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Amir Recaps the 2002 NYCPUL Season

August 20, 2002

And The NYCPUL summer 2002 champions are The Nomads! They decisively defeated the Drewids 17-5 by utilizing a devestating short pass strategy and excellent team work. It was a tough game for the Drewids and passions ran as hot as the weather but afterwards everybody cooled off with a great party organized by Deborah Blake, Steve Mcbride and Jason Pain.

A real special thanks to goes out to Deborah who took care of purchasing almost all of the food and has been helpful from the very beggining in organizing this league. She was instrumental in recruiting more women in the first weeks when it turned out that not enough had signed up to make it real Co-ed and has been vigilant ever since in ensuring that the league maintain the proper tone: one in which “spirit of the game” is prized above winning and teamwork over competitiveness. In my opinion, she, more than anyone else, represents the spirit of the game for the selfless, thankless work she has put in behind the scenes. It is only fitting therefore, that Deborah Blake be named the recipient of the first annual NYCPUL spirit award [applause and hurrahs].

I would also like to especially thank Rich Ting for designing the great t-shirts and the trophies. Not only is he is a great graphic artist, he is also one of the best players in the league. Luckily, he is so good that he helped lead the Nomads to Ultimate victory and won one of his own trophies.

Special thanks also goes to the seven NYCPUL captains for running their teams as well as they did. There was not a single cancelled game this season and hardly any player complaints thanks to their good work.

Even though all of our captains are great, special recognition goes to Spaz Grangaard, the recipient of this summers Best Captain award. Testimony to his great leadership is the fact that, despite a last place start, Spastic Plastic improved to the point where they won three of their last six games. Spastic Plastic demostrated great spirit both on the field with their play and off the field with their great cheers. Also, they had one of the best male & female attendance rates in the league. In this category, Rocky also deserves an honorable mention for leading the very spirited Nomads to victory with the almost perfect atttendance of his players. Unfortunately though, Rocky lost points for being absolutely one of the most vociferously opinionated persons I have ever had the pleasure to know.

Another key factor in the Nomad’s dominance was Doug “Air” Propp, this summer’s Male MVP. Probably, the most experienced player in the league, Doug played and led with a competence that raised the level of everyone else on his team.

The Female MVP, and undoubtably a huge factor in the Drewids strong showing, was Carrie Prophet. The Drewids were a hard to please team but in their All-Star balloting they almost unanimously selected her as their top-choice making her the leading vote getter in the whole league. Congratulations Carrie.

Thank you all for a great season!
-amir

Amir Recaps NYCPUL’s 2003 Championship Game

July 21, 2003

Congratulations to Team black, the new NYCPUL 2003 champs! Led by captain, Brant stevens, and male MVP, hunt clark, team black defeated the more youthful Yellow Fever led by captain Andrew Park and female MVP, june bae. It was a fierce contest under harsh conditions. It was hot and sunny and windy and very, very dusty. These conditions led to some long points(one as long as twenty minutes), an even longer game, and many irritated mexican soccer players encroaching on all sides. Nevertheless, fun was had by all and the season ended successfully. Thank you all for playing!

As many of you know, this was probably my last game of NY ultimate for a while as I am moving to california in the fall to pursue a doctoral degree in education. This means that if NYCPUL is to continue in the future somebody else will have to pick up the reins. Let me know if you are interested and I will send you some important info. Thanks agian and it was great getting to know so many of you.

-amir

A Mensch

I have many fond memories of Amir, laughing, singing and enjoying life, at Brown Hillel. In particular I remember his dedication to working in soup kitchens in NY during winter break and how he would sit down and share a funny remark and a smile, making everyone around him feel that for just one moment the world was kind and fair and magical. He was so full of energy and never allowed the apathetic silence of the majority prevent him from expressing himself. In this time of chaos, in this world of inequality, in this time of loss, we must remember Amir and what he lived for. Let us honor his memory by breaking the bonds of silence and speaking out for what is just in a too often confusing and heartless world. His love of living should be an inspiration to us all.

Amir’s comments to Yoni Malina about a couple on the street after Sept 11th

“Sometimes the worst thing in the world is lonliness..we should fight it at all costs. Schleps move about and who can say what passion is? there’s that bald fat guy with his yucky wife and he thinks that she’s dreamy..his passion partner for life…they are sticking together even when they bicker..anyway bickering isn’t so bad..it’s lonliness that’s the worst and friends that save you.”

–Amir Lopatin

nycpul 2003 draft night

i didn’t know amir that well just from the few times i talked to him or played with him on the ultimate field. but i do remember the first time i met amir on draft night for the nycpul 2003 spring league. there were 6 captains (including amir) reviewing the draft pool of co-ed players. i know everybody was revving for a good team and trying to read into the line stats for the draft players. but i remember amir distinctly selecting some not so ‘great’ players just because he wanted to have a fun team and make sure everybody got a spot in the league. i remembering thinking that this is a good guy with great spirit that embodied the spirit of ulitmate frisbee. i wish him peace where ever he now is.

from an Ultimate Frisbee voice

Amir’s energy, efforts and presence added much to our Ultimate community. His initiative in pulling together a summer league was matched by his diplomacy and grace at handling the ‘hotheads’ in our midsts, and his willingness to manage the administrative tasks, all the while making it all so much fun. AND he played such a good, clean game. We say in this sport, “Ultimate doesn’t develop character, it reveals it.” It surely revealed the jewel of Amir.
How amazing that this one young man touched so very many lives around him. He was truly one of the special ones. My prayers and thoughts are with you. Shalom. –
Nedra

The Wizard-Warrior President of the world in the future

“Amir hopes to become the Wizard-Warrior President of the world in the future.” Those are the words that my talented and able friend asked me to use as inspiration for his caricature in the Moriah Yearbook. It was my best one. Amir -in action and in words- inspired me to do many things, among them to always push myself harder, believe in myself, and make myself better. Many of my most defining childhood moments were spent with him. He was the cowboy hat-toting star of my bar mitzvah video. We went skiing and rode bikes. He told me I could be a power hitter when others made fun of my awkward swing in the batters box; he assessed that I needed to keep my elbow up, and I hit my first home run. He introduced me to Salinger, Vonnegut, and others who are now among my favorites. Over the years we didn’t get a chance to spend as much time together as we lived our own lives and went to different schools, but I would always look forward to catching up with him when we’d eventually come home for Shabbat or the holidays. Amir was always doing something interesting, something different, something unique: past the times of his youth when he could be found torturing elementary school teachers with his superior intellect, Amir was now programming a tank simulator and sliding ass backwards down a frozen Alta chute in Utah. I relished his interesting stories, his smile, his laugh, his humor, his insightfulness, his refreshing sincerity… His eyes were always thoughtful and attentive whenever we spoke. The last time I saw Amir was smiling, laughing and closing the door as an Edei Yichud at my wedding. I wish I could still fly home for his. I will miss you Amir.
-Eric London

I miss you Amir

I remember your laughing eyes, your wide smile, and your constant jokes. You were a kind, gentle yeshiva bochur who knew how to light up my day with a laugh or a joke. Just your presence and your sense of humor calmed me down. I used to eat with you at the Ratty at Brown for two years, and I always enjoyed being with you and sharing your friendship. You used to live in the Sun Lab for hours or days in CS-15 and then come out to tell jokes to me at the Ratty. You told ME to be a programmer. I can still picture you with your blue eyes, black kippa, black hair, jeans, and sandels.

I still can’t believe that you are dead. Your special neshama lives on and continues to inspire me in coping with your death and moving on with my life.

You had so much to contribute to the world, from teaching inner city kids how to sail and live, to master recycling, to religious Zionism, and so many other acts of kindness. It’s a terrible tragedy that you didn’t have the chance to pursue your dreams of being a professor of computers and education and make the world a better place.

Rebecca

A Teacher Remembers

Whenever I thought of Amir after he left Yeshivat HaMivtar, it was always with a soul smile. All who knew Amir understand the ingredients of that smile: his keen intellect, sharp sense of humor, desire – even passion – to understand…

I see Amir, even now, in my mind’s eye, as he would make his way across the beit midrash toward my table with a quizzical look which signaled a good question or interesting discussion.

Were I to have made a prediction about that teenager – fresh out of high school – I would have bet on an adult who was still concerned with discovering the truths that are often dismissed as the luxury of teenagers who have not yet experienced the “real” world. I sensed that for Amir questions were part of a genuine quest and that his pursuit of answers would be abandoned only at his peril.

How I wish that we could have had another conversation; another moment together. Instead we are left speechless, challenged with one more, final question – zaddik v’ra lo – and nothing to say but chaval, chaval al d’avdin…

I will miss him sorely.

Dovid Ebner

:(

good bless you amir

israel

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