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Ramla aims high
Lior Klinger
,10/11/2006 |
Elizur Ramla held a last minute press conference and made the following announcements: the team colors are back to yellow and black, Ina Gourevitch is now the captain, there's no decision yet on which foreigner will sit out in the Europe Cup games and the goal is of course, nothing short of the championship and cup.
After a season in division II, Ramla is back to its natural position. Before debt problems sent them to division II, Ramla celebrated a championship in 04/05and would like nothing more than to repeat that success. "Through out my career I have always aimed high", said coach Eli Rabi. "I'll be very disappointed if we lose one of the titles, the championship or the cup."
Along side Ina Gourevitch and Luda Rom who played with Ramla in D2, Michal Epstein & Taly Noy were added from Hapoel Tel Aviv and Laine Selwyn came over from Besiktas. The foreigners are newly crowned WNBA champion Plenette Pierson, All-Rookie team member Monique Currie and Shyra Ely. "I'm very pleased with our roster, it has a good combination of veterans and young players" said Rabi. "At first we wanted to bring 2 Americans and 2 Europeans but we feel our Israeli players are good enough and did not want to bring mediocre Europeans who are less good than the players we have. We decided to go with 3 Americans and focus our efforts on the Israeli league. We'll see how things go in Europe and consider bringing in players for Europe."
Pierson is the only one out of Ramla's American trio who is familiar with the Israeli league, if you allow us to disregard the vast experience Shyra Ely acquired during her couple weeks stay in the holy land last season. Pierson, who played in Italy last year, is definitely glad to be back. "Why not? I like Israel, people speak English, there are a lot of benefits to playing here and especially playing for Ramla, and playing for Eli again."
This season Ramla is talking about goals off the court also. The team's chairman said that this season the team will get involved in the community, and reach out to different people. Already in the first game of the season, Ramla will host a group of 100 disabled children with special needs. "We'll try to be new and fresh," said Rabi. "Outside of accomplishments on the court, we want everyone that comes to Ramla to have a good time. What singles out Ramla is our fans, our fans are very special and I hope to use them in a positive way."
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