Kansas City Maccabi Athletes Bring Home Medals from 2024 JCC Maccabi Games in Houston

A delegation of 28 local Jewish teen athletes recently returned from Houston after competing at the 2024 JCC Maccabi Games. 22 of the 28 athletes medaled across multiple sports, including basketball, dance, swimming, tennis, soccer, volleyball and bowling.

In addition to the competition, the athletes have the opportunity to connect with Jewish teens across the world.

“I am so proud of our Kansas City Maccabi delegation,” said Bob Hennecke, director of sports & recreation at The J, and Kansas City Maccabi delegation head. “Not only did they have a successful games, medaling in a variety of sports, our teens were praised throughout the week for exemplifying what it means to be a Maccabi athlete through their kindness, sportsmanship and competitive spirit.”

Several athletes and coaches were recognized through the awarding of Midot medals for exhibiting the values of Maccabi. The coaching staff was comprised of Bob Hennecke, Arlo Hennecke, Maggie Osgood-Nicholls, Jason Sautter, Ben Heger, Gabe Perez, and Michael Liss.

The Kansas City delegation grew from 2023 to 2024 from 16 to 28 teens. The age limitation for competitors has expanded from 13-16 to 13-17, which means all of the athletes who competed this year will be eligible in 2025.

“We are already making plans to expand this program for 2025 and beyond to involve more of our Kansas City Jewish teen population,” Hennecke said.

The JCC Maccabi Games is an Olympic-style sporting competition held each summer in North America and is the largest organized sports program for Jewish teens in the world. The week of competition also features an array of cultural and social activities. This year, over 1,200 Jewish teens from across North America, Israel, Great Britain, Argentina and Ukraine competed at the Houston games.

The 2025 Kansas City delegation will be forming in December 2024. For more information, contact Bob Hennecke at 913-327-8005.

The athletes and their respective sports were:

Bowling

• Eli Nathan
• Jacob Williams

Basketball

• Barak Alon (16U)
• Zack Blinn (14U)
• Josh Bourke (16U)
• Ayden Mooney (16U)
• Charlie Scharf (16U)
• Gabe Sherry (14U)
• David Wasserman (16U)
• Hudson Weikal (16U)
• Nathan Weiner (16U)
• Zack Wieland (14U)
• Shya Zeldin (16U)
• Gus Zitron (14U)
• Teddy Zitron (14U)

Dance

• Brooklyn Birnbaum
• Logan Nicholls
• Maddy Sokol

Soccer

• Gus Glaser (16U)
• Bennett Gordon (16U)
• Aiden Zach (16U)
• Hudson Zach (16U)

Swimming

• Lauren Brand
• Ethan Davydov
• Henry Davydov

Tennis

• Brody Feldman

Volleyball

• Maya Nathan (14U)
• Maya Rumple (16U)