Getting lacrosse across

Israel is fielding a team in the popular US sport at the World Cup in July.

By ABRA COHEN
Lacrosse player Katie Mazer370 (photo credit: Courtesy)
Lacrosse player Katie Mazer370
(photo credit: Courtesy)
The high-impact sport of lacrosse, usually associated with collegiate sports teams in the Eastern United States, recently arrived in Israel.
The national women’s team is preparing to represent the country at its first World Cup in Toronto in July.
Comprising native Israelis and immigrants, the young team is working to gather support and promote a rather obscure sport in this part of the world.
Katie Mazer, 26, a seasoned lacrosse player who has been involved in the sport for 20 years and was recruited to play at Penn during her college days, received a phone call a few months ago asking her to help train the Israel women’s lacrosse team for the World Cup and spread awareness about the sport in Israel. Without hesitation, she says, she jumped at the opportunity, packed her bags in San Francisco and moved her life to Israel.
“The experience has been great. It’s like someone asking you if you want to try out for the Olympics. It’s like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” she says.
She has acclimated to life in Israel, even though it has been a wild three months so far. Her days are full, with morning ulpan classes, bartending at the Dancing Camel pub in Tel Aviv and running lacrosse clinics at Bialik-Rogozin school for immigrant and refugee pupils in the primary and middle-school age range.
“The goal is to get everyone in Israel involved in the sport. That includes Jews, Arabs and refugees,” she says.
In preparation for the World Cup in July, each player is raising money for her own charity project.
The charities range from the Israel Foundation for Handicapped Children to the African Refugee Development Center in Tel Aviv.
Aside from raising money for charities, funds are also being raised to send the team to Canada, where they will be meeting up with their Jewish-American counterpart. Mazer says she has been astonished at the number of Jewish communities that have offered to help the team at the World Cup.
“People from communities all over are very interested in the sport and have offered to help with things like food and lodging for the players,” says Mazer, who also plays on the team.
Most of the members of the national women’s team live in Tel Aviv, but dedicated players also come from Jerusalem and Haifa to practice and be on the team.
Unlike other sports, such as baseball, that need a regulation-sized space to play, lacrosse can be played anywhere you find grass and 120 yards of space.
Practicing in Hayarkon Park in north Tel Aviv, the Israel women’s lacrosse players, bearing mouth guards, protective gear and lacrosse sticks, run across the field, tossing a rubber ball and catching it with sticks that have cotton netting at the end.
Stephanie Tenenbaum, 27, who has been with the team from the beginning, says she hopes that lacrosse will become popular in Israel. So far, she says, the response has been good.
“Israelis are definitely not shy,” she explains. “They won’t walk by something they don’t know and not ask questions.”
Many Israelis reference the 1999 film American Pie when they hear about lacrosse.
But while they are confused, Tenenbaum says they are also very intrigued about the sport. She describes lacrosse to Israelis as a mix of soccer and hockey. She has yet to be turned down when she offers her lacrosse stick to try it out.
“It’s pretty amazing. It doesn’t matter if they are young or old; I see a lot of potential talent,” she says.
Aside from weekly practices in the park, the team also hones their skills in the gym and for what they call “wall ball” on the Tel Aviv beach promenade where matkot players normally paddle.
While this is the first World Cup the Israel lacrosse teams will be playing in, they already have one competition under their belt from last year. The Israel lacrosse men’s teams (located in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv) placed eighth in the 2012 European Championships in Amsterdam. Because the women’s team was not yet recognized as a national team, they played in the Championship Festival instead of the European Championship.
As the religious observance on the team ranges from being culturally Jewish to Orthodox, the policy is not to play on Shabbat, whether at home or away. The World Cup is working to accommodate game times and dates for when the team is in Canada.
Mazer, who is acting as head coach until the team gets to Canada, says that lacrosse has a way of bringing people together and says the common language is the game itself. In addition to forming bonds with other people, members of the team also talk about the sense of pride they have representing Israel in the World Cup and say that lacrosse has connected Jews in the Diaspora to Israel in a very tangible way.
“I never thought I’d be able to have such an opportunity,” says Talia Hillman from Jerusalem. “I feel lucky, nervous and incredibly excited to see how the team does. We have only been together a short period of time, but we have to start somewhere,” she says.
Judging by the women’s team’s drive and ambition, the Israeli and immigrant players hope not only to do well at the World Cup but also to introduce and play a game that everyone on the Israel lacrosse team is passionate about.