A home-court win across the world

Traveling across the Atlantic to the small Eastern European country of Hungary, Ethan Berks (’20) returned home this summer with a gold medal and tremendous amounts to brag about in the basketball community. Athlete of the Samo varsity basketball team, Berks took his skills overseas to compete in the 15th European Maccabi Games. Known as the “Jewish Olympics,” the Maccabi Games are held every four years to gather athletes from around the world in Europe, this year in Hungary’s capital, Budapest, to battle for winning the gold medal in the Jewish athletic world. Berks and his team competed in a round robin basketball tournament consisting of four games. They proved their excellence as they came out on top beating Germany in the finals, winning the gold medal for the U.S.A. Berks gave a statement about his observations of the opposing teams he encountered and how he felt the European skill levels did not amount to the skills he and his own team possessed.  “We played Germany and Turkey each twice and they were both very bad so we won by at least 50 [points] every game. We won the gold medal, beating Germany in the finals by around 80 [points],”  Berks said.  As it turned out, the Maccabi games played two significant roles in Berks’ life, on and off the court. Being of Hungarian descent and grasping the opportunity of a lifetime at only 17 years old, Berks added more as to what influenced his decision to compete in the Maccabi games. “It was an amazing experience. I had tons of fun. It was my first time going to Europe and my family is from Hungary and that’s a huge part of why I went,” Berks said. Berks and his team may have proven that although basketball has had an international awakening, America still remains the home court of dunking, jumps shots and of course, some of our very own Samohi Vikings stars.