Flag Football: National teams fly to Canada with hopes high

"We believe that we have what it takes to not only play with, but beat, the best in the world," proclaimed Yonah Mishaan, the coach of the national women's team.

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
AFI womens flag football (photo credit: AFI)
AFI womens flag football
(photo credit: AFI)
Coming off an inspired gold-medal performance at the largest European flag football tournament in Le Havre, France, less than a month ago, Israel's national women's team heads to Montreal this week for the International Federation of American Football (IFAF) Flag Football World Championship brimming with confidence. The national men's team will be joining the women on the trip, which is sponsored by New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft and his wife Myra, to the July 25-27 tournament being held just outside Montreal in St.-Jean-Sur-Richelieu, Quebec. "We believe that we have what it takes to not only play with, but beat, the best in the world," proclaimed Yonah Mishaan, the coach of the national women's team. "We understand fully well that we'll be facing some outstanding athletes and teams, but my girls know what has to be done to win and have proven time and again, both to ourselves and to others, that our cohesiveness is the x-factor that will ultimately carry us." The team, which also captured gold in its previous international appearance at the Big Bowl 2007 in Germany, features Shana Sprung, Yael Freedman, Gefen Stein, Ayelet Hecht, Adina Brickman, Sarit Baily, Alyssa Sagoskin, Jessica Sagoskin, Ahuva Odenheimer, Estie "Baseball" Bernstein, and Ayelet Wartelsky. Israel is one of seven countries to qualify for the women's world championship. The other countries vying for the title will be the US, Canada, Mexico, Austria, Japan and defending champion France. The men will be competing against 11 other nations at the tournament: Germany, Italy, Austria, Denmark, Japan, Canada, USA, Thailand, defending champion France, Mexico and Korea. The attending members of the men's national team, which is making its first appearance at the world championship, are quarterback and player/coach Kenneth Zwiebel, Rafael Jaffe, Joseph Cohen, Nathan Schwartz, Jonahan Halberstadt, C.B. Davies, Dvir Weinberg, Maor Douieb, Akiva Rindenow and Aryeh "Lightning" Bauman. Off the field, the Israeli players will be spending quality time within the Montreal Jewish community, having already arranged events with Bnai Brith of Canada, the JCC and local synagogues. Accompanying the Israeli convoy at the championships will be American Football in Israel co-founder and President Steve Leibowitz. "In many ways, this tournament goes far beyond the gridiron of the football field, representing a coming-of-age for Israeli amateur sports on the international level," Leibowitz reflected. "We have high hopes for our teams' continued success, both in this event and going forward."