H eadlines
Girls’ Hoops Teams Resilient in COVID Season
S P ORTS
SASHA ROGELBERG | JE STAFF
THOUGH THE WINTER
2020-’21 Penn-Jersey Athletic
League basketball season was
canceled due to the pandemic,
the Kohelet Yeshiva and Jack M.

Barrack Hebrew Academy girls’
basketball teams were far from
idle in the season that never was.

Kohelet coach Kevin Scholla
hosted voluntary practices
for players to build skills for
the 2021-’22 season and had
graduating seniors show up,
even though they knew they
wouldn’t play another game in
their high school careers, to
support the team.

At Barrack, coach Sean
Rochester hosted bimonthly
practices and a virtual motiva-
tional speaker series called
“Wisdom Wednesdays,” where
players learned leadership and
life skills.

The unconventional coaching
practices during last year’s
non-season paid off. This year,
both Kohelet’s and Barrack’s
girls’ basketball teams achieved
some of their respective teams’
best results.

The Barrack team played
the Abington Friends School in
the Pennsylvania Independent
Schools Athletic Association
state tournament quarterfinals
on Feb. 21, beating them 63-36,
earning the team’s first PAISAA
state tournament win in school
history. Kohelet Yeshiva became
district champions and made it
to the top eight in the conference
championship for the second
year in a row, its highest finish
ever. “We just have all different
types of girls, as far as their skill
set, as far as their personalities,”
Scholla said. “But everybody
kind of comes together when
we’re inside the lines.”
Scholla attributes
his team’s success to its aggressive
“Dobermann defense.”
“You just have to be
completely tenacious: full speed,
big arms, big legs on defense,”
Scholla said.

Because of their focus on a
good defense, anyone on the
team can try to be aggressive,
regardless of height or skill set.

“That doesn’t mean you’re
going to do it well, but you can
do it as best as you can,” Scholla
said. The team has a “deep roster,”
meaning Scholla has encour-
aged his players to “accept their
roles,” big or small, to minimize
conflict on and off the court.

While Rochester
also advocates for players knowing
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The 2021-2022 Kohelet Yeshiva girls’ basketball team
their roles, he implemented a
new offensive strategy where
the ball is constantly moving, as
players aggressively pass and cut.

​​“They used to run a lot of
set plays where things were very
kind of robotic and designated
for certain people to touch the
ball at certain times, and this is
a little bit more equal opportu-
nity,” Rochester said.

Though COVID gave the
coaches and players an oppor-
tunity for fresh starts and new
strategies, it’s also presented its
fair share of challenges.

“We’ve had a few different
times where we’ve had girls
out due to testing positive. Our
school, while it is an inconve-
nience at times, we’ve had a very
tight COVID protocol, so we
always wear masks on the road,”
Rochester said.

The Barrack team also wears
masks and social distances as
best it can during practices, even
wearing masks during games.

In most cases, opponents go
maskless. “It is hard sprinting in masks,
and when we play teams that don’t
play with masks, we are at a great
disadvantage,” Barrack senior
player Arielle Zabusky said.

However, players aren’t
resentful of the mask-wearing.

Senior Jessie Singer said that the
school’s strict COVID protocols
“instilled in all of us a higher
purpose in keeping our commu-
nity safe.”
Scholla said that Kohelet’s
team has had games canceled
at a moment’s notice due to
members of opposing teams
testing positive.

The team also didn’t have a
bus driver this year, and players
and parents carpooled to every
game, something Scholla said
“showed a lot of commitment.”
Players seemed to take this
year’s obstacles in stride, coaches
noticed, just grateful to play ball
again. Not only competitive, the
respective teams have formed
tight-knit bonds.

“I love hearing girls clap
and say ‘her’ name, just excited
for each other, not just for
themselves,” Scholla said. “So
that’s made them a real team.”
Kohelet and Barrack also find
themselves in situations unique
to few other teams. They repre-
sent the Jewish community in a
secular league.

“As teams play against us,
that’s certainly something that
they’re aware of,” Rochester said.

According to Singer, many of
the teams in the league haven’t
interacted with many Jews on or
off the court.

“Our whole team works hard
to emulate ideal sportsmanship
values, both because it is the
proper and respectful way to
play, but also because we want
to make sure we are giving a
good, kind name to the Jewish
people and acting in a way that is
representative of Jewish values,”
she said. l
srogelberg@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0741
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM