Aliza Hiller is a physical education teacher and coach of the girls floor hockey team at Yavneh Academy in Paramus, New Jersey, and plays ice hockey on a women’s team called the Quarry Cats. She describes how she has combined religious observance with participation in competitive sports.
Q: How did you first become interested in sports?
A: The first organized sports I played was with the Yavneh Academy Little League when I was in second grade. Before that, I would shoot baskets, play catch, and ride my bike, but I really got into sports when I started playing softball with Yavneh Academy. I had the same coaches for five years in a row in that league; they always had the same “have-fun” attitude toward sports, and this made an impression that I will never forget.
Q: What types of sports did you/do you play, and at which points in your life did you play them?
A: For many years of my childhood and youth, I went to Ma Tov and Regesh day camps, where I loved playing all types of sports. With respect to organized sports, from the time I was eight until I was twenty-one years old, I primarily played softball—first with Yavneh Academy Little League until the end of eighth grade, then on the Ma’ayanot Yeshiva High School for Girls softball team, followed by a women’s softball league in Fair Lawn, New Jersey. I also played on the Kaplen JCC on the Palisades’ softball team at the JCC Maccabi Games in Boston when I was sixteen. Getting to play in a “Jewish Olympics” was the experience of a lifetime.
I also grew up shooting hoops in my driveway and going to basketball clinics with my aunt and cousins. By the time I reached seventh grade, I had made the basketball team at Yavneh Academy and played on that team in seventh and eighth grade. I then continued to play basketball at Ma’ayanot for four years and have continued to play pick-up games with local Jewish women.
Hockey is currently my favorite sport, although I first encountered it at the age of eleven, when my cousins got their first hockey stick. I played hockey with my cousins at their house and loved it so much that I knew I had to get a hockey stick of my own! I continued to play street hockey with my younger sister, wearing inline skates. While in high school, I played hockey in the Ma’ayanot hockey club, but was not planning to try out for the hockey team until the hockey club coach (who also coached the school hockey team) asked if I was going to try out. At that time, I was a freshman who was just getting used to high school, and it did not even cross my mind to play two sports in the same season. However, when the coach asked if I was going to try out, I could not resist. I used the same hockey stick that I had received when I was eleven years old; the blade was as thin as a butter knife, but it got me on the team! I continued to play Ma’ayanot hockey throughout my four years of high school and we won the championship in my junior and senior years. In my last year of high school, I was captain of the basketball, softball, and hockey teams, and, following my graduation, my number 62 was retired at Ma’ayanot.
When I started college, I thought I would go crazy without any teams to play on, so I decided to get ice hockey skates and see how I was as a hockey skater. I then got full ice hockey equipment for Chanukah and started to attend ice hockey clinics as often as possible. I loved ice hockey so much that when I saw an “adult instructional league” advertised at the hockey rink, I decided to sign up. I have been playing in that adult instructional league for more than five years now with the same people who started with me, and we have grown together in our ability to play well. Also, two years ago, I was privileged to join a women’s ice hockey team called the Quarry Cats. We travel to Delaware, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and elsewhere to play games against other women who love the sport.
Q: Did you have a different experience with sports as a result of being Orthodox?
A: Being an Orthodox Jewish woman on the Quarry Cats has definitely been both a fun and a challenging experience. Because games are played on weekends, and no one really knew about my religious needs when I first started playing, there were a lot of games that I was forced to miss because I could not play on Shabbat. Some games would start after Shabbat, but were too far away for me to make it there in time unless I stayed at my sister’s home in South Jersey or at a nearby hotel. I would sometimes play in weekend tournaments with the Quarry Cats in which I have to sit out the game played on Shabbat, but I would arrange with the tournament coordinators to have the games played early enough on Friday to play before Shabbat, late enough on Saturday to play after Shabbat, or played on Sunday. At these tournaments, I would room with teammates who quickly learned about the laws of kashrut and Shabbat. My teammates were amazing about this and would even sit down for Shabbat meals with me. One teammate even bought me a portable grill because she wanted to me to eat more satisfying food during tournaments! By my second year on the team, the team captains who scheduled games worked hard to ensure that the games were played on Saturday nights or Sundays. I am so appreciative of how much people have worked to try to accommodate my religious needs. Unfortunately, the league playoffs still take place on Shabbat. To work so hard during the regular season and not get a chance to take part in the playoff game is hard to handle, but my religion takes precedence over everything. It is one thing that I will always stay true to.
Q: What is your current job?
A: I am currently a physical education teacher at Yavneh Academy, as well as the girls’ floor hockey coach at Yavneh Academy.
Q: What professional path led you to this position?
A: I have known that I wanted to be a physical education teacher since high school. When I was in high school, Coach Eileen Schwartz was the physical education teacher at Ma’ayanot, and I saw how much she was able to change people’s lives through sports. I knew right then and there that I wanted to be able to do that as well. During high school, I coached in the Ma’ayanot Junior Hockey League, where I began to put my coaching skills to the test. I really enjoyed coaching and was further encouraged to follow this path. After I graduated from Ma’ayanot, I attended Midreshet HaRova for a year, then entered Queens College, where I majored in physical education. I was also fortunate enough to find an amazing mentor at Queens College, Dr. Ariela Herman, who was the head of the physical education department and, coincidentally, an Orthodox woman from Bergenfield, New Jersey. I could not believe it! Dr. Herman was the head of sports at Ma Tov Day Camp, where she took me on as a member of the sports staff. It was there that I was able to practice and develop the teaching skills I had been taught at Queens College. In addition, while I was still a student at Queens College, Dr. Herman helped me get a job teaching kindergarten physical education at Yeshivat Noam in Paramus, New Jersey. Dr. Herman was truly instrumental in helping me on my career path.
Eventually, Yavneh Academy contacted me about a girls middle school hockey league that they wanted to start and asked if I would coach Yavneh’s team. I was already the assistant coach of Ma’ayanot’s hockey team at the time, but this was my chance to be a head coach. I continue to be head coach of the girls’ hockey team at Yavneh. After I graduated from Queens College, Rabbi Jonathan Knapp, the head of school at Yavneh Academy, asked me to become a part of the Yavneh team and teach physical education there. I feel so privileged to have gotten this job and to continue on the career path that I had hoped for since high school. I love sports. I grew up playing sports, and I continue to play for the social, emotional, and physical benefits. I am so happy that I can share with my students that same love of sports and the skills, knowledge, and motivation to participate in physical activity.
Q: What does your job involve?
A: I teach students in pre-K through eighth grade. From fourth grade and up, I teach all the girls in the school. Physical education classes include units such as basketball, hockey, and fitness units like step aerobics, dance, and circuit training. I try to present as many different opportunities for physical activity to my students, so they can find something that works for them. The key to staying active is finding something that they enjoy and want to continue to do.
Q: Please describe your experiences in teaching Orthodox girls.
A: Most Orthodox girls are not aiming to become Olympians or professional athletes. They are in school from 8:00 a.m. until 4:45 p.m., and they do not have much of a chance for physical activity, given all of their homework and long school hours. Teaching Orthodox girls means giving them the chance to find something they love and also giving them a break from the crazy school and work schedule. It is about making them realize that life will always be busy, but they need to carve out time for physical activity.
Everywhere we go, we represent something bigger than ourselves— we represent the Jewish people. I like to make sure students are aware of that both by what I say and what I do.
Q: What do you bring to your position as an Orthodox woman teaching Orthodox girls?
A: One reason why I love teaching in an Orthodox school so much is because I can relate so well to my students. I see myself as a role model, as someone my students can emulate in their participation in physical activity in and outside of school and as a Jewish woman. Sports can bring out so much in a person— for example, in the way someone presents herself at an athletic event, at camp, or in the way someone interacts with a coach, fellow teammates, and opposing teams. Everywhere we go, we represent something bigger than ourselves—we represent the Jewish people. I like to make sure students are aware of that both by what I say and what I do. I know for me it was not necessarily the rabbis or Judaic studies teachers who helped me become more religious. Sometimes I was in such awe of those rabbis and teachers that it was hard for me to think I could ever be as religious as they were. Rather, it was the teacher who was most similar to me, my high school physical education teacher, who taught so much about the value of Judaism and how to carry myself as a Jew. As an Orthodox women in an Orthodox school, teaching Orthodox girls, I never know who will decide to turn to me as a mentor. And because, in many areas of my life, I can relate to my Yavneh Academy students, and because of the role my mentors played in my life, I know how important it is for me to be there for them.