Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
This is one of the greatest success stories of the Israeli sport in recent years.
Last month, a thirteen-year-old boy from Ramla was awarded the title
of World Champion in the Junior International Tennis Championships,
one of the most significant awards in the “white sport”,
which was once granted to tennis legends, such as Andy Murray and Jimmy Connors.
How did Oliel, a son to unemployed parents struggling with their everyday troubles,
from an even more troubled city, manage to reach the world championship?
In spite of all this, will he be able to, one day, reach the much-coveted Wimbledon finals?
Eric Weiss tells the story of the World Champion from Ramla.
It has been 30 thirty years since this tennis centre was established
and it has witnessed quite a few miracles. As a part of Neighbourhood Renewal Project
It was expected, at most, to attract the troubled youths from the streets.
However, it has managed to exceed all expectations.
Ramla has become a 15 times state championship winner
and 10 times state Cup winner in recent years
but there is one miracle that has surprised even the biggest dreamers of Ramla.
He has incredible discipline.
When all the other kids would go home, he would take the racquet
and go to the practice wall.
Yishay Oliel from Israel.
- Hello Yishay, congratulations! - Thank you.
- You have brought great honor to the State of Israel.
I haven’t seen a player like Yishay for more than 30 years.
Go, go Oliel! Go, go Oliel!
Last month Yishay Oliel landed in Israel after spending an intensive
month and a half overseas.
Not yet 13, a world champion and an outstanding phenomenon in the white sport.
Go, go Oliel!
What about the future? Do think you’ll be able to achieve such results at 16-17?
Yes, I want to continue working hard, and I'll try to achieve as much as I can.
128 of the best players in the world competed for this title.
Most of them return to the organized system of coaches and private staff
who take care of their career. Oliel returns to Ramla.
Go, go Oliel! Go, go Oliel!
- Nurit! Nurit! - Jean, you could have entered from there!
- Okay. Wow, how much food! - Hi Mom!
I'm okay, what's up?
This is for the second place in Porto San Giorgio. It’s in Italy.
It’s also a competition, one of the best ones in the world.
This one is when I was eight and got the third place in the World Championship.
- So how many trophies do you have here? - My father told me not to count,
cause it's bad luck.
- Really? - Yep. So I'm not counting anything.
- So you’re not counting anything. - Yep.
- But there's a lot. - Yes, quite a lot.
He came to me at the age of eight with two huge "bodyguards".
He always had older friends, 18-year olds. He used to hang out with them.
Who could even talk to him on the first practice?
- He was a little bit of a jerk… - A little bit of a ... positive, positive jerk
(laughs)
And ... that's it. You know, he grew up and overcame his bad manners
and started to show his good qualities.
All these kids are pampered, their parents have a lot of money
and they are also ... well, spoiled, thinking only of themselves.
Go, go Oliel!
What is special about Yishay is that he came from the place where nothing
is taken for granted.
The place where you have to work really hard to get something. I'm not sure that
if he had grown in a different environment, even with his talent, he would have been able
to achieve what he has achieved.
Go, go Oliel!
So how do you make a world champion with such scarce resources
and when you have to compete against the wealthiest children
from all over the world?
This is how the champion’s schedule looks: school until 1 p.m., then lunch
and a 3-hour practice, sometimes more. Oliel never gives up
and doesn’t develop any "celebrity" traits. Thanks to this, he has taken the MVP title
on various overseas tournaments 3 times in recent years.
There is another man who is always there: Yishay’s father, Beber.
He never misses a practice or a game.
He doesn’t interfere, which puts him light years away from those stereotype parents
who push their children to the edge.
It doesn’t matter for me whether he loses or wins – it is the same.
There are parents that want to… they want a 10-year-old to have a brain of
an 18-year old.
I call this “brain cluttering”. I let him grow on his own schedule.
When he worked nightshifts, he used to come for the morning practice,
sit on his regular bench two meters behind the boy.
The factory he used to work at closed two months ago.
So wasn’t he interested in football when he was a kid?
He came here, he saw sports and it interested him.
It attracted him like a magnet. In Moroccan they call it “hiba”.
“Hiba” means "halo". If a man has a halo, you can’t take it from him.
You can’t help it. -"Hiba", got it…
The third side of this amazing triangle is Jean Pochtar, who is also from Ramla.
They met 8 years ago and haven’t parted ever since.
Come on, come on, imagine you’re playing with Federer. That’s good!
During the multiple trips abroad the coach functions as a parent:
he cooks, does the laundry and makes sure the kid eats enough.
Pochtar gets Oliel’s homework straight from the school principal,
and until two years ago he hadn’t got a shekel for all this.
Good! Get to the ball.
You know, in life you take risks, and I might have got this wrong.
But I believed in him ... and took a chance.
Mind the wind, you should come out more towards the ball. Hit it!
So you are doing this as a volunteer?
What do you mean "volunteer"? You know, I do what I think is right for Yishay.
Hit it! Good, Yishay, the last one!
So I try to raise money – a little from here and a little from there,
to participate in international tournaments.
Since we have the sponsor things are much easier for us.
With Oliel’s phenomenal success, they got flooded with phone calls
getting suggestions to transfer to more experienced coaches.
Coaches who have already trained champions who are worth millions.
The family refused to even hear about it.
I told those who talked badly about him, I said: “In my passport I also have
a Russian child, his name is Jean Pochtar".
Run, run, run, run, run, run, run!
- What is your dream, Yishay? - Tell him!
Winning Wimbledon and Roland Garros.
Wimbledon with its champagne and strawberries and ...
The Gold Cup!
You are the pride of Ramla!
Yishay has a dream here, in his head, and I really hope that he achieves it.
He will lead me, and I will lead him, and together we’ll get there, I hope.
There are no coaches like the one that you have, right?
I mean what makes him special in your opinion?
The perseverance that we both have... He gives up a lot of things he has to do.
Like what?
Like meeting a girlfriend. I'm the only reason he doesn’t have one!
So why don’t you tell him: “Forget about the practice, go out,
grab a beer”, let him go sometimes, uh?
I do, but he just doesn’t go!
- Well, you are a sweet couple, aren’t you? - Yeah.
Over the last few months Oliel and his team are training for something totally different
with the same level of enthusiasm. We must admit that Oliel manages
to succeed in this no less than usual.
Let’s start? “And God spake unto Moses, and said unto him, I am the Lord:
And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob,
by the name of God Almighty”.
Congratulations Yishay!
It’s amazing to think how much Oliel
has been through until he reached the age of 13,
and how much there still is for him to handle.
- Congratulations! You did it! You did it! - Congrats!
Last month, Adam, the son of David Coffer, the last piece in this puzzle, landed in Israel.
Coffer family sponsors Oliel’s journey to the world of international tennis elite.
A few hours after this party Oliel will return to the court for the last training
before leaving Israel to participate in 2 important competitions in Europe.
For a mere second this boy, who has been doing almost the impossible
for the last 8 years, allows himself to be a child of 13 for the last time:
Today is a big day in my life when I stand in front of you and accept
the commandments. My childhood has passed and
I am stepping on a new way.
What a great story!