At the Beit Sharet football field in Givatayim, something special happens every Sunday.
15 boys with special needs, aged 11 to 17, gather there with great excitement on their faces.
In a few minutes they will start running after the ball, surrendering and kicking the goal, tasting the happiness inherent in the game and absorbing values like friendship and respect for the other.
Nir Peretz (17) is one of these boys.
At age 8 he was diagnosed on the autistic continuum.
For him, the game is also a way to communicate with his father, whom he lost about three years ago in a car accident, and with whom he shared his great love for football.
"When I score a goal it makes me feel good, as if Dad is with me, sees me and encourages me," his eyes shine, and a wide smile of longing spreads across his face.
"He never thought I would play football, and if he was here, he would be very proud of me. I wish I could talk to him and tell him to come see me."
Nir studies at a "school in nature" near Ness Ziona, designed for children with special needs.
He is a tall boy, broad-bodied, and fair-haired.
When he smiles, his cheeks give his eyes a slightly slanted look, which makes his face shine.
His mother, Oranit, 49, is an early childhood gymnastics instructor and has three brothers, including a twin brother, Yuval.
The father, Ronen, was 50 when he was killed, after suffering a heart attack while driving and colliding with his vehicle on a sidewalk wall.
Nir was with him in the car and was slightly injured, and with him was the 20-year-old neighbor, also a child with special needs.
They were on their way to a Hapoel Ramat Gan Givatayim basketball game against Elitzur Yavne, which took place in Ramat Gan.
Until the accident, and since Snir remembers himself, he and his father went to every Hapoel Ramat Gan Givatayim football or basketball game.
For Nir, the connection to the club and the football and basketball industries has almost always been through the stands.
"When Dad died, I was very, very sad," he says.
"I did not agree to get out of bed, I missed him very much. I even took some of his shirts, which I still wear today.
"At seven all the fans who knew us came to me and were with me all the time, and after seven they always made sure someone would take me to the games. I think it's very nice of them. A few months ago, when they asked me if I wanted to join a special kids football team, I said yes. ".
"We all experienced severe trauma with Ronen's death, but for Nir it was unbearable," says mother Oranit.
"They were connected to each other, inseparable. There was not a game they did not go to together, and every year the whole family went to England to see a Liverpool game, which they loved the most. I do not know if Nir would have recovered from his father's death if not for the heart. The warmth and embracing hand of the club's fans. "
Nir Peretz (right) with his late father Ronen and his twin brother Yuval at the stadium in Liverpool,
Michael (pseudonym), 11 years old from Ramat Gan, arrives for training with his father Chen, who finds it difficult to hide his excitement at the sight of his happy son.
"Michael is my youngest son," says the father, "he has a 20-year-old brother and an 18-year-old sister. Already at the age of 4, the kindergarten teachers drew our attention to his difficulties. He would often cry and get upset and react disproportionately to frustration.
"For years we were in diagnoses, which could not say what he has. Only a year and a half ago he was diagnosed on the autistic continuum. Today, when we already know what exactly he has, we feel relief. Some of his difficulties are expressed in social situations, which lead to many frustrations. "They stem from autism, we try to reduce the social difficulty."
Does he have teammates?
"I do not know if to call it friends, but there is a lot of paragon between the boys in the team. The team has a player, he and Michael constantly hug and compliment each other. It warms the heart to see how there is no competition and ego between them. They come net to have fun."
As we talk, Nir arrives excited and announces that they are about to receive the training uniform, with the number and name of each of them printed on the back of the shirt.
The group's principals, Eran Brill and Ariel Barak, hand out the uniforms to the children.
"I'm number 9, like Miko Maman, the club's senior player, who I love," jokes Nir.
"Because I'm associated with the club, I'm also the captain of the team."
"I got the number 10, which is my lucky number, and I love it the most," says Michael with smiling eyes that peek through eyeglasses.
"Number 10 is both a beginning and an end. It marks the end of the single-digit numbers and the beginning of the double-digit numbers."
What role do you play?
"I'm the goalkeeper, and it's a role I really like. The goalkeeper has a responsibility, and he needs both good timing and seeing where the player is and understanding where he's going to kick. If, for example, he's on the right, he'll probably kick to the right, .
One by one, the actors leave the locker room, dressed in the new uniform.
One stretches the socks, the other straightens the shirt, and the third is sent back, re-wearing his inverted pants.
The team's coach, Yoav Gavison (22), a player of the senior team, who was loaned to the Kfar Shalem team this year, and his assistant Adar Ratner (19), an active player in the senior team, are already waiting for them with the ball on the field.
They start with a practice of ball dedication to each other, continue with control exercises like passing a ball through an obstacle course of cones, and finish with kicks to the goal and a short game.
During the training, which lasts about an hour and a quarter, one can notice the difficulty of the boys staying attentive throughout.
But the joy and enthusiasm are more pronounced.
• • •
The idea for the team was born six months ago to Eran Brill (47), a former club player and now a die-hard fan, who continues his father's legacy by volunteering in the youth department.
Next to him is Ariel Barak (20), a descendant of a family of fans of the club, who for the past year and a half has been a volunteer on his marketing and media team and was recently appointed a member of the board.
"When Nir was in the eighth grade, his father Ronen asked that we include him in one of the club's children's groups," says Eran.
"We included him in a group of sixth-graders, who received him very nicely. But even though he played with younger ones, there was a gap in abilities. After his father passed away, he no longer wanted to train with the team, and since then I have started breaking my head over how to make children like him accessible. A group that will suit their level.
"In May of this year I sat down with Ariel and thought about how more we can contribute to the community. We tried to think of something big, extraordinary, that would take the whole concept of the club about community contribution and equal opportunity one step further. And I felt it was the moment to realize the idea."
Ariel: "I was immediately enthusiastic. We turned to the club's chairman, Einav Hazenwald, and he also showed great enthusiasm."
"The Hapoel Ramat Gan Givatayim club engraved on its banner the encouragement of equal opportunities, along with the bride and acceptance of the different," says Haznwald (54).
"As part of this concept, we set up a football team for boys and girls with special needs for Nir and his friends, thus becoming the only football club in the country that runs a youth team for special children.
"The cost of the project in the initial phase is about 150,000 shekels, which goes to clothing, equipment, payment for field hours, coaches' salaries, etc. In the future, if we manage to hold a tournament and away games, the cost will increase. And went out of their way to market it, and with the help of sponsors we recruited, we are able to sustain the activity.
"Our club is family-run, and contributing to the community is a matter of routine. Every holiday, club players go with gifts to hospitals and nursing homes. I see the club as an educational enterprise, making the youth not only players, but first and foremost better human beings."
The players in training.
Assistant coach Adar Ratner: "Not only are we improving them, they are also improving us", Photo: Oren Cohen
• • •
To spread the idea of establishing a group for children aged 17-11 with special needs, Ariel wrote a leaflet and distributed it in institutions for children with special needs as well as in classes and associations.
The rumor spread like wildfire.
"Within 48 hours, there were already 25 registrants for the group, which at the time I did not yet know how to set up at all," Ariel recalled.
"Eran and I had no training or experience in running a group with special children, which is also why we did not want to collect money from the parents. I was not prepared for them to pay for something we have no experience with. I only knew that if the parents trusted us, we could move forward step.
"The parents were very skeptical about the framework at first. I got a lot of phone calls, and I knew I had to give everyone an answer. There were questions that challenged me, like what to do with a child who goes into a nervous breakdown and goes crazy. I told everyone I have no experience, but I have a lot of desire to learn , And I'm going to invest in my and the staff's training, so that we get as prepared as possible.
"There are football classes for children today with special needs, but we suggested letting the children experience what it is like to be a professional footballer. The parents were willing to give us a chance to prove we know what we are doing."
You are only 20 years old, where does the courage to pick up such a project come from?
"I'm good at setting up projects. I probably got the access to the children from home. My father is a teacher, my grandmother worked with children with special needs, and I worked for years as a summer camp instructor."
How did you choose Yoav and Adar? They are also very young.
Eran: "In our approach as a club we encourage our players to integrate as coaches in the younger age groups. It connects the youngsters to the senior team and strengthens their connection to the club. Yoav is a home player, coaching the club's children's team, aged 13. He has access to children, and exactly the sensitivity needed for this task.
Ariel: "Just before the first training we decided to add Adar, who is an adult player and also an assistant coach in the children's team at the age of 11. Together they are a perfect team and I am happy that this is the choice that was made."
Gavison says that when he was offered the job, he did not hesitate for a moment.
"I used to be a scout instructor, and the group I coached had children with special needs, so this world was no stranger to me. The idea of setting up a group fascinated me greatly."
Eran Brill (right), Adar Ratner, Yoav Gavison and Ariel Barak.
"When we see their smile coming off the field, we have a huge sense of satisfaction," Photo: Oren Cohen
• • •
During the organization, Ariel turned to several non-profit organizations, asking for help with his and the coaches' funding and guidance, in order to know how to deal with children with special needs.
The only organization that lifted the gauntlet was Special Olympics, an international organization that promotes the practice of sports by a population with intellectual, communication and mental disabilities, without physical disabilities.
As part of its activities, the organization produces a competitive infrastructure in more than 13 sports - including football, basketball, tennis, judo, cycling, kayaking and more.
Gon Tzuri, the organization's national sports director, emphasizes that the innovation in the children's group with special needs is the integration with the youth department of a professional club.
"When Ariel approached me, I immediately said yes," he says.
"Our goal is to encourage a combination that is not near the clubs, but within them. And that is exactly what is being done here.
"In the first meeting with club chairman Einav Hazenwald, he pointed to Ariel and said he was going to be the next chairman of Hapoel Ramat Gan Givatayim. Later, when I started working with Ariel, I recognized in him a hunger to get everything he wanted. There were times I landed Same thing to do and it became clear to me that he had already done it himself even before we talked.
"I realized that I was dealing with professionals here, who were going to turn this team into a flagship team, and I undertook to provide professional support and guidance in opening the team, training the coaches and buying the players' uniforms.
"Encourage integration."
Gon Tzuri, Photo: Ofer Hajib
"We decided that the team would be called 'Hapoel Special Ramat Gan Givatayim.' Our goal is to establish more such teams in youth departments in professional football clubs. Them in establishing such groups. "
Ariel: "My vision is that in every club a team will be formed, and then we will be able to play games against each other."
As part of the preparations, there is a training session with the coaches, Yoav and Adar, where he talked to them about situations they are expected to face in training.
"He explained to us about the types of autism that exist, and how to talk to children to avoid situations of frustration and outbursts," says Yoav.
"He especially emphasized the need to be precise in what we say to children. For example, if one of the children kicks well, it is not enough to say 'congratulations' or 'what a beauty', but to explain and say 'congratulations on the kick'.
"If in regular training I shout at players to run around the pitch, here I have to understand that I must not shout, because some players are very sensitive to shouting, and that can put them in a state of confusion or nervous breakdown."
Adar: "Gon explained that it is very important to make eye contact, to talk to the players at eye level, and not be afraid to set boundaries. But all through explanation, and not by shouting or commands."
• • •
After five months of preparations, the first training is scheduled for early October.
"Initially, only seven players came," says Ariel.
"But in the second practice, a week later, the rumor had already spread its wings, and reached 15. To my delight, the corona did not affect the training sequence, and we are towards our eighth training. I guess as time goes on, the demand will only increase."
Next to the grass I meet Galit (pseudonym) from Givatayim, who brings her 13-year-old son with me to practice.
"I study in a regular school, in a communication class," she says.
"He was diagnosed at age 10, until then we did not know how to put our finger on his problem. He had lip difficulty, and he would erupt when he had a hard time, but he had friends, so neither the kindergarten nor the caregivers we went to said the word autism.
"From the moment we received the diagnosis, my husband was relieved because he said he now knows what we are facing. For me it actually created a difficulty. One of the reasons I was not exposed is because I did not tell at work that I had a child on the autistic continuum. Not out of shame but out of shame I have a hard time dealing with it. "
What does Itai have to do with football?
"He has always been good at sports. His physique is small and thin, and he is very fast. And football is a game that is very present in our house - Itai's brother, 10 years old, plays football in the children's league. Now Itai also has a chance to feel like a real player. "For training, and even demanded that I buy him traffic jams. His favorite job is a striker, and every time he comes home from training and tells that he has scored a goal, his eyes sparkle."
Were there situations where he experienced frustration?
"In the last training session the coaches divided the players into two teams, and when they realized that they had divided the balance of power, and that Itai's team was too strong, they asked him to move team. Itai was very offended. "And that they should have been more precise, and explain to him why he is going through a group. After calming talks and apologies, he calmed down and promised to come to the next training session."
Yoav: "I guess this is not the last time we made a mistake, but we are very attentive to the children. We teach them and they also teach us. In one of the training sessions I forgot that one of the children does not like to be applauded. He has no problem applauding others, but not him. "Nice in the ball, and I applauded him enthusiastically, but when he looked at me with a nervous look, I remembered and apologized to him."
• • •
Adar also tells of a similar incident that happened to him during one of the training sessions.
"We went from an exercise of ball movement to an exercise of kicks, and one of the children was probably not concentrating and did not hear the explanation. He was offended and cried, ran to his father and refused to return to training.
"At the end of the exercise I approached him and quietly asked him what happened. He told me: 'You did not explain the exercise to me, and I did not know what to do.' I apologized to him, and told him that I would try very hard not to happen again, .
Yoav: "If in training in a regular team I turn to 20 players together, here I have to turn to each one personally and make sure he understands what I want from him. This is also the first time I deal with significant level differences. I have 17-year-olds and children in the team. 11. There are some who at first were afraid of the ball, and we had to teach them slowly not to run away from it.
"Such a group requires you to learn the children all the time and be linguistically alert between them. If for example there is an exercise of goal kicks, and I know there is a child who regularly kicks weakly, I will let him kick close. If there is a child kicking hard, I will push him away. Success is very important to any of them.
"In addition, there are children who constantly want to hug us, and we are not used to it. It sounds silly, but you do not always know what will make them burst into tears or shouting. There is a child in the group who in seconds can move from a good and pleasant mood to crying and anger. I often leave the training exhausted and frustrated. But as soon as one of the parents approaches me and says to me in tears 'What a great thing you are doing, what happiness the training causes the children' - all fatigue and frustration disappear in an instant. Parents of children with special needs are not easy In life, and as soon as I give them an hour of contentment and satisfaction, it's all worth it. "
Adar: "There is one boy I was very attached to. He has a heart of gold, but sometimes he suffers from outbursts of anger. He came to training without any prior experience with a ball, and I had to make him connect to the ball, understand that it was not his enemy. Stripes, but today already yes.In the last training he even asked to be a goalkeeper, which is literally being in the line of fire.
"There's a kid I really recognize as a captain. He always encourages players who have a hard time, and if one of the players misses a penalty, he immediately runs and hugs him. His attitude often lights my way. Not only do we improve them, they improve us too.
"Two months ago I tore the lateral ligament in my knee, and since then I come to training with a brace. The kids gave me support and helped me deal with my injury. There is no training that they do not come to hug me and ask what about the leg. Beyond the fact that their hug is addictive, it is not obvious In children who have difficulty in contact.
"I came to the last training without a brace, and they were so happy, and thought I was already back to playing. The emotion they convey to me gives me tools, both for life and as an athlete. Through them I realized that it is very important to make room for emotion.
"When I feel like I can resolve their frustration, I also help myself resolve my frustration. You could say they help me strengthen my mental aspect, so I definitely think they improve me as a person and as an actor."
Club Chairman Einav Hazenwald,
• • •
Just before the end of training, Eran stands to the side and watches the children on the field as if they were his sons.
"Every child here is a world and its fullness," he says.
“Everyone comes with their own story and the frustrations they experience during the day, and it took us a while to get to know them.
"There are children here who should not be applauded, there is a child who should not be shouted at because he goes into a tantrum, and that is even without us getting into age differences and functional levels. Despite everything, we have a huge sense of satisfaction when we see their smile coming off the field.
"We have a lot of exciting cases here. Two weeks ago, when the coaches were doing a penalty shootout, one of the mothers was standing behind the goal, and when her child scored, she really started to cry happy. .
michali100@gmail.com
Were we wrong?
Fixed!
If you find an error in the article, we will be happy for you to share it with us and we will correct it