(JTA) – Just after the conclusion of Hanukkah, the Worcester Academy varsity girls’ basketball team prepared to face a rival private school. Head coach Sherry Levin addressed her team before tipoff.
The theme of her pregame pep talk? The shamash.
“The shamash candle doesn’t lose any of its brightness by lighting all the rest,” Levin told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “I was like, you know what, that’s kind of like what a team is. We have all these talented players, who, just because another teammate scores 20, doesn’t make you less of a player. We have to be all together as a team.”
None of Levin’s players are Jewish. But she’s used to that — as a player herself, Levin was the all-time leading scorer in the women’s basketball program at her alma mater: The College of the Holy Cross, a Jesuit school in Worcester, Massachusetts.
Levin knows her path is an unusual one. “Yup, Jesuit school,” she said. “Nice Jewish girl goes to a Jesuit school.” It’s always the first question she is asked when she speaks to synagogue groups, and yes, Jewish journalists.
