Anthony Ast Is Overcoming Diabetes In The WHL

Anthony Ast is only fifteen, but he’s already begun his career in the WHL. The Vancouver Giants have been hit with the injury bug and currently have seven players on the Injured List, including four left wings, a right wing and a pair of defensemen. The large number of injuries means the Giants have had to reach into their protected players pool to fill the void. They’ve called up Ast, a 5’8” 165 lb forward, from midget hockey as a stopgap. Ast can play five games in the WHL before losing his midget eligibility and given the way the season is going, Vancouver may need him for more than five games.

A midget player in the WHL isn’t a rarity, as call-ups happen regularly in the CHL. What makes this a special case is that Anthony Ast has Type-1 Diabetes and is a midget playing in the WHL. From the The Province:

He was diagnosed at age six. He’s traveled his hockey path with a lunch bag as well as an equipment bag.

In it: needles to check his blood glucose level, which he does before and after games and in the first and second intermissions; a log book to record all the results; insulin, which he might use once or twice per game to help regulate his blood sugar; and plenty of snacks to fight a sugar-low -- juice, cookies, granola bars.

The lunch bag rests near him on the bench.

For diabetes patients, Ast’s routine is just part of life. But Ast is just a kid, traveling alone with the team, closely managing his own health because it’s the difference between life and death and all the while performing at a high enough level to be a first-round pick in the CHL Bantam Draft and the first underage call-up for the Giants.