Annual Athletic Awards Dinner Honors YU Standouts

On Monday April 27^th, about a hundred varsity student-athletes along with their respective team coaches and academic deans gathered in Weissberg Commons of Belfer Hall to partake in the 1998 annual athletic awards banquet. The dinner featured opening remarks from Dr. Jeffrey Gurock about the important role of athletics in Judaism, the presentation of awards by athletic director Dr. Richard Zerneck, several applauds for Stan Watson, and, surprisingly, a meal not from the YU cafeteria’s dinner menu.

In addition to team letters, certificates, plaques, and watches awarded to one-year, two-year, three-year, and four-year players, respectively, each coach from the ten undergraduate teams personally handed a Coach’s Award to the 1998 most valuable player on his/her team. Coach’s awards went to Heidi Baker, women’s tennis; Yedida Goldman, women’s fencing; Shana May and Sheila Wiener, women’s basketball; Avery Jutkowitz, men’s wrestling; Ruslan Kimyagarov, men’s volleyball; Tsvi Zilbershteyn, men’s tennis; Oren Koslowe, men’s golf; Akiva Herzfeld - Saber, and Shaun Azari - Foil, men’s fencing; Yitzchak Motzen, men’s cross country; and Joel Jacobson and Alon Zaibert, men’s basketball.

Following the coach’s awards, a total of eight special recognition awards, three trophies and five plaques, were distributed as well. Of the trophies, Senior Brian Wein was given the Bernard "Red" Sarachek Award for being the most outstanding individual in basketball, the sport that Sarachek founded at YU. Similarly, Senior Yekutiel Sandman received the Arthur D. Tauber Award in fencing for being most emblematic of the man for whom the award was named after; and, Shammai Ellman’s sportsmanship in wrestling earned him the Henry Wittenberg Award.

The remaining plaques, the most prestigious awards of the evening, were designated for five exceptional student-athletes. Josh Hasten, the number one Macs tennis player from 1995-1998 and arguably the best tennis player in YU history, received the Emile Offenbacher Memorial Award for being the most outstanding YC senior athlete. Another leading tennis player, Shai Samet, and NCAA fencing competitor Yekutiel Sandman were co-winners of the Norman Palefski Memorial Award which goes to the most outstanding YC senior scholar-athlete. Amongst the women, Shana May, who led this year’s Lady Macs in scoring and rebounding, took home the Eastern College Athletic Conference Merit Award as the most outstanding SCW senior scholar-athlete. And, finally, the recipient of the SCW Athletic Award to the most outstanding female senior athlete was Shaindy Frankel, yet another tennis star.

Although only a handful of those attending the dinner went home carrying special awards, according to Dr. Zerneck, the winners included every student-athlete at YU who somehow manages to find the time, effort, and energy to participate in collegiate sports amidst the rigorous dual curriculum.