Villanova Baseball Coach to Head U.S. Maccabiah Games Softball Team

Villanova baseball coach Larry Shane, who has been involved in athletics nearly all his life, has been named America’s first World Maccobiah Games softball coach by the U.S. Committee/Sports for Israel. The appointment was based on the recommendation of B’nai B’rith’s Maccabiah Softball Committee. The 12th quadrennial games will be held next July in Israel.

Sponsored by B’nai B’rith International, the U.S. fast-pitch softball team has scheduled tryouts for the 14-member squad in October in Philadelphia and December in Los Angeles, with additional sites under consideration. Positions are open to Jewish U.S. citizens — men and women — of all ages. Applications can be obtained at most B’nai B’rith Hillel college campus offices or from B’nai B’rith International, 1640 Rhode Island Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036.

Baseball has been Shane’s primary interest since he was a small child, when, like millions of other American youngsters he began collecting baseball cards. (He and his two sons now have about 30,000). But Shane does more than just coach baseball.

For almost a quarter of a century he has also been teaching and counseling Philadelphia public school students. And since 1967 he has spent thousands of evenings taking graduate courses in education and studying and practicing art and sculpture. Recently he began operating and promoting sports memorabilia shows.

LONG CAREER IN SPORTS

Shane played baseball and football in Olney High School (former manager of the Chicago Cubs baseball club Lee Elia was on the team with him) and at West Chester State College. After his sophomore year he was called into the Army but upon his release, instead of returning to West Chester, he went to Utah State College. The Utah attraction, Shane says, was the coach; Shane had played for him while a Gl in Germany.

After graduating from Utah State, Shane went back to Philadelphia to become a counselor and football and baseball coach during the day and a graduate student at Temple University at night. It was the kind of life he has followed ever since.

Informed of his appointment, Shane, a member of B’nai B’rith’s Simon Wolf Lodge of Chester Country, Pa., said “This is a great honor. I am looking forward to fielding a team that can compete with the best in the world; a team that, as the late New York Mayor Jimmy Walker told American athletes heading for the first Maccabiah Games in 1932, will ‘bring home the bacon’.”

DAWN OF A NEW ERA

Steve Bloom, chairman of B’nai B’rith’s Maccabiah Softball Committee, said that B’nai B’rith’s sponsorship of the team marks “the dawn of a new era in B’nai B’rith’s involvement in international sports competition.”

Bloom noted that B’nai B’rith has supported the U.S. Maccabiah committee’s efforts in previous quadrennials. But, he pointed out, B’nai B’rith’s role had not been formal. “The U.S. 1985 softball team is the first to be sponsored by a single organization,” he stated.

In sponsoring the team, B’nai B’rith committed itself to raise $60,000 to subsidize the squad’s expenses. Bloom said that “the effort is coming along nicely” with about $25,000 committed so far. “But we still have a long way to go,” he added.

Bloom called on the Jewish community to help recruit topflight players. “There is no minimum or maximum age and although softball is listed as a man’s sport, women are welcome to try out, too,” he said. “We are looking for the best players, and whether they are old or young, male or female is the least of our concerns.”