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On Motzaei Shabbos, January 17th, MTA held its annual reunion for alumni studying in Eretz Yisrael, at the OU Center in Yerushalayim. Graduates from the past couple of years enjoyed the opportunity to reconnect over pizza, cake, and soda, and were joined by both Rabbi Taubes and Rabbi Shulman who were in for the week, visiting the various yeshivos where MTA boys are now learning. Binyomin Shtaynberger ('14), currently studying in Yeshivat HaKotel, delivered a beautiful dvar Torah connecting the week's parsha with a message about the year in Israel. Meaningful speeches were also given by the two past class presidents, Eli Weinstein ('13), presently studying at Yeshivat Sha'alvim, and Joey Goffstein, now studying at the Aish HaTorah Gesher program. Joey spoke about the importance and value of carrying on the "Lions pride;" he mentioned a humorous story in which he was on a tiyul in Israel wearing an MTA sweatshirt and was stopped by a fellow alum from many years earlier and they were able to share their experiences. Ari Wallach, a graduate of P'Tach at MTA who is now a student at Darkaynu in Gush Etzion, also shared a few words, as did both Rabbi Shulman and Rabbi Taubes. Everyone in attendance truly enjoyed the chance to get together in such a realxed and pleasant atmosphere.

On Wednesday night, the Varsity Hockey Lions began the second half of their season after a couple of weeks of vacation with a game against JEC. The contest promised to be interesting because it was held just three days after a majority of the team members had run in the Miami Half Marathon, raising significant money for Chai Lifeline. It was also MTA Senior Night, paying tribute to those players who will be graduating at the end of the year, which brought extra fans to cheer on the Lions. 

JEC entered The Den expecting a tough game, and that's exactly what they got, as the Varsity Lions ran circles around the JEC team. The only problem was that MTA was having a tough time putting the puck into the back of the net. The first period ended with MTA leading 1-0 after Ami Rosenfeld scored a power play goal. 

After the period was over, all of the seniors on the team went to the middle of the court and waited for words of wisdom from our Dean of Students, Mr. Dobrick. Mr. Dobrick proceeded to match phrases in Pirkei Avos with those seniors on the team. It was a moving and fitting tribute to the soon to be MTA garaduates.

The game continued with the second period which saw MTA score twice, a goal produced by David Boim and a goal from captain Zev Markowitz. The third period saw a little scare when JEC scored halfway through, but MTA put one more into the back of the net to secure a 4-1 victory. 

MTA hopes to continue their championship run with a win against SAR this Motzaei Shabbos in The Den.

The MTA Lions played the SAR Sting on Thursday night and, unfortunately, failed to get the W, which would have locked up a first round bye in the playoffs. Both teams fought hard until the end, but the Lions seemed to run out of steam late. MTA was missing key players in Yehuda Buchbinder, starting point guard Marc Giahn, and key bench player Chaim Weinstein. SAR big man Sammy Sokol seemed to get his way in the paint, getting to the line six times. Binyomin Buchbinder carried MTA for much of the game, along with a great defensive effort from Josh Klein, who unfortunately pulled up with calf cramps late in the game. Dan Libesman and Yosef Leyliev filled in nicely off the bench, but MTA just couldn't pull out the victory. The final score was 31-27 in favor of SAR. MTA will look to lock up a first round bye in our next game at Frisch.