PA native drives the ball downfield as head coach of Israel’s flag football team

You can say that Jonathan Tekac’s life is an amazing journey that started with the first yard.

A Western Pennsylvania native, Tekac is the coach of Israel’s flag football team, currently ranked eighth in the world by the International Federation of American Football. His career has taken him to the heights of collegiate and pro sports and allowed him the opportunity to travel the world.

Before any of those things, though, Tekac was a kid growing up in New Wilmington, Pennsylvania, dreaming of the NFL.

Get The Jewish Chronicle Weekly Edition by email and never miss our top stories Free Sign Up

“I remember playing in the front yard, imagining being in the Super Bowl and making big catches, doing this and that,” he said. “It was absolutely the dream.”

While his dream of the big game didn’t materialize, Tekac said he’s happy about where he’s ended up, downfield.

“My journey was different,” he said. “If for whatever reason I would have played in the NFL, my journey wouldn’t have taken me to where I’m at right now.”

The coach lives in Israel, where he says he was exposed to Judaism and chose to convert.

“My life has been very meaningful because of the journey I’ve been on,” he said.

That scrimmage began for Tekac in earnest at Youngstown State University, where he studied international business.

Because of his major, Tekac was able to study in Mexico and Costa Rica. After college, he played in the Arena Football League for the Memphis Xplorers.

After an injury ended his career in the States, Tekac wound up in Europe. He visited Auschwitz, which he said made a major impact on his life.

It was while in Italy, though, where he was still playing ball and teaching, that fate threw a Hail Mary that Tekac was able to catch.

“I met an Israeli woman who said, ‘You have so many questions [about Israel], you’ve gotta go see it,’” he recalled. “I got to go to Israel and meet a great woman, who ended up being my wife. We’ve been married for 13 years and have three children —11, 8 and 5 years old.”

And though they left Israel and went back to the U.S. for work —the family spent time in New York, Philadelphia and Los Angeles — Tekac said they decided in 2022 to move back to the Jewish state.

“As we thought about our true north, we got focused on being in Israel to be closer to family and for the cultural values,” he said.

Tekac said that after moving to Israel, he emailed a former acquaintance asking if he could help with Israel’s football program and was offered the chance to coach the Jewish state’s flag football team. The team was looking for someone who could help build and direct the program, skills that combined both his business and football experience.

Aware that his experience was in tackle, rather than flag, football, Tekac said he learned about the game from his assistant coaches and veteran players. Israel, he said, has been at the cutting edge of the game for years, and his role was in operationalizing that experience.

“How can I optimize what they’re doing?” he asked. “How can I take some of the things I’ve learned from some of the leaders I’ve been under, as well as some of my business experience?”

Tekac’s decision came at the right time. Shortly after taking his role with the team, the International Olympic Committee announced flag football would be added to the 2028 summer games, to be held in Los Angeles.

The excitement of the Oct. 16 announcement was blunted by Hamas’ terrorist attack in Israel on Oct. 7.

Many on the team, he said, are reservists in the Israel Defense Forces . In fact, there are 2000 football players in Israel who are a part of American Football in Israel, the sport’s governing body, and approximately 400 were called back to active duty.

The program, he noted, has lost four athletes so far — one during the Oct. 7 attack, another three in combat.

After Oct. 7, the tackle football season was canceled, and Tekac’s flag football team took a pause in practicing.

“But it was the players that started to come back and say, ‘Hey, coach, we have to have practice. We need it,’” he said.

It’s been a long and hard road back, Tekac said, but said that overcoming difficult odds are part of the country’s DNA.

“They’re Israeli, so they’re used to that kind of stuff,” he said. “The majority have been in the military. They’re dynamic individuals who work really well in a command-and-control type of environment.”

Tekac’s family, too, has learned to live with the reality of terrorism in Israel’s daily life. His 10-year-old son’s bus stop was recently targeted by terrorists.

“He was probably six inches from taking the full brunt of the force from what we can tell,” Tekac told WYTV.

Tekac, who has been in the States visiting family for the last few weeks, recounted the story of the Israel football program’s resilience at a recent “Bring Them Home” rally in Squirrel Hill in support of the hostages still being held in Gaza.

“I was very humbled and honored to represent our program,” he said. “The hostage situation is constantly in our head. We don’t go to bed or wake up not thinking about them.”

Following the rally, Tekac was working on joining his team in Israel in preparation for the IFAF Flag Football World Championship in Lahti, Finland, Aug. 27-30. A task more difficult than one might imagine, given Israel’s recent attacks inside both Lebanon and Iran.

“We’re trying to figure out how to get to Europe and then take an El Al flight from Europe,” he said. “I need to get back to prepare for this tournament. We’ll see what happens but it might drastically change our ability to participate.”

The tournament includes countries from around the world.

“We’re looking forward to representing Am Yisrael. Not just the state of Israel but the Diaspora as well, and just being a point of pride,” he said. PJC

David Rullo can be reached at drullo@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.