By Emily Goldberg, Editor-in-Chief
Yeshiva University athletes see themselves as more than just players on a sports team. After spending hours with their coaches and teammates at practices and games, athletes form strong bonds with each other. Many are proud to represent our university, both on and off the field. Yet, being a YU athlete is a rigorous role to fulfill, and is not without its challenges.
Strangers Turned Family
“Teams can start out as a collection of strangers, but they quickly form a supportive group environment,” Breindy Berger (SCW ‘26), who plays on both the women’s softball and cross country teams, told the YU Observer.
Teams turn into communities, where athletes motivate one another and are invested in each other’s goals and experiences. “Having your teammates’ backs on and off the court is truly amazing,” Eliyahu Anina (YC ‘25), a right side on the men’s volleyball team, told the YU Observer. “You grow friendships and those friendships go beyond the court and into the classrooms.”
He added, “The most meaningful part about being a YU athlete is that there is this amazing sense of family. Once you’re on the team, we all look out and care for each other.”
Students join YU sports teams for all kinds of reasons. Anina has always loved volleyball but never had the chance to play in high school, so when he came to YU, he decided to try something new and join the team. Berger joined cross country because she wanted to incorporate running into her daily schedule, and, after describing how much she came to like the athletics department, decided to join softball in the spring as well.
Others, like Simone Amkraut (SSSB ‘28) and Alexis (Leibowitz) Berkowitz (SCW ‘25), were recruited to play on YU teams. Amkraut was recruited to play for the women’s basketball team and decided to join the soccer and softball teams as well to meet new people. Berkowitz was recruited to play for the women’s softball team and also joined the soccer team as a way to build friendships and find her place in the YU community after coming to YU not knowing anyone.
Representing More than YU
For many athletes, playing for a YU sports team does not mean simply representing their university, but the Jewish nation as well. Berkowitz was meant to attend the University of Miami, but chose to play for YU instead. “Choosing YU allowed me to continue playing the sport I loved in an environment that aligned with my religious values,” she told the YU Observer.
Berkowitz added that she never played in a skirt until she came to YU, but doing so was important to her. “I still remember my first game at YU, when I told my coach, Matt, ‘I feel like I’m not intimidating anymore wearing this skirt while pitching,’” she said. “He responded, ‘You are inspiring. You love the game, you love God, and you are representing something much bigger. You are intimidating.’”
Berkowitz continued, “Matt wasn’t Jewish, but he was one of my biggest supporters. That moment was deeply meaningful – it helped me realize that I could be religious and still play at a high level.”
Not Without its Challenges
While YU students find various forms of meaning playing on their respective teams, being an athlete takes a lot of dedication. Athletes are expected to attend every practice and game, which occur multiple times a week and sometimes every night. Athletes also have to maintain a certain GPA in order to stay on their teams.
“The biggest responsibility for student athletes is the time commitment required for consistent practices. During the season, practices can be four or five times a week, and if they are not on campus, there can be significant amounts of travel time,” Berger told the YU Observer. “Cross country trains in the morning, and all we need to do is go to sleep a little early, but for sports that train in the evenings, committing to practice means giving up most of your weeknights.”
For Amkraut, time management and balancing a dual curriculum while being a student athlete has been one of her biggest struggles. She has practice every day from 8-10 PM in addition to hours-long game days, which can be exhausting.
Still, she said, “I made a commitment and I have the responsibility to be at my best whenever I step on a court or field.” Amkraut continued, “I have to make sure that everyday, no matter how tired I am or how much outside stress I have on my plate, I show up to every game and practice with my full focus and attention.”
“I not only represent myself but I represent my team and teammates,” she added.
Amkraut and Berger both said that because YU teams do not practice or play games on Shabbat, and YU’s breaks are different from those of other schools, YU teams will schedule a lot more games on other days.
“We sometimes have games almost every other day with no break which becomes physically taxing on our bodies,” Amkraut said. Amkraut and Berger also said that games will inevitably sometimes conflict with student’s schedules.
A lack of communication between athletics and academics has been difficult for some athletes. “As an athlete we try to make our schedules the best we can so that we miss very limited class time; however it is not always possible to make a schedule that won’t clash with sports because some classes that are required for our majors are only offered at specific times,” Amkraut said. “We have to balance being in class, making up for any missed class time and work and being at all the games that we need to be at.”
Berkowitz echoed her sentiments. She told the YU Observer that despite having informed her professors ahead of time about her games, she still has conflicts with her classes. She said that at YU, where attendance is often heavily weighted, she did not feel that there was enough leeway for athletes to miss class.
Another challenge that YU students have faced is antisemitism. Anina described one incident where a student came to YU’s campus for a volleyball game and would not face the Israeli flag during the national anthem, despite the fact that his entire team faced it. “Later, he ‘bumped’ into one of our players, but instead of apologizing, he ignored him,” Anina said. “But thankfully most players leave that off the court and they don’t bring it with them to our games.”
Berger also said that she finds that YU students perceive their own university in “a slighting or mildly deprecatory way,” which can be difficult for athletes. She added, “Representing Yeshiva in an inter-school meet can offer the opportunity to see it as a ‘real school.’”
“When we compete with other universities, we are not just a bunch of kids who went to high school together – we can also do well enough to be competitive,” she added.
More than Just a Team
Despite these challenges, many YU athletes said that they appreciate how their experiences on YU sports teams push them past their limits. For many athletes, the relationships that are built are irreplaceable.
“The most meaningful part of my experience has been witnessing the moments when a team truly becomes a team – when we care for each other, work together, and build a cohesive unit,” Berkowitz said. “In the years when we truly connected, it made all the difference.”
Athletes said that their roles on YU sports teams go beyond the connections that they build between each other; for Amkraut, playing for a sports team is most meaningful because it allows her to represent the Jewish people as a whole. She said, “Every home game, when they play the Hatikvah over the loudspeaker, I remember that this is more than just about the game.”
Photo Caption: (From top left) The Men’s baseball team, the women’s softball team, the men’s soccer team and the men’s and women’s fencing teams
Photo Credit: the YU Observer