Letter to "my" athletes:

Hi Team!

I thought I would officially say hello to you all at once!  No time to be shy, we are only a few weeks away from an incredible journey!

On paper, you are one of the strongest and most talented T&F/HM teams we have brought in many years if not ever. 

Our Juniors Team is greatly improved with several State Champs.

Our Open team is also improved especially in the field, sprints and distance events. Oh wait, that's everything :)

Our Half Marathon Teams, Masters and Open, will be greatly improved as well. 

You are all great athletes and will be very competitive against the world's best Jewish athletes including Israel's National team. Everyone will have a good chance to bring home a Maccabiah medal.

You might have heard that 19 year old phenom, 400m Olympic finalist, Steve Solomon from Australia will be running for Team Australia- This rumor is in fact true.

You might have heard that Team USA added the fastest Jewish miler to EVER run, Russell Wolf Brown (3:51)- This rumor is also true.

You might have heard that Alex Averbuch, Israel's immensely popular European Champion pole vaulter, is coming back after a hiatus to compete in the Maccabiah- also true! (I heard he just wanted to meet Aly Raisman and Amar'e Stoudemire, but that is a false rumor)

You might have heard another true rumor; that Israel recruited 4 of our teammates from the 2009 team for Israel's National team.  Many are still on Israel's payroll now and are doing tremendously well. They include: Dustin Emrani,  Aly Goldfarb, Brian Mondschein, and USA Olympian, Jillian Schwartz.  Jillian went on to vault for Team Israel in the London Olympics.  I am especially proud of them and all of my former teammates for their success on and off the track. 

You are about to be inducted into an elite fraternity-  You represent the USA's best Jewish athletes. Since the Games started 80 years ago, only 6,000 USA athletes have participated, many former, current or past Olympians.  Our track and field teams over the years are fewer than only 500 participants- (many are blind copied on this email.)  You are in the company of: Dwight Stones (announcer and US Olympian), Ken Flax (current NCAA record holder, US Olympian), Deena Kastor (current USA marathon record holder and USA Olympian), Irv Mondschein (USA Olympian). Jews are a small minority in the world (.25%) yet we make up of over 3% of Olympic medals. As per Adam Sandler, "not too shabby."

I'll also use this moment to welcome our high profile Coaches- Coach Rick Rothman will be returning as our Junior's Coach, member of the Florida Coaches Hall of Fame and the current National Cross Country Coach of the Year.  For the Open team, we are lucky to again have Coach Alex Smolka, aka "Smolks",  the current Head Track and Cross Country Coach for Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton.  Carl Grossman will be assisting both Coaches upon his arrival.  Carl is the long-time Head Track Coach of Cheltenham High School in Pennsylvania who especially enjoys to work with vaulters.  Mike Gross will be leading the Masters Half Marathon team as the Player/Coach.

On a personal level, I call Boca Raton my home and still train with my old high school coach.  I did decathlon for the University of Maryland and was All-ACC.  I have been Maccabiah T&F Chairman for 8 years and the Half Marathon team was added to my responsibilities 4 years ago.  I was hoping to be retired, but will participate in these last games to help fill some voids (Jav, PV, 110h).  Please note you are eligible to participate in only 3 Games as a subsidized athlete.  (For full disclosure purposes, I will be self-funded and will not be using Maccabiah money to participate.)

If you haven't found our Facebook page yet, please visit: https://www.facebook.com/19thWorldMaccabiahUsaTrackFieldHalfMarathon?ref=ts&fref=ts 

If you are eyeing a Maccabiah record, here they are: http://maccabia2013.iaa.co.il/index.php?lang=en&uri=/165records (hmm.. they didn't add Jillian's record.)

The Half Marathon is July 23rd  just east of Tel Aviv. The Track meet will be the 24th and 25th at Ramat Gan Stadium. If you run the 10k, it will be run on the road 10 minutes before the Half Marathoners on the 23rd. We do not have a time schedule yet.

I look forward to meeting everyone. Enjoy every minute of the journey!