L ifestyle /C ulture
Philly Faces: Tyler Weiss
P H I LLY FACES
SASHA ROGELBERG | JE STAFF
TYLER WEISS LED the Julia
R. Masterman Laboratory and
Demonstration School boys’
soccer team to its first-ever
Public League championship
on Oct. 27 in his first year of
coaching the team.

The 26-year-old Aussie
coach has two decades of
soccer experience under his
belt, including coaching Team
Israel in the Philadelphia
International Unity Cup in
fall 2021 and competing in
the 2011 JCC Maccabi Games,
where he was selected as one
of the 18 players to be part
of the U.S. contingent for the
international games held in
Israel. Team USA made it to
the finals, but lost to Team
Israel. (Weiss joked that the
referees were clearly biased.)
Since November, Weiss,
now a Fishtown resident, has
coached the United Philly
Soccer Club, where many of his
Masterman players compete.

The club is one of the few in the
country that isn’t pay-to-play,
eliminating the cost barrier for
young students to play in a
competitive league year-round.

For Weiss, coaching for the
club not only allows him to
do what he loves during the
Public League’s off season, but
it also helps out the underdog
— something Weiss has been
keen to do throughout his
coaching career.

What’s the Jewish community
like in Australia?
My family has a really
interesting background. My
grandmother was actually
born [in Austria] on the run
during the Holocaust. Her
parents were in line to be shot,
and they ran. My grandmother
was born literally in the forest.

They ended up in a boat and
ended up in northern Australia
— Darwin, Australia — and
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM worked their way from Darwin
I started to watch soccer
to the outskirts of Melbourne. a little bit more, and I think
my passion went from not just
Are there a lot of Jewish playing the sport, but to the
Holocaust refugees in Australia? actual sport, the ins and outs,
Yeah, there really are. In the tactics, the players, the
Australia, it’s a much closer- teams. And I think that was a
knit Jewish community than in real eye-opener to make me fall
America. Most Jews know each in love with the sport — not
other. I think there’s actually a just to play the sport, but to
similarly sized Jewish commu- actually have this intrinsic love
nity in Philadelphia.

of the sport.

What are some Jewish tradi-
tions in Australia that do not
exist at all in the U.S. or vice
versa? Every Jewish holiday [in
Australia], you’re home with
your family, and you’ll have
100 people at a Passover seder,
at break-fast. I wouldn’t say
that’s common here because
people move away, or they
marry someone on the other
side of the country; they keep
splitting, keep splintering.

We have services; we sit
down and do the prayers. For
them, they’ll sit down and do
the prayers and then go outside
and dance. We’re a lot more
traditional here. We really try
to connect to the old traditions.

In Australia, it’s a different
mindset. What has been your biggest
accomplishment as a coach so
far? It’s winning the Public
League championship. That
was my first major coaching
trophy. I think imposter syndrome
is real. This was the first, real
time that I thought, maybe ...

I’m not just here saying things
into the void. Maybe I have
some actual ability to change
and improve and to grow as a
coach. Where does your interest in
helping out the underdog
come from?
As a Jewish athlete, you hear
all the time, the stereotypical
‘Jews can’t be athletes.’
In Australia, do they call it
soccer or football?
They call it soccer! They
have their own football called
Aussie rules football. It’s not
rugby — I’ll just say that now.

Tyler Weiss after coaching the Julia R. Masterman Laboratory
and Demonstration School boys’ soccer team to its first-ever Public
Championship on Oct. 27
Courtesy of Tyler Weiss
captain for the national team.

But he was the first Israeli
to play high-level soccer in
the Premier League, first at
Liverpool [Football Club] and
then for my favorite team,
Chelsea [F.C].

Just watching him growing
up, I was like, ‘Oh my God, he’s
Who’s a Jewish athlete whom breaking all the boundaries,
breaking all these barriers.’ l
you look up to?
Obviously, he’s a soccer
player. His name is Yossi srogelberg@jewishexponent.com;
Benayoun. He was the Israeli 215-832-0741
Growing up, I came
from Central Pennsylvania,
where it’s hard to be a top
academic, but then I went to
a top academic school and
won a business scholarship.

I’ve always been the underdog,
always played for the underdog.

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How did you become inter-
ested in soccer?
Honestly, just like most
children: their parents put
them into 10 different sports
and see what they enjoyed.

Soccer was always something I
was good at and enjoyed.

I also got fortunate; I got
really good coaches for soccer.

Maybe that was it — out of the
10 coaches I had, the soccer
coach was the one I connected
with most. I still talk to him.

His name is Coach Bill.

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JANUARY 6, 2022
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