In what has become a standing tradition on its uptown campus, Yeshiva University recently hosted the tenth annual Sarachek Basketball Tournament. The tournament drew high school teams from eighteen different yeshiva day schools across North America. In the first tier competition, top-seeded YULA - led by tournament MVP Kenny Pollack - demolished Hillel of Miami to capture the championship. In the second tier finals, Yeshiva of Atlanta scraped by Boston's Maimonides High School in overtime to win the tournament crown.
Although in its first year the tournament managed to attract only eight teams, "at this point it is considered one of the biggest and most popular Jewish high school tournaments," according to Associate Director of Admissions Ryan Hyman. "I have teams begging me to get in," he cockily asserted. The tournament is one of Yeshiva's biggest recruitment endeavors during the year, and the Office of Admissions feels that it bears the most fruit of any of their various recruitment campaigns. "These kids come to the tournament thinking that the only type of person that attends YU is future rabbis," said Hyman. "When they get here, they have an opportunity to interact with the real student body and see students that are serious about both their learning and their academics." The only Admissions recruitment event larger than the Sarachek Tournament is the annual National Model United Nations, which is held every winter. "The Model UN is geared towards presenting a purely academic picture to the participants, while the basketball tournament is meant to show the participants the sports programs and facilities available at Yeshiva," explained Hyman.
The actual active recruitment efforts made during the tournament are kept to a minimum. The tournament participants spend shabbos together at a small hotel in New Jersey, and a modicum of programming is put in place for the shabbaton. Save this, and a packet of information about YU handed out to each team member, little is done to pursue these students and encourage them to apply to YU. This is a deliberate course of action, according to Hyman. "These events are created with an informal environment in mind. Our point is not to force ourselves actively upon these students, rather to present them with an honest impression of what YU can offer a student." Not everyone, however, shares Hyman's advocacy of the hands-off approach. One high-ranking administrator questioned the efficacy of Office of Admissions' tactic, stating that "he could not believe" how little recruitment actually went on at an event specifically designed to recruit high school students. Still, if the general level of enthusiasm exhibited by participants and spectators provides any proof, one decade into its history, the Sarachek Tournament - by all standards - has proven to be a remarkable success.