center started during the polio epidemic that ravaged Israel at the time. The center is a world-renowned athletic rehabilitation center in the Israeli city of Ramat Gan. and is a home for more than 2,000 children and adults with disabilities.
After polio was eradicated, the center became a place for people with physical disabilities to use sports as a vehicle to feel the feeling of success.
“We feel that the world puts a lot of obstacles in just the average person's life and people with disabilities have even more obstacles to overcome,” Fink said. “Our goal is to teach them that they can overcome anything.”
Beth Grafman, East Coast director for the Israel ParaSport Center highlighted the center’s goals. “Success on the court lets them know that they can be successful in all aspects of life and that’s really the mindset the center really imbues in the athletes that come,” Grafman said. “The sooner we can get young athletes to the center, the more successful they are in all aspects of life.”
Partnerships with schools mostly involves buying wheelchairs. The center has up to 500 wheelchairs available at all times and every year replenishes 100. Each wheelchair can cost between $3,600 and $10,000 depending on the sport, the size of the athlete and the competitive level of the athlete.
Joey Hoenig, HAFTR’s athletic director has been a champion for the Sports Center for years. Koenig has his athletes take part in a fundraising event every year, and the Israel sports center is often the beneficiary of that effort. The first game of the tournament raised $2,000 and overall raised nearly $10,000.
“It’s not only about the money, it's about creating awareness for them,” Hoenig said.“It's such a great organization and it ties in with sports and athletics. Kids need to know that it’s not just about playing ball, but it's about giving back to the community.”
