An Inside Look at Pre-Season

It has been about six weeks since I arrived in Israel to join Maccabi Haifa Heat. We are now deep into our preseason and the whole team--from the players to the coaches to the management-- has been working very hard to get ready for our opening league game next Sunday against Ramat Gan. Everyone is excited about the season and there is lots of positive energy.  Our intense preseason training has consisted of weight training, speed and agility work, track workouts as well as regular basketball practices. The players are in great shape and we are improving as a team each day.

Coach Ashkenazi is always stressing that we need to come together as a team in order to succeed. We had a great opportunity for team bonding both on and off the court at our training camp which was held in the beautiful surroundings of northern Israel. While we work hard at each practice to reach our full potential as a team, we have also been proactive off the court. The team recently went to visit young patients at Haifa’s Rambam hospital. We wished the kids a happy and healthy New Year and presented them with lots of cool Haifa Heat paraphernalia. The team has also established a special program in which people can purchase Heat tickets which will be distributed to underprivileged kids.

We will complete eight preseason games before our opening game. The start of the season, like the start of the New Year, is always such an exciting time. I am thrilled to be part of the Haifa Heat organization and look forward to playing my best to help our team win games. I am confident that if Haifa Heat continues to improve as a team and continue with our positive attitude and hard work then we will win a lot of games and make our fans proud.

-Tamir