FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WPTA) – Yuval Levin fell in love with basketball almost instantly.
“Since I was 3 years old, my mom took me to play outside,” Levin said. “I played with like 5- to 6-year-old kids, and I was good. I fell in love with the game.”
That passion, formed on the playgrounds of Haifa, Israel, grew into a commitment to play the game he loves the collegiate level across the world at Purdue Fort Wayne.
“I’m very happy to be here and very excited for the season,” Levin said. “I just want the season to start now.”
When it was finally time for Levin to join the team at PFW, he found it incredibly difficult to get all the way from Israel to Indiana
“We should have been here on June 26, and the war just started, the war between Israel and Iran,” Levin said. “I didn’t know what to do.”
All flights out of Haifa became grounded, and a way to get to America quickly took a back seat to pure survival.
“A missile fell like a mile away from my house,” Levin said. “It’s terrifying and tough because I don’t want my family to get hurt. Never.”
Levin began searching for a way out, not just to fulfill the requirements of his student visa, but to protect his family. With that in mind, he set his eyes on the sea.
“I just got in a Facebook group and started to look for skippers and captains on boats,” Levin said. “I made contact with a skipper, and he told me he had a boat that would sail to Cyprus tomorrow.”
The following morning, just hours after the missile strike, Levin, his mother and his sister boarded a sailboat to Cyprus. The trip across the Mediterranean took a day and a half and the Levins had little to no food, water and sleep.
From Cyprus, they secured flights to the United States and completed a nearly weeklong journey all to get on the PFW hardwood.
For ‘Dons head coach Jon Coffman, the story is almost hard to grasp.
“They were showing me pictures and live social media of bombs blocks from their house,” Coffman said. “For somebody to have that kind of leap of faith in what we’re doing here as a basketball program, as a university, as a city is really special.”
Since the ceasefire, Levin’s family returned to Israel. Now, all he can do after all that sacrifice, is making every practice, dribble and shot count.
“Every day I pray for my family and friends, that they will be good and stay safe,” Levin said. “I think they’re happy because this is my dream and my family wants me to succeed. If I’m here, doing what I love to do, playing basketball and getting a degree, it’s amazing.”
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