I went to Yeshivat Rambam of Baltimore and I am still proud

It is really happening... 

Rambam Set To Close Its Doors At End of Current Year (BaltimoreJewishLife.com) see article: http://baltimorejewishlife.com/news/news-detail.php?SECTION_ID=1&ARTICLE_ID=6005

Please read my article that I wrote about Rambam a few weeks ago that was featured in the Baltimore Jewish Times, Baltimore Jewish Life, and the Yeshiva University Commentator...

From One Yeshivat Rambam Red Storm Player and Fan to Another

By Mollie R. Sharfman (YRHS '06)

Posted on 03/30/11 | Comments (10)

  

 “In the final game in Rambam Baltimore history, the Red Storm defeated the Weinbaum Yeshiva Storm 44-31 to capture the Tier III championship title at the 20^th annual Yeshiva University’s Red Sarachek Tournament” (Zach Weiner macslive.com)

Our team. Our players. Our colors. Our school.

Only after reading these words did it finally sink in. Only after the final basketball game, did I finally internalize the reality that my home away from home, Yeshivat Rambam High School was closing at the end of this year.

The Yeshivat Rambam Redstorm Varsity boys basketball team made us proud this past Monday at the Yeshiva University (YU) Red Sarachek tournament. Led by its dedicated coach, Ari Braun, and assistant coach and former Red Storm star, Shulie Hochman (YRHS ’08), they walked into the huge gym at YU with their heads held up high, with pride and dignity, in true Rambam fashion.

I never would have imagined twelve years ago when I played the first Rambam Red Storm Girls Basketball game, that the 2011 Rambam Red Storm Boys Varsity team would play the last.

I will never forget walking into my first game. The game was really far away - but when I looked out into the bleachers, I saw our parents, siblings and teachers who all came out to cheer us on.  Those same parents and teachers who worked so hard, putting in blood, sweat, and tears to build Yeshivat Rambam from nothing - giving us opportunity after opportunity. Our parents and teachers, who cheered us on at our basketball games, represented dedication. And we always had the best cheering section!

As a twelve-year-old, donning my red Yeshivat Rambam Red Storm Jersey for the first time, I felt a great sense of pride wash over me. I was a part of something important. I was representing my school; the school that was mine.

As a sixteen-year-old, I had the privilege to fly down to Miami, Florida with my teammates to represent the Rambam Red Storm in the Ben Lipson Hillel Academy Girls basketball tournament, I knew who I was. I knew where I was going. I was a Yeshivat Rambam student ready to take on the world. Our parents and grandparents came down to Florida and sat on the sidelines in their beach chairs cheering for us. They never missed a game. We walked onto the court representing Baltimore, representing Torah, Judaism, Religious Zionism, Tikkun Olam and community service, along with integrity, nobility, leadership, activism and passion - principles that were instilled in us through our education at Yeshivat Rambam.

When Mrs. Sandy Willner and her family created the Yeshivat Rambam Willner Basketball Tournament in memory of their dear husband, father and grandfather, Mr. Gerald Willner, a”h, the greatest Rambam Red Storm fan of them all, they furthered our pride and sense of purpose. They gave us a place to stand. The tournament took place at the JCC, in the heart of the community. We got to decorate the whole gym in red, wear red face paint, and our coveted Rambam Red Storm jerseys. It was something that we could call our own. In February 2011, the Rambam Red Storm won the last Yeshivat Rambam Willner tournament championship –we went out with style and class.

Our team. Our players. Our colors. Our school.

But the biggest highlight of all was the Yeshiva University Red Sarachek Tournament. It was where the best talent of Yeshiva League basketball from New York and all over the country came together to fight it out.  The first year that the Rambam Red Storm Varsity Boys basketball team qualified for this tournament was a big day at Rambam. We all somehow found rides to New York and made our way up I-95 to cheer on our school.

I remember entering the Max Stern Athletics Center at Yeshiva University. I was intimidated and overwhelmed. I had never been to a gym that big before. There were so many people and I had lost the group that I was with. Suddenly I saw the familiar sea of red all the way at end of the gym - the Rambam contingent. I quickly ran over there and stood with Rambam - our parents, our teachers, and our friends – we all represented Yeshivat Rambam and Baltimore. It was the place where I stood. It was the place where I belonged.

I am a 2006 Yeshivat Rambam of Baltimore High School graduate. It has been almost five years since I graduated but I will wear my Red Storm pin on my bag for as long as I can, as I struggle with the closing of my high school. It is very difficult to sit in classes in my master’s program at Yeshiva University pondering the future of Jewish education while the place that imbued me with so much of who I am today falls apart leaving my thirteen-year-old sister and so many others to search for a new place to stand.

There is much controversy over what happened to Rambam, how it happened, and why it happened.

But there is nothing controversial about basketball.

Last Monday,  when the last-ever Rambam Red storm Varsity team won the YU Red Sarachek Tier III championship title, the familiar pride that I felt so many times as a Yeshivat Rambam High School student washed over me once again.

Our team. Our players. Our colors. Our school.

There is just something about basketball that makes things all the more real. Alumni and current players stood together in the YU Max Stern Athletics Center dreading the end, knowing that it would be the final game. When Rambam won, alumni stormed the court and danced with the last Rambam Red Storm team. Coach Ari Braun then invited alumni and former Red Storm players, among them Noah Pottash (YRHS ‘07), the grandson of Mr. Gerald  a”h and Mrs. Sandy Willner, to speak about Yeshivat Rambam and the basketball team -from one Red Storm player to another.

Congratulations to our champions: Yoni Finkelstein, Dani Strauss, Ben Teles, Yaron Trink, Noam Sonnenschein, Adam Hariri, Sholom Reches, Oren Hariri, Simcha Rosenbluth, Etan Dinnerman, and Pinny Margolius. Managers: Jonah Delshad, Shimmy Nabozny, and Ezra Schwartz, and Assistant Coach Shulie Hochman. Thank you for leaving our mark on Sarachek history. And to their humble Coach Ari Braun who so gracefully led them to the championship.

To all those current and former Rambam Red Storm players and diehard fans out there, you know what feeling I am talking about.

Never forget it. Keep it in your hearts and hang up your jersey in your closet and put it on every once in awhile.

And as our Yeshivat Rambam High School’s tenure in Baltimore comes to a close, the passion and pride of Red Storm Basketball will never die. We are still out there making our school and the Baltimore Jewish community proud - and we always will.