Winning gold on the other side of the world

By Joel Wittnebel/The Oshawa Express

It was a memorable trip to the other side of the world in more ways than one for Paul Foucault Jr.

The 24-year-old softballer recently returned from the Maccabiah Games in Israel with a gold medal after Team Canada toppled the United States in extra innings to take home the top spot.

And it wasn’t the first time either, as Foucault and the Canadians took on the United States in three other games ahead of the final, beating them every time. All told, the Canadians only lost a single match in their packed 10-game schedule, that being to the young home team from Israel.

“It was definitely a rollercoaster, but it was fun because we got to beat the States four times that tournament,” Foucault Jr. says with a laugh.

Defeating the United States 4-1 in the first semifinal match, the Canadians punched their ticket to the gold medal game. However, when the United States prevailed in the second round of semifinals the two teams met once again.

And with the United States having something to prove, both teams came out hard, and at the end of the final inning, the game was tied 2-2.

In the top of the eighth, the United States came out and put up a pair of runs to jump ahead 4-2 and force the Canadians to respond.

And Respond they did, putting up three runs and finishing the game with a walk-off hit.

“The boys came together,” Foucault says. “We were a strong team.”

The Maccabiah Games, known colloquially as the “Jewish Olympics”, ran from July 4 to 18, and is one of the largest sporting events in the world. This year marked the 20^th anniversary of the event and included more than 10,000 athletes and 22,000 fans from 80 countries.

Foucault says he was in awe of the spectacle right from the start, as he joined the delegation of 500 people at Pearson Airport making the trip.

“From start to finish you really felt unified as a group so that was really cool just to go across the sea with so many Canadians and compete,” he says.

Staying in Tel Aviv, Foucault says, “it’s nothing like you see on TV” and was amazed by the city and the culture.

During the opening ceremonies, similar to the Olympics, each nation is paraded into the stadium. Foucault says when it came time for the Canadian delegation to enter, the arena was in an uproar.

“When we got paraded out the whole stadium was going nuts and it was definitely a rush to kind of be the centre of attention there for 30 seconds with a stadium that big,” he says.

Foucault, who has been playing fast-pitch softball in Oshawa since he was a teenager, hopes to return to the event when it runs in four years time.

“I made so many friends on the field, off the field, we were a really tight-knit group the whole time,” he says. “Everything was just amazing, they treated us great while we were down there and I know that had a big part to do with our organizing group and Maccabiah Canada.”

Foucault also took the opportunity to thank his coaches Daniel Berlin and Paul Rosen along with his fellow teammates for the amazing experience.

Overseas Foucault was joined by: Les Bernstein, Robert Bohbot, Jason Dinetz, Sean Dollinger, Robert Goodman, Randy Hoffman, Daniel Iagodkine, Joshua McKinlay, Daniel Osterer, Jacob Osterer, Robbie Osterer, Stephen Osterer and Adam Sargon.