NATIONAL TEAMS MEMORIES

In honoring our national teams we will post a new story told by the players of our national teams, Tackle, Men Flag and Women Flag.

Our First Player is Alan Tavor, he played with the very successful 2013 Men Flag Football national team to won the BIG BOWL in Germany.

"Throughout my tenure with the National Team, we have had many accomplishments. As we are a team that has been around for 8 years, these accomplishments took some time. Some even as late as a couple years ago. The biggest accomplishments that I can recall over the years are as follows.

 Winning the “Big Bowl VII, 2013”

For many years the Men's team has flown to the big bowl to more than anything get more practice against more experienced teams. For the first time the Coach and players felt w have gotten t the level that not only should we be able to finish in the top 3 teams but even be able to win it all. The Big Bowl is the largest tournament in Europe and possibly the World. With more than 60 teams participating from all over the world, the men were ranked in the top 8. Ahead of them the heavy favored Denmark team, who half of their team is part of the 3 time reigning European Champions. The Israel men finished the first round undefeated, and looking like they could be the team to beat. The offense was clicking and the defense were showing they were a force to be reckoned with, throughout the whole tournament and for the first time having spectators from other countries coming to see this up tempo team play at its full potential. The Men made it to the semi finals, against the Danish team, known as the Mammoths.

As the game started, you could see this look in the teams eye that they weren't going to lose. The game started the way you would think it would, scores by both teams. As the game continued, you could see why people referred to this as the game of the tournament. The teams continued to score up until the Mammoths made one crucial stop against the Israelis giving them he lead by 3 with the ball late in the second half. The clock and the score were on the Mammoths side. Things looked grim for the Israelis, but that did not show on the face of the Israeli Defense. With less than one minute to go in the game, Israels rookie Defense man, Effi Mishann made an amazing interception deep in Israels zone, but that

wasn't all, he had one man between him and the endzone. As he ran towards the last player, he made a quick cut towards the sideline, causing the Mammoths QB to fall to the ground, he was going to score and give Israel the win. As he passed the goal line with seconds left on the clock, the Israeli team were going crazy! Knowing they pretty much had the game in the bag, their Defense took the field for the final time that game with one purpose. Closeout the game. The Mammoths took 2 long shots at the end zone but came up short as the Israel Defense knocked the balls away. The Israeli were moving onto the championship.

The team were all over the place, knowing this was going to be the teams first medal, but they wanted to be Gold. Going into the Championship the Israelis were heavy favorites, and it showed on the field as they scored every time and only allowed 14 points. The men took the stage, first place with every team around hem applauding them, knowing that we deserved it. This was the Men's

Fist milestone and probably the biggest one in my opinion."