The group will receive professional instruction and mentorship from veteran media professionals while covering the third largest international multi-sport event in the world, behind only the Olympics and the FIFA World Cup, according to information provided by Rider.
“The fact that I get to represent Rider and be a part of this program, that means everything to me,” Manfre, who will travel beyond the U.S. for the first time when he leaves for Israel, said in the statement. “It’s also going to be a fantastic cultural experience and religious experience.”
Since its inception in 1932, the Maccabiah has grown to include nearly 10,000 Jewish athletes from more than 75 countries competing in 40 sports. The new program covering the games is chaired by former Philadelphia 76ers broadcaster Marc Zumoff, who recently retired after 27 years as the television voice of the Sixers.
“After a wide search, we now have some of the best aspiring sports media professionals in the country,” Zumoff said in the statement. “I anticipate a great learning experience for these young people, while also providing unprecedented coverage of the Maccabiah Games this summer in Israel.”
Manfre, a former high school track and field athlete, decided to hang up his running shoes after developing tendonitis in his ankles. He started a blog while still in high school in Metuchen, and his ambition helped cultivate an audience of parents, administrators and others seeking stories not covered elsewhere, according to the statement.
He still lives in Metuchen.
Manfre published his first article in The Rider News before he even stepped on campus. As an incoming first-year student, he emailed the sports editor, Rob Rose, before the semester had begun to fish for an assignment, according to the statement. His preview of the field hockey season would be the first of many articles covering Rider Athletics.
“Dylan is an outstanding journalism major who has made the most of Rider’s engaged learning opportunities from the moment he arrived,” Dr. Jackie Incollingo, an associate professor in the Department of Communication, Journalism and Media and the faculty adviser to The Rider News, said in the statement. “He is passionate about finding and telling good sports stories and providing gripping game accounts.”
Last year, Manfre and his former co-sports editor Shaun Chornobroff won the 2020-21 Society of Professional Journalists Region 1 Mark of Excellence Award for Sports Writing, which includes colleges and universities in the region stretching from Pennsylvania to Maine.
In 2020, Manfre and his former co-sports editor Austin Boland-Ferguson covered the MAAC basketball tournament in Atlantic City, which was ultimately canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We were part of the breaking news team that announced the tournament was shutting down,” Manfre said in the statement. “It was my biggest goal to cover that tournament. And then the first day we got there, it was canceled.”
Manfre will return to the MAAC tournament in March with three other Rider student journalists. He also continues to report for The Trentonian, a newspaper that includes coverage of local high school and college sports. Manfre turned his internship there into a regular freelance opportunity.
The Maccabi Media Program will provide even more wide-ranging opportunities to grow while gaining new experience covering international amateur competition, potentially including on-camera sideline reporting and producing video packages, according to the statement.
“The other 13 students come from some of the best journalism schools in the country, and the experience of the broadcast professionals is off the charts,” Manfre said in the statement. “I’m excited to work with each and every one of them.”