Healthy Diversion : Sports Offers Students a Respite From Demands at Valley Torah High

Matt Meisels needed an outlet from the 10-hour days he spent in class at Valley Torah High in North Hollywood.

One of his few options was to go out for the school’s basketball team, which scheduled practices and games around homework and religious commitments.

Even though Meisels said the team was lucky to practice once a week and play a dozen games a season, he claims he would not have been able to make it though two years at the school without basketball.

“Most of the kids at Valley Torah know why they are there,” said Meisels, who attended the school from 1989-91. “But the education is so intense, it’s nice to have something that lets you forget about studying for a while.”

Students go to Valley Torah to study the orthodox Jewish religion, which consumes about half of their classroom time. Five rabbis teach 100 boys and 70 girls the foundation of the faith. All of the books are written in Hebrew.

The second half of the day is spent on secular studies, and students are required to take four years each of English, math and science.

Extra time is spent on Torah studies Thursday evenings and Sunday afternoons. Saturday, a holy day, is the students’ only day away from school.

Religious beliefs are closely followed. Boys and girls are separated, with their respective classrooms located a few blocks from each other. Students eat only kosher food. Boys must wear yarmulkes at all times, and foul language is not permitted.

Rabbi Avroham Stullberger, who has run the school since 1986, says Valley Torah is different from most private religious schools.

“The life of an orthodox Jew is difficult for the common person to understand,” Stullberger said. “Our values, thoughts and beliefs all center on the Talmud studies. Every decision we make is based on the theories outlined in these books. For those on the outside not familiar, our life might seem strange or very different.”

Stullberger said that 75% of the school’s graduates spend a year in Israel studying the Torah before entering college. He said it is his job to prepare them for a life of religious commitment.

Valley Torah has no entrance requirements, and Stullberger acknowledges the majority of students cannot pay all of the $7,000 annual tuition. He said it is against the religion to deny anyone an education.

Expectations are high, however, and there is little tolerance for failure. This may explain why a growing number of students are turning to athletics as a diversion.

Valley Torah offers boys’ and girls’ basketball and baseball. The Patriots compete in the CIF Southern Section’s Valley League. Victories are rare.

The school has no athletic fields, gymnasium or locker rooms. Basketball is the favored sport, mostly because there is a small outside court, nestled between classrooms in the back of the boys’ school.

Someone always seems to be out there shooting baskets or looking for a pick-up game. Stullberger, who shuffles between boys’ and girls’ classes all day, even finds time to shoot baskets during his lunch break.

“On my list of priorities here, athletics is certainly not near the top,” he said. “We’re trying to accomplish a lot of other things. But I, like many of the kids, love sports. Since it is important to the students, then it is important to me.”

Meisels, who moved to New York for his senior year, fell in love with basketball in the sixth grade while watching Magic Johnson. He practiced every day on his outside court at home.

His parents encouraged him to attend an orthodox Jewish high school, and he decided on Valley Torah because it is one of only two such schools in Southern California that offers basketball. The other is Yeshiva in West Los Angeles.

His passion for the sport, though, was never fulfilled at Valley Torah, he says, because few others were as committed.

“I played for two seasons on the varsity, and we had a different coach each year,” Meisels said. “Neither coach put too much of an emphasis on the game. We were lucky to practice once a week for two hours. The administrators wouldn’t allow us to schedule many games, either.”

When Meisels, 18, recently returned from New York, he received a phone call from Stullberger asking if he was interested in becoming the school’s new basketball coach.

Although Meisels was already working as an assistant men’s coach at Los Angeles City College, he said he could not turn down such an opportunity. He decided to juggle both.

Players said it was not business as usual this season. Meisels worked out a deal for the team to practice at L.A. City College three hours a day. He was able to increase the schedule from 12 to 14 games. Although the Patriots finished 2-12, Meisels was the school’s first coach in four years to be asked back.

“Basketball is a way for the students to get things off of their minds,” said Meisels, who also is the public-address announcer for the NBA summer pro league at Loyola Marymount. “I want the kids to relax and have fun. The players take the game seriously, so I tried to offer them an environment to do that in.”

Practices were held as early as 6 a.m. and as late as 10 p.m. The team never practices or plays games from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday in observation of the Sabbath.

Like Meisels, most of the 15 players who went out for the varsity last season were looking for an outlet. They admit it takes a lot of dedication to go to school and play a sport because of the time constraints.

“Often I would go to school all day and then straight to basketball practice,” said Todd Davidovits, the team’s captain. “By the time I get home, it’s 10 o’clock. Since I have to be back at school by 7:30, it was hard to study and get a good night’s sleep. But I found it could be done.”

While Stullberger downplays the role of athletics, the players tell a different story. Davidovits and many of his teammates say basketball is the main reason they came to Valley Torah and practice is their favorite part of the day. Without it, they say, school would be less interesting.

Dan Ouaknine, who graduated from Valley Torah last spring, coached the boys’ junior varsity basketball team this season. Like Meisels, he tried to be more serious than his predecessors.

“Just because I’m an orthodox Jew doesn’t mean I don’t like sports,” said Ouaknine, who attends L.A. Valley College. “A lot of kids here love basketball, just like they do at the public schools.”

While athletics may be accepted at Valley Torah, it is a different story outside of the school. Opponents are often cruel and hostile. Because players wear their yarmulkes during games, they are often targets for jokes.

Ouaknine said his team was teased and tormented during a game at Van Nuys Montclair Prep earlier this season. He said many fans put things on their head to mimic a yarmulke.

Davidovits, who attended Yeshiva last year, said officials often get upset when players refuse to take off their yarmulkes.

“One official got so upset about the caps last season that he walked off the court midway through the game and never came back,” Davidovits said. “One official worked the rest of the game by himself.”

Until this season, high school rules forbid the use of headgear unless it had been cleared beforehand. That rule was changed, however, to allow head coverings that are used for medical, cosmetic or religious reasons.

“I think the schools often felt some of the officials were anti-Semitic,” said Dean Crowley, Southern Section associate commissioner. “I don’t think that was true, though. The officials were just trying to follow the rules. Luckily, they finally changed.”

Valley Torah’s main rival is Yeshiva. The basketball teams play each other twice a season. They are the biggest games of the year, and one of the few times when the girls are allowed to watch the boys. The boys, however, are not allowed to watch the girls’ games.

Stullberger said boys are discouraged from having any type of relationship with girls until they are older. Dating and parties are out of the question.

But the girls are allowed to watch and cheer at the Yeshiva games.

“We lost both of our games to Yeshiva this season,” Meisels said. “That’s not usually accepted here. When you do that, you’re not usually asked back. I guess they have confidence in me.”