Justin Vellucci
Brynn Kozloff knows soccer.
The Wayne resident started practicing young and already was competing in a Philadelphia-area recreational league at age 5. This fall, Brynn and her twin brother, Alex, will enter eighth grade at Radnor Middle School.
But what filled their summer was one for the books.
Brynn, who typically plays as a striker, joined Penn Fusion, an elite traveling soccer club.
And she took home a gold medal in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, as part of the 41st JCC Maccabi Games.
Leave it to Brynn to be modest.
“I just really enjoy playing soccer,” said Brynn, now 13. “I like playing with friends. I like playing in general. And I think everyone showed great sportsmanship — it was really nice.”
The Kozloffs were among nearly 2,000 Jewish teens who trekked to Fort Lauderdale in August — or to Israel a month earlier — to compete in an event the JCC Association of North America bills as “the world’s largest Jewish youth sports event.”
Alex, who excels as a shortstop and a pitcher in baseball, competed in table tennis.
There were 64 delegations, including a 62-player group from Philadelphia, that took part in the Florida Games, with American and Canadian players competing against Britons, Israelis, Argentinians and Ukrainians. They battled in baseball, basketball and ice hockey, as well as volleyball, flag football, lacrosse and more.
The Games held its closing ceremony on Aug. 11.
“It was wonderful,” said Barrie Mittica, a South Jersey native who helped lead the delegation as Kaiserman JCC’s director of engagement. “I got to develop relationships with the kids, and they’re a lot of fun to be with.”
“It’s just one of the most fun parts of my job.”
“I am filled with pride this summer,” said Doron Krakow, president and CEO of JCC Association of North America. “For thousands of athletes, along with coaches, volunteers, host families and a wall-to-wall coalition of Jewish community organizations, this year’s Games are an extraordinary reminder of the capacity for good across a diverse and dynamic Jewish community.”
Danny Weiss has been here before.
Weiss started coaching Maccabi soccer in 2010 and helped lead the well-regarded boys’ team for Philadelphia to gold medals in JCC Maccabi Games in 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018. Weiss joined the board of Kaiserman JCC about three years ago — “to give Maccabi a voice,” he said.
To him, Maccabi is not just a team.
“This is more like a tradition, a family,” Weiss said.
“The team was such a great group of kids this year,” he added. “Were they the most talented team I ever coached? Definitely not, (but) the team banded together so well.”
“Do the little things right,” Weiss would tell his players. “Then, do the little things even better.”
Philadelphia’s boys soccer team took home a silver medal.
The local delegation, which pulls players from five Pennsylvania counties and is the nation’s third-largest, also took home medals in ice hockey and basketball. Basketball started the Philly Maccabi dynasty when the local delegation won its first gold in that competition in 1984.
“(Multiple medals) doesn’t happen for every delegation,” Weiss said. “In Philadelphia, it’s a little more common.”
Yehuda Mahlab, like Brynn, started soccer young. He picked up the game at around age 3.
Today, Mahlab plays center mid-fielder on the Ukrainian Nationals, a local traveling team, and for the varsity team at Julia Reynolds Masterman Laboratory and Demonstration School, where he is entering his senior year.
This summer, Mahlab made his third trip to Israel — his dad’s cousins live there — but his first to play in the Maccabi Games. He played and dormed alongside fellow Philadelphians in Haifa.
“It was a really cool experience, playing overseas,” said Mahlab, 17, of Philadelphia’s Old City. “I never felt that way playing soccer anywhere.”
“It was fast-paced, really fast-paced — the ball was always moving,” he added. “And that heat? I’ve never played in that kind of heat before. It was a scorcher!”
Recently, as he nears his high-school graduation, Mahlab said he’s been focused more on his academics than sports. The Maccabi Games re-ignited the athletic fires but also reconnected him to his faith.
Mahlab attended Perelman Jewish Day School before going to a secular high school and became a bar mitzvah at Congregation Kesher Israel in Society Hill.
“Being around so many other Jewish athletes, competing — it did bring me back,” Mahlab said.
Mahlab isn’t applying to colleges — yet — but he’s already thinking about places to go, from University of Pennsylvania to Penn State to the University of Pittsburgh.
He said he is “100% interested” in playing soccer on a college team.
Alex Kozloff, Brynn’s brother, has his eyes set on another prize: competing in baseball in 2024’s Maccabi Games in Detroit. Jewish teens will descend on the Motor City from July 28 to Aug. 2, the JCC Association of North America announced after the Florida event closed.
“I’d certainly be supportive” of Brynn and Alex competing again, said their father, Dan Kozloff. “They had a great experience. And we’ve got to defend that gold in soccer!”
Justin Vellucci is a Pittsburgh-based freelance writer.
