Local Star Shines in NCAA Tournament

Yeshiva University in New York hasn’t been known for its basketball program over the years, but it’s now getting attention thanks in large part to the leadership of one of its rising stars, Simcha Halpert, a Los Angeles native.

Halpert, a 6-foot-3-inch sophomore guard, played four years for Shalhevet High School. He led the Yeshiva Macabees to the school’s first appearance in the NCAA Division III basketball tournament after winning the Skyline Conference, a league of small colleges from throughout the New York metropolitan area.

In the tournament’s opening-round game on March 2 — the start time for which was adjusted so it could be finished before the start of Shabbat —the Macabees lost to York College of Pennsylvania, 81-67.

The team finished its season with a record of 18-11 — and more attention than it had received since the school, with an enrollment of about 6,000 students, joined the Skyline Conference in 1998. The New York Post and The New York Times both wrote feature stories about the team’s success, with the Post offering one of its signature headlines: “YESH’ THEY CAN.”

Halpert, named the most outstanding player of the Skyline Conference, was the team’s leading scorer for the season, averaging 20.7 points per game. He made 49 percent of his field-goal attempts overall and 43 percent of his 3-point shots.

The Maccabees were plagued by injuries early in the season — including to their only senior — forcing them to at times play games with only seven players. But Halpert kept the team afloat, said head coach Elliot Steinmetz.

“First half of the year, he really just carried us offensively,” Steinmetz told the Journal.

Halpert would constantly battle his brothers on the basketball court.

Halpert improved his game to become more of a scorer than just a shooter, but his growth into a leader made a more significant impact on the team, Steinmetz said.

“You could see throughout the year there was stuff that he was consciously working on in terms of raising his maturity level on and off the court,” Steinmetz said.

Other team members appreciated and respected Halpert’s efforts and, as a result, he became “a respected voice in the locker room even though he’s just a sophomore,” the coach said.

Halpert said he knew from a young age that he wanted to play basketball.

“I was just always very connected to it, simply loved the game,” he said. “Whenever I had issues with friends, family or school, basketball was always a place I [could] go and completely be myself.”

Halpert would constantly battle his brothers on the basketball court after school and during Shabbat. He described the games as “intense, as they always [are] with brothers.”

At Shelhevet, his shooting prowess was “the missing piece of that team,” said his former coach, Colin Jamerson.

“Just the marksman that he is, he brought that to our team,” Jamerson said. “He got better at putting the ball on the floor and creating off the bounce. As he got to be a senior, he added the spot-up shot, he added the off-the-dribble shot. Then, he was able to start getting a little stronger and also, to add to his game, finishing at the basket, so that just made him a tough player to stop.”

Halpert said that during his time at Shalhevet and now at Yeshiva, his teams have faced taunts of anti-Semitism and then silenced them.

“Once the game actually starts, the best part is seeing them change their mind about how Jews wearing yarmulkes can actually win games,” he said.

Halpert eventually hopes to play basketball in Israel. For now, though, “This is his team,” Steinmetz said.