Five of Maccabi's U19s joined in a unique showcase match at the Israel Sport Centre for the Disabled in Ramat Gan
Last night a very special meeting took place between the Youth Division of Maccabi Tel Aviv Football Club and the "Spivak" Sport Centre for the Disabled in Ramat Gan. The "Spivak" Centre is designed to answer the functional needs, both physical and social, of disabled people throughout the centre of Israel and does service as both a sports and a social framework. Only days before the Jewish festival of Purim, Maccabi Tel Aviv's Youth Division were invited to visit the centre and meet Israel's national wheelchair rugby team. Representing the division were five players from the club's Under-19s: Captain Dan Glazer, Idan Yogev, Sahar Hason, Yonatan Cohen and Eliad Graf. They were joined by the Division's football director Nir Levin and educational consultant Chen Abdu.
Highlight of the evening was a showcase match with Israel's national wheelchair rugby team. Beforehand Mr Levin welcomed the collaboration between Maccabi and the Centre for the Disabled, and the U19 squad members presented token gifts and special Maccabi Tel Aviv gift items to their counterparts from the national wheelchair rugby team. In recognition of the upcoming Purim holiday, educational consultant Chen Abdu presented the centre with a traditional Purim gift food package, put together by Youth Division players themselves.
Since the 2000 paralympic games in Sydney, Australia, wheelchair rugby has been one of the sports included in the competition's programme, the objective being to get the ball beyond the opponent's goal line for a try. Before the match the Maccabi youngsters received detailed instructions on how to play from the national team's players and then were given the opportunity to get used to manoeuvring the wheelchairs before getting on with the game. Despite their upcoming busy fixture schedule, including a mid-week derby in the quarter finals of the U19 State Cup competition, the Maccabi Under-19s proved enthusiastic and engaged competitors. In the end they failed in their attempts to score a try but at the final whistle there was a discernible feeling of camaraderie and of course smiles all around.
Maccabi's educational consultant Chen Abdu summed things up: "Bonds with the community are extremely important to us. Equally important is that our young players are exposed to the experiences of others by making acquaintance with institutions like this one. Activities like the ones held today contribute not only to us but to the institutions themselves as well. Our goal is to make the participants at our Youth Division not only better players, but better human beings as well, who accept the differences that exist between people and at the same time understand those difference too. This day at the "Spivak" Centre is the latest in a series of activities designed to infuse our youngsters with those values we as a club aspire to, like patience, tolerance and mutual respect".
