Rae Kushner Yeshiva High School has joined the few yeshiva high schools which boast a swim team, and is the only school to have a boys’ division. The girls’ team was the brainchild of Rachel Luxenberg, current RKYHS junior, and was in its infancy during the 2013-2014 school year. This year, the school has hired coaches for both the girls’ and boys’ teams and has enough participants to compete against other schools.

Harold Huang, coach of the boys’ team, has been swimming competitively since 1976 and, since 2002, has trained a NJ State Champion swimmer, as well as several U.S. National level swimmers. He is looking forward to the challenge of building a high school swim team.

Carlee Phillips is the coach of the girls’ team. She has been swimming since the age of 7 and has been an assistant swim coach for the past eight years. She replaces the team’s first coach, Allysa Selevan, who helped jumpstart the team last year and, “without whom the team would not exist today,” commented Rabbi Richard Kirsch, RKYHS Athletic Director.

Each team currently has six to eight members, including several JKHA middle school swimmers on the girls’ team. The girls’ team will compete against other yeshiva high schools, while the boys’ team will compete against other private schools with all boys teams.

The budding team is fortunate to train in the state-of-the-art pool at Gold’s Gym in Whippany, NJ. They have graciously worked out swim times whereby boys and girls swim separately, according to Orthodox guidelines.

By Jill Kirsch