“I’m good,” enthuses Sydney Silverstein before scrimmaging with a competing female softball team preparing for the Triple Crown International Challenge, June 25-27, in Westminster, Colo.
Sydney Silverstein, center, is flanked l-r by Ami Baran, executive director of Israel Softball; coach Leah Amico; head Coach Adam Glickman; and Matt Leebove, associate director, JNF Mountain States, at the Triple Crown in Westminster.
Silverstein, 18, a pitcher and first-base anchor, is on Women’s Israel National Softball’s Junior National Team (Team Israel Blue), comprised of female athletes born in 2003 or later.
Team Israel Blue and Team Israel White (the national team) are both at the Triple Crown. Individually attired in the colors of the Israeli flag — juniors in blue, national in white — “Israel softball” emblazons their uniforms and caps.
Silverstein, born and raised in Atlanta, Ga., started playing softball when she was four or five. “My older sister played softball and my father coached her. I watched and wanted to play too.”
She remembers how her softball team in Georgia would gather in a circle after games and tournaments, solemnly intoning the L-rd’s Prayer.
“Normally I was the only Jewish player.”
She never thought of herself as a very good softball player until she started pitching and got a coach in the eighth grade. “I fell in love with the game and really wanted to be better.”
Silverstein, raised in a secular Jewish home, is in the process of making aliyah with seven of her Jewish teammates, a strategic move yielding a new crop of global female softball talent in Israel.
Jewish teens, regardless of their country of origin, will connect to their Jewish identity by playing softball on teams made up solely of Israeli and Jewish players.
Imagine you’re a 12-year-old boy, yanked from your baseball team, your friends and all things familiar to make aliyah with your parents. You arrive at Ben Gurion feeling lost, until you discover sports teams galore.
“That’s our goal,” says JNF-USA lay leader Doug Liebman of Arizona. “Wherever you’re from, there’s a sports team waiting for you in Israel.”
For Silverstein and her teammates, aliyah is not intended as a permanent move, at least initially.
They will receive Israeli citizenship for five years, an Israeli passport, and compete on the junior and later national softball team at a slew of prestigious events, including the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
Silverstein, who went to Israel two years ago for the Maccabi Games, had a wonderful time, “except it was a bit too structured” for this independent explorer.
Only a few days ago, she returned from a week in Israel with seven teammates on the junior softball team who are making aliyah “and it definitely felt different this time.
“We were able to be on our own and just wander through the streets, seeing what Israeli life is really like. It felt more like home; the place where I should be.”
A total of 26 female softball athletes are giving their all for Israel at the Triple Crown, which further intensifies Silverstein’s sense of camaraderie.
“We’ve watched the White Team play and they’ve watched us play. I’ve stepped on the field representing Israel — showing everyone what we have — with all these Jewish female softball players.”
Sydney is not in Georgia anymore.
Silverstein will be a rising freshman at Denison University in Ohio this fall. Once the college season ends, she’ll pack her bags and compete with Women’s Israel National Softball in the summers.
Later this month, the junior team will travel to the Czech Republic for the European Championships — yet Silverstein is cool and collected.
“I normally keep my head in the game,” she says. “I’m a very level-headed person. I don’t show a lot of emotion, unless it’s a highly tense situation.
“I focus on one pitch at a time, one play at a time, and keep pushing forward.”
Silverstein says women’s softball in Israel has unique attributes.
“We’re the ones to watch — a nation that’s trying to build in unison,” she says.
“Especially now, with everything that’s been happening here, it’s important that Jewish people come together and bond with each other.
“Softball is our way of proclaiming ‘Israel’ across our chests and on our caps every time we play. It makes me proud.”
Israel pays for security for Team Israel Blue and White at all games, whether within Israel or beyond, but does not compensate the players.
Athletes rely on organizations and individual donors for funding. JNF-USA is a main supporter of Israel’s junior team.
Are Sydney’s eyes fixed on the prize — the Olympics in 2028?
“They are — but it’s kind of surreal right now,” she says. “The Olympics seem so far away, even though I realize they are not that far away. It’s definitely a weird feeling, now that they are reachable.
“You know, you grow up watching the Olympics, but you never think one day that will be you out there. But hopefully, that’s the goal.”
After the Triple Crown, Silverstein will switch her focus to the European Championships, a major stepping stone to the Olympics.
“Attack this, win that, attack what’s next and whatever else comes our way,” she says confidently.
Information: www.my.jnf.org/team-israel-softball.
Copyright © 2021 by the Intermountain Jewish News
