Willow Glen, California Since 1992
Neighbors
Resident celebrates a half-decade of handball By Amy Jenkins This 84-year-old Willow Glen resident still plays the sport three times a week that he began playing as a child in New York. And he is still winning national championships. "Growing up in New York everyone played," Aber says. "We used to say, 'As long as there was a wall, there was a place to play ball.' " While in high school, Aber earned a letter in handball and his team won the city championship. Letter sweaters were like receiving championship rings back in the 1930s, he says. The empty school lots were filled with children playing every sport imaginable after class let out, but Aber chose the sport of handball. He even recalls who taught him how to play—a one-armed man named "Hawk." Then he even made a living out of playing handball during Sunday sweepstakes, where people would pay to play, and the winner would take the entire pot of around $20, he says. After wanting to be a priest for the Roman Catholic Church and graduating from seminary he decided to get married. His handball career slowed down drastically. His passion for handball did not return until moving to California. It was a winter storm in 1947 that drove Sol and his wife, Estelle, out of New York. He had manufactured children's wear and run a catering business there, but upon moving to San Francisco, he got a job in the insurance business, where he spent the next 20 years. After moving to San Jose in 1949 attracted by its warmer weather, he saw the Central YMCA office near his office building and decided to check it out. Little did he know he would spend the next 52 years improving his game and winning national handball championships. But there was a brief time he took a break, after he was diagnosed with leukemia in 1969. "The doctor told me 'your blood stinks but the rest of you is in good shape,' " says Aber, who is a United States Handball Association Grand Master for winning 15 national titles and was inducted into the Northern California Handball Hall of Fame in 1993. "He told me to rest for one month but after 10 days I was throwing balls across the court to myself. Then someone asked me to play a game so I started playing again." The leukemia was in remission until last year when Aber had to have his spleen removed. Now his leukemia is in remission again. And although he was not able to finish a singles national competition in his age division in Las Vegas in June because of his health, he and a partner got first place in the doubles competition.
Aber credits handball with saving his life because it gave him something to look forward to every day and has fostered a sense of community and camaraderie he has not found anywhere else—he knows people throughout the country because of handball, he says. Now Aber is on the Handball Committee at the Central YMCA, is director for the Labor Day Handball Tournament and teaches classes every Friday. "I felt it was time to give something back to the game," Aber says of teaching. "The United States Handball Association buys the gloves, glasses and balls for the kids. I want to teach the kids how to play correctly. Many people become experts on making mistakes but my partner Manny Nunez and I are trying to teach according to the book and the optimum way of playing. This is a sport you can play for life." There are approximately 45 active players at the Central YMCA, says Rich Goosmann, member of the YMCA Courts Committee. The four courts at the club are filled every afternoon and Saturday morning, Goosmann says. The children Aber teaches graduate from three different handballs. The ball used for beginners is large and then get smaller and harder as "the kids' hands get bigger and more toughened," Aber says. A couple of Aber's and Nunez's students did well in the junior national championships for 11 years old and younger. They include Sam Kass and Tom Linnik. Aber also teaches older students, like a husband and wife. Aber's wife attends all national tournaments, knows the game better than most players and is "the best wife an athlete can have," Aber says. Handball originated in Ireland and first appeared in the Olympics in the 1936 Berlin Games as an outdoor sport. The person who invented racquetball was a lousy handball player and became so frustrated he came up with the new sport, Aber says. The game of handball is played in a 20-foot-wide by 20-foot-high by 40-foot-long court. Just like racquetball, the object of handball is to recover the ball to the front wall without bouncing on the floor or only bouncing one time. The ball can hit any of the four walls, as long as it returns to the front wall. In New York, Aber played one wall handball and learned four-wall handball in California. Nunez, 78, used to lose to Aber but they have been pretty even lately, he says. Aber is expecting approximately 120 players to attend the Central YMCA's Labor Day Handball Tournament—"the best tournament on the West Coast," he says. The tournament, now in its 40th year, attracts players from throughout California and other states. There will also be youth playing in the junior division of the tournament, Aber says. "We try to get more young players and Sol is the primary energy of this," Goosmann says. "I like to stand above the courts and ask people watching Sol play, how old they think he is. Most guess 65 years old. They can't believe when I tell them he's 84. I call handball the fountain of youth. This isn't exercise; it's fun. Sol is amazing because he has so much energy." The San Jose Central YMCA, 1717 The Alameda, will host the Labor Day Handball Tournament Aug. 20-Sept. 2. For more information, call Sol Aber at 408.265.5188. |
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