#04-279
Sept. 29, 2004

GSW's Kaplan selected to coach U.S. Junior Soccer team at 2005 World Maccabiah Games

AMERICUS--Maccabi USA Sports for Israel has announced that Georgia Southwestern State University soccer coach Barry Kaplan has been selected to coach the Junior Boys Soccer team for the 17th World Maccabiah Games. 

The Maccabiah Games are a quadrennial Olympic style competition for Jewish athletes that will be held July 11-21, 2005, in Israel. Maccabi USA/Sports for Israel, located in Philadelphia, Penn., sponsors U.S. participation in the Maccabiah. This team will be selected from Jewish soccer players born 1989-1990 from across the United States. 

In November 2000, head coach Kaplan led the U.S. national Maccabi U-17 boy's soccer team to Sao Paulo, Brazil, and won the bronze medal at the Brazil National Maccabi Games. Kaplan's squad competed against club teams and all-star teams from Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. 

"Coach Kaplan did a superb job of making a team out of virtual strangers in a very short time under extremely competitive conditions," said Jordan Weinstein, U.S. head of delegation. "I was impressed with Barry's organizational and leadership skills." 

The positive experience of that team, on and off the field of play, was a credit to Kaplan, Weinstein said. 

"Coach Kaplan is the right person to lead the U.S. Maccabiah Junior Team (U-16) at the World Maccabiah Games in Israel in July 2005. With more than 6,000 athletes from more than 50 countries, the U.S. will compete against the best Jewish athletes in the world," Weinstein said. 

This fall, Kaplan kicked off his first season as head coach of the new Georgia Southwestern Hurricanes soccer program. Previously, he was head soccer coach at Andrew College after moving to Georgia from South Florida where he was director of soccer operations for the former Miami Fusion of Major League Soccer.

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