The fourth Annual HASC Hockey Classic was held this past Sunday in Teaneck. Over 100 Yeshiva League alumni hockey players from schools from all over the tri-state area came to compete to benefit Camp HASC. Camp HASC would like to emphasize the incredible job done for the fourth year in a row by tournament director Kivi Naiman and tournament advisor Elliot Weiselberg.
As a part of the day, each team was asked to help raise funds for Camp HASC. For more than 40 years, Camp HASC has served the Jewish community as the premier summer program for children and adults with special needs, intellectual and physical disabilities. In just a little over a month, through the efforts of the over 100 participants, more than $80,000 was raised for this incredible program. Donations can still be made on the tournament website at hockey.camphasc.org.
The morning session featured all nine teams in round-robin play. The schools were split into three groups of three at TABC, Ma’ayanot and Yeshivat Noam. Each team played two games, with the top two teams in each group of three advancing to the Tier I playoffs in the afternoon, while the third-place team would move to the Tier II playoffs.
At each site, all players received personalized jerseys based on their school colors, complete with name and number, sweatpants, a water bottle and gym bags. After the morning games, all teams returned to TABC for lunch catered by EJ’s Place in Teaneck. In the afternoon, all games were played in Teaneck with the Tier I and Tier II playoffs taking place in TABC and Ma’ayanot.
The story of the day would be set early as the first matchup in Noam saw Rambam upset defending champion DRS 2-1, behind two goals by Jonathan Yizhaky (Rambam ’20). The Wildcats would also fall to Team Canada, as would Rambam, both in one-goal contests. As a result, Team Canada would win the division and Rambam would advance to its first Tier I playoff, while DRS fell into the Tier II bracket, where it would ultimately gain a measure of redemption, defeating JEC in the final.
In the other divisions, HAFTR and MTA would go perfect in the morning sessions and advance with Frisch and host TABC out of their respective groups. TABC avoided the same fate as DRS after being shut out by MTA 3-0 behind a trio of Jaroslawicz contributors, as Moshe (MTA ’10) and Daniel (MTA ’14) netted goals, while Yoni (MTA ’12) stood tall in net for the shutout.
In the quarterfinals, TABC and Canada would go toe to toe for the first half of the contest, but a shorthanded goal by the Storm would kickstart their offense, leading to a 3-1 win to advance to face MTA in the semifinals. The Storm avenged their early morning loss to MTA, 2-0, on goals by Daniel Levy (TABC ’16) and Ari Fuchs (TABC ’16), and a shutout by Mordy Dubin (TABC ’11) to advance to the finals. In the other quarterfinal contest, upstart Rambam would continue their Cinderella run, knocking off Frisch, 2-1, on another Yizhaky tie-breaker with two minutes remaining in the third period. Rambam’s day would ultimately end in the semifinals, as a fresher HAFTR team would topple the Ravens, 5-1, on two goals by Eric Lifshitz (HAFTR ’12) to advance to face TABC. Despite being on the losing end, Yizhaky would take home an All-Tournament award, the youngest player to earn such honors in event history.
The finals would be all HAFTR, as Lifshitz would score two more, in addition to goals by Matthew Jedwab (HAFTR ’20) and Ben Newmark (HAFTR ’21). Ryan Gluck (HAFTR ’16) would turn away all TABC shots, leading the Hawks to a 4-0 win for their first HASC Alumni Tournament Championship. Lifshitz earned MVP honors for his impressive performance, while Gluck took home his second consecutive Top Goalie award. Also taking home a major award, courtesy of Crown Trophy of Brooklyn, was Daniel Lichter (HAFTR ’17), winner of the event’s Top Defenseman honors.
In addition to Crown Trophy, several impactful companies and individuals took it upon themselves to sponsor this year’s event. The tournament would like to thank Leeding Builders Group for their support, EJ’s Pizza and Dougies for fueling the event participants and Inkery for supplying teams with brand new state-of-the-art jerseys. A special thank you to Mikey Levy who spent an inordinate number of hours helping put together the event and for working tirelessly through the day to make sure all games and related items flowed seamlessly.
As for the participants themselves, CAMP HASC would like to thank JEC who, for the third consecutive year, raised the most of any team with over $13,000 as well as the top individual fundraisers from over 100 players: Adam Stern (JEC ‘11), Ariel Holzer (Rambam ’98) and Evan Feder (HAFTR ’15).
Proceeds from the Camp HASC Hockey Classic will be dedicated toward providing affordable therapeutic care for the hundreds of children and adults spending their summer at Camp HASC. The range of therapeutic activities, adaptive physical therapy, bike riding and tailor-made motorized equipment, as well as a dedicated, professional staff and around the clock carry-over, enables everyone to participate—and for the special campers to reach goals beyond all expectations. Each summer, miracles take place in the Camp HASC therapy department, where individuals with special needs receive world-class, occupational, physical, speech and music therapy, tailored to meet their specific needs.
