At age 16, three years after being introduced to squash at his school in Ramat Gan, Dovi Haruzi received the news that changed his life. "They discovered I had juvenile diabetes," he recalls.
Haruzi doesn't know what caused the disease, but the diagnosis put a halt to his competitive life.
"Until then I was used to drinking coffee with four teaspoons of sugar, and one clear day I felt as if nothing was left," he says. "It was hard to cope with this change in my life. I started taking pills and later switched to insulin shots."
When he was the under-14 champion, Haruzi treated squash as a hobby. At 22, after adjusting to life with diabetes and feeling that sport was lacking in his life, he returned to the game. He was received with open arms and got plenty of help along the way. "At first I dealt with a lot of problems," he says of his comeback. "Weakness, drops in sugar level and nearly fainting at times. It took a long time until I found a balance, to know what I need to eat before a game and between practices - fruit, energy bars, cookies or raisins - to maintain my sugar levels."
The 38-year-old still competes in a sport that he says lets you go on indefinitely. Indeed, he is at this week's Israel Championship, which he won two years ago against players a decade or more younger than him. At the latest World Championships, he finished eighth in the 35-and-over category.
"I didn't surprise myself, because I've always had that drive," he says of his Israeli title. "No one understands how I play at these levels. Today, even leaving the disease aside, I'm 38 and the players in Israel simply can't beat me."
Well, almost no one. Besides exhausting practices, Haruzi completed a teachers' course and started training the next generation at the Ra'anana squash center. One of his disciples is Ido Avron, who is ranked 149th in the world and is Israel's top player.
"Right now he's the only one in Israel who can beat me," says Haruzi. "We met in the final three years in a row, and it's getting harder and harder. I realize that the years are taking their toll. I taught him the technique, and he understands everything."
Haruzi also spent time developing his own child, Sean, as a squash player. However, he says that when Sean was ranked number one in the world among under-13 year olds in 2007, he realized he was pushing his son too hard. He left the next step up to his boy, and Sean chose soccer for three years, until he saw his Dad in a tournament and got the bug again. "I believe he'll be Israel champion within a few years," Haruzi says of his 12-year-old, who finished third in the under-17 category of the Israel youth championship.
Father and son could meet in this week's tournament, but Dovi Haruzi - who knows winning the final on Friday will be an uphill battle - already has his sights on the world 40-and-over championships. "For me it's first place or no place," he says.
Haruzi says playing squash keeps him on his legs. "Thanks to squash, I manage to keep on living," he says. "The action, the adrenaline, the fast pace, the opportunity to release tension and burn some calories all give me a lot of motivation. I hit toward the wall and clear my mind, and feel while I'm playing that the disease doesn't exist. I never complained that I couldn't compete for lack of sugar. On the contrary, I fight like a lion."
Among Haruzi's students is a young player who also has diabetes. "Kids should understand they should never be lazy," he says. "They've got to believe in themselves and think they are capable of reaching any height, with or without sickness. Most of them can - it's just a matter of will and character."
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