Having taken on the role of athletic director for middle school through high school, I am encouraged with the opportunity to help make HAFTR, through athletics, one school, one spirit. Our goals this year are many.
-By linking the middle and high schools together, we are going to re-invigorate our school spirit with the help of our athletes and our student body. While our athletes represent themselves, their families, their coaches and their teams, they first and foremost represent our school and community. Our students, fans and parent body are just as much a part of the teams as the athletes themselves. By coming out and showing support for your teams, you are supporting your school and community at large.
-We will do our best to be competitive in each and every sport that we participate in. It's always nice to win games and our coaches will do their best to make HAFTR one of the top schools in the yeshiva league.
-Athletes, as representatives of HAFTR, will be role models for our school and community. The way we act, as players, coaches, fans and parents on and off the court is a microcosm of what we are all about. Midot are the most important aspect of our lives and we need to lead by example. We are going to ensure that we act in a way that is a light unto our community.
-Integrate middle school and high school- We want our students to see what's it's like to be part of HAFTR high school by inviting them personally to come to watch THEIR high school play. The middle school kids will play a major role in re-invigorating our school spirit. We will also make sure that our high school athletes will come and participate in lower school games as well. We will also try to have intra-murals for those kids who are not on the school teams and have coaches from the high school give clinics, open to everyone. Athletics is for everyone, not just the select few who make their teams.
-School-wide chessed project- By making the middle and high schools one unit, we are going to launch, through our athletic program, an aggressive fund-raising program to benefit a variety of charities including, but not limited to, our local institutions such as Tomchei Shabbos and Hatzolah. We are kicking off this most important project by having our boys varsity basketball team play an exhibition game in Madison Square Garden vs. Frisch on Sunday, October 18th. All proceeds that we raise will go to benefit Migdal Ohr in Israel. Each $36 ticket that is sold will go directly to them with no money from our ticket sales going to MSG. The cost for each ticket includes the HAFTR/FRISCH game but also the KNICKS/ MACABBI TEL AVIV game that will follow. This will be an exciting way to show your school spirit and do a tremendous chessed at the same time. I hope to see you all there.
These are just a few things that will make our HAFTR better in the 2009-2010 season. I would love to see everyone come out and show their school spirit and we can start on October 18th at MSG...
See you at the games. Joey Hoenig, Athletic Director
