Fox Chapel’s Izzy Zober stands tall for Team Israel at European softball championship
After their games were moved and still disrupted, Team Israel 'didn't just stand up, but they reacted with poise and strength and even a sense of humor'
The international field got a little smaller for softball phenom Izzy Zober. The Fox Chapel teen, who’s played in Italy, Prague and across the U.S., recently returned from Spain, where she and fellow members of Team Israel competed in the World Baseball Softball Confederation U18 Women´s Softball European Championship.
The July 21-26 tournament featured 17 crews from areas including Great Britain, Hungary, Ireland and Sweden.
As a member of one of the tournament’s youngest squads, Izzy, 14, said she expected fierce competition. Little did she realize her loudest opponents never stepped foot on the diamond.
Shortly before the tournament began, Team Israel was banned from the host city’s fields, her father, Yarone Zober, told the Chronicle.
In lieu of playing in Navarra, Team Israel was relegated to Zaragoza, a Spanish city nearly two hours south. And, apart from the imposed isolation, the team was “rushed in and out” of games in order to avoid protestors, Izzy said.
Whether during at bats or pitching, agitators tried disrupting each game with war-related chants, loud noises and other distractions, Yarone Zober said.
Izzy and fellow teammates largely ignored the off-field antics.
“It wasn’t really something that affected us,” the right-handed pitcher, who also plays first base, said. The important aspect was that “we got to play in Spain and we had the opportunity to represent Israel, especially at this time.”
Still, the fact that adults would venture out to disturb the actions of teenage softball players is odd, she said.
“It was a waste of their time,” she said. “There’s no reason to show up.”
Izzy said she understood the actions were “connected to the war, but that has nothing to do with us playing softball.”
Yarone Zober said he was impressed by the athletes’ reactions.
“It could have been a pretty scary experience — and I think the average kid who was subjected to this sort of thing would not have reacted or responded like they did,” he said. “These girls took the field every day and did their best and stood tall. And many of them, in what I think of as true Jewish fashion, didn’t just stand up, but they reacted with poise and strength and even a sense of humor.”
Following a particularly clamorous game, one athlete brought a shofar and played it “in front of everybody who had been making noises at our team the whole game,” he continued. “It was really a showing of pride and a showing of Jewish strength in the face of those who would like Israel and probably Jews not to exist.”
For Izzy, playing softball and representing Israel — the Fox Chapel teen is a dual citizen — weren’t the only highlights of her time abroad.
She said she and teammates participated in a Friday night Shabbat service in Zaragoza before going out for sushi. And they enjoyed seeing Jewish and non-Jewish residents of the city and members of Sefarad Aragón, an independent group that promotes knowledge and appreciation of Jewish, Hebrew and Israeli culture, demonstrate support for the blue and white-clad athletes.
“They would come out every game, and they would wave the Israeli flag and cheer us on,” Izzy said.
Now back in Pittsburgh, Izzy’s summer of softball continued with participation in the JCC Maccabi Campus Games. Throughout the Aug. 3-8 event, Izzy was joined by several members of Team Israel, some of whom even stayed at her house before the Games began.
By design, along with promoting camaraderie, competition and Jewish pride, an element of the Games was showcasing Pittsburgh. On Aug. 5, athletes, coaches and spectators traveled to PNC Park to watch the Pirates take on the San Francisco Giants. Before the first pitch, and as part of Jewish Heritage Night, Games participants were welcomed onto the field.
Yarone Zober, who’s traveled the world cheering on his daughter and her teammates, said there’s something special about being back on one’s home turf.
“I love Pittsburgh and I love showing it off,” he said. Whether it’s going to a Pirates game, Bakery Square, the Strip District or just driving visitors around and “having them look at the houses of Pittsburgh, and they go, ‘Whoa, what is that? Is that a mansion?’ And you say, ‘No, that’s a church,’ you just sort of forget the culture,” he said. Sharing Pittsburgh with those who’ve never been here before is a “whole different scenario; we’re so used to Pittsburgh, but for them — seeing Pittsburgh through the eyes of these Israeli kids — you learn to fall in love with it again.” PJC
Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
comments