Meet the youth department of Beitar Ahuza, the only religious sports association in Haifa, which combines religious and secular players, veterans and new immigrants and along the way also reaps wins and titles • An article about a unique group that manages to stand out despite all the bureaucracy and difficulties around.
Beitar Ahuza - history of the association, general information and achievements
The youth department of Beitar Ahuza has been operating in Haifa for about 27 years. One of its founders is Yaron Hocknaboim, who currently coaches Hapoel Nazareth Illit in soccer. In the beginning, Beitar Ahuza functioned as an alumni team only, made up of graduates of "Urban High School 5". In the association's alumni team, quite a few famous names played such as Doron, a graduate of Hapoel Haifa and Hanan Indivo, a graduate of Maccabi Tel Aviv. Also Eyal, Nitzan and Alon , the three sons of the legendary player of Maccabi Haifa, Ixie Buchbinder, starred in it.
In the first years of the association's activity, the senior group qualified from League C to League A and stayed there for many years. After about 5 years, she started running classes in elementary schools and after 12 years, the first league team for children was opened. Later, the senior team disbanded and the emphasis was given to nurturing young players.
Today, the association operates classes in 7 elementary schools - In the estate, Romema, Neve Shanan, Ramat Sapir and Ramat Alon. In addition, preparation teams for the league and 10 league teams for grades XNUMX-XNUMX were also established. In the XNUMXth grade, there is a division of the leagues according to levels. For many years the association has had a high level children's group known as "National".
Last Monday (01/04/19), the "Rambam" team, under the guidance of Ilan Harpaz, won against all odds in the elementary school championship. There are about 20 boys in the class, and along the way it beat teams from large schools, including Herzl and Kiryat Chaim defenders, while in the semifinals it beat Ben Gurion High School and in the finals the team from the three branches of the Reali. The sponsor of the championship, which has been held for nearly 30 years, is Marcel Oren, father of the late Baruch Oren, who was killed in a horrific car accident while taking part in a dangerous game called "Road Roulette".
Two graduates of the association, moved to Maccabi Tel Aviv's boarding school at a young age, one of them is Yuval Levin, Israeli national team player who studies in the 2005th grade and is the son of the famous former actress Rinat Zaltz Levin. This year, the first group of children (yearbook 66-58th grades), is expected to finish in second place, after Hapoel Emek Jezreel and this after recently beating Maccabi Haifa in the last derby XNUMX-XNUMX. The Ket Sel B teams (XNUMXth grade) of the association called "Yepa" Estate have not yet been defeated this year, and the Ket Sel A team (XNUMXth grade) of the "Mishkan Kimet" estate has not lost since the beginning of last year, even in friendly matches, when they beat teams Powers like Hapoel Emek Jezreel and Maccabi Tel Aviv.
CEO of the association, Ilan Harpaz, indicates the secret to the success of his group and the diverse activities that children and youth have as part of forming the group:
Our uniqueness is in the combination of professionalism, instilling values and giving emphasis to the social and experiential aspect. We are the only religious association in the region, therefore all religious people prefer to come to us so that they can combine religion and basketball. There is a senior and experienced team of coaches in all settings since first grade. The players get many training activities - on Purim we held sports and fun days at the sports club in Neve Shanan for all the association's league teams, as part of a collaboration with Hapoel Haifa/Lioback, the players and families are invited free of charge to Hapoel Haifa's senior games. In May, he went to Tel Aviv to the Nokia Hall and toured the Maccabi Hall (Museum of Maccabi Tel Aviv in the hall) to watch their game against Ashdod. In our association, senior coaches and players enrich the children with knowledge, and this year figures from the basketball world such as Ido Kozikero, Nathaniel Artzi, Joakim Shuchman, Ofer Rahimi, Miki Gorka, Ofek Avital and many more came.
One of the top youth groups in the city is Maccabi Haifa (12th grade), according to CEO Ilan Harpaz, all the Haifaites are graduates of Beitar Ahuza's department and also in the high school teams "Liobek" and "Harieli", the vast majority of the Haifaites grew up in the association .
But not everything is "rosy" in the Haifa Association. Ilan Harpaz laments the poor conditions in which the children train compared to other groups that receive support from the municipality:
"Unfortunately, we don't have a home hall. The rental costs add up and are very large. Despite this, with a little more help from the Haifa municipality, we could start groups of boys and youth to provide a warm home until the age of 12. In this way, a real competition can also take place in the region, which is good for the whole association. Alternatively, if we find a suitable sponsor we can do so. We are trying to find sponsors who can help us in general and with the issue of continuity in particular, and any donation or sponsorship will help us a lot.
