Zoe Kellner is Sophomore at Worthington Kilbourne Highschool who plays field hockey with ease and represents her Jewish ancestory with pride. Recently, she traveled to Buenos Aires, Argentina with thirteen other girls over the 2023-2024 winter break to represent their Jewish faith in a field hockey tournament.
Kellner first started playing Field Hockey in fourth grade through WYB because she had friends who were also participating. Since then, she has been playing for 7 years and has only gotten better. She caught the eye of the MACCABI coaches with her amazing stats and talent. They sent Kellner an email inquiring coach recommendations and film of her playing to make their choice. Once selected to the team, Kellner was ecstatic. After that, the only thing left was to meet the other girls.
“We all met as a team in DC and did a training for six hours to get to know eachother and how we played,” Kellner shares.
Not only is going to Argentina a great playing experience but also a great social experience. Being surrounded by girls Kellner that can fully relate to is a new feeling, but a welcome one.
“It was cool to be on a team with other Jewish girls my age who were also playing field hockey,” Kellner expresses.
Going to Buenos Aires gave her the ability to experience Jewish traditions with the team such as Shabbat, a weeky day of rest from Friday sundown to Saturday night. You can’t cook, clean, sew, carry, and many other activities which stopped the teams from playing since some took it more seriously than others.
“It’s a lot of bonding and being with people who are similar to you because I don’t have that many friends who are Jewish. So it’s a good, fun community” says Kellner.
Kellner’s team played in a tournament with three others. The two losing teams played eachother and the two winning teams played eachother to determine the ranking. They came out with bronze in a close game with the ending score of 3-2. Though they might not have gotten their hoped outcome, they still got to experience a closeknit community.
In the United States there are 13,700 professional athletes, 274 of those are Jewish. MACCABI USA is a program that brings together Jewish Athletes from all over the world to build Jewish pride through sports, a Maccabi is a group of Jewish rebel warriors (Hebrew: מכבי) Which is exactly what Kellner and her team are, fighters. They fought through their tournament to achieve bronze and to represent their ancestry with pride and honor.
“Not only did playing against international teams helped influence my playing, but also I learned so much from my other teammates from all around the United States,” she exclaimed. Kellner is so grateful to have been able to experience this one in a life time opportunity and hopes to give back to her community and keep working hard in the sport she loves.
usa/ https://maccabiusa.com/history-of-maccabi-usa/
