Sweet Setter

While most of her friends at Granada Hills High gorge on Halloween candy Friday, Gina Karabogias will watch what she eats.

Karabogias, a setter on the Highlanders’ volleyball team, will also test her blood twice during the day and give herself an insulin shot after each test to correct her body’s blood-sugar level.

Karabogias, a senior, has kept the same routine every day since she was diagnosed with diabetes eight years ago on Halloween.

She had been feeling weak and kept falling asleep in her fourth-grade classroom when her mother, Candy, brought her to the hospital. Karabogias stayed there for five days.

“When they told me [of the diagnosis], it didn’t mean anything to me,” Karabogias said. “I was really out of it. I was totally dehydrated. They couldn’t even get an IV in me.”

After returning home, Karabogias quickly learned to cope.

Even though she hated the sight of blood and wasn’t thrilled with needles, she learned to give herself daily injections. She also changed her diet and prepared for the times when her blood-sugar level dropped to a dangerous level.

She carries apples or sugar packets to provide instant boosts.

“My mom gives all my friends a little lecture that if I ever pass out, they have to rub sugar on the inside of my mouth,” Karabogias said.

Karabogias rarely feels weak during a match, but she encounters trouble during daylong tournaments, where she may play the equivalent of four or five matches.

“It kind of gets to me and I get weak,” she said. “When I get low, I feel shaky. You don’t realize it at first, because you’re already anxious. But I sit on the sidelines, eat an apple, and everyone laughs about it. They’re like, ‘Oh she’s low on sugar.’ ”

Through it all, Karabogias has become one of the best players for Granada Hills (10-1), which has clinched at least a tie for the Northwest Valley Conference title with an 8-0 record.

She is the court general for the Highlanders, who are considered contenders for the City Section 4-A Division championship.

Karabogias has not missed a day of practice in four years and, if she makes a mistake, does not get down on herself. She has endured enough off the court.

Less than three months after Karabogias was diagnosed with diabetes, her older brother, Michael, was stricken with a debilitating malformity. A blood vessel in his brain burst, leaving him confined to a wheelchair and paralyzed from the waist down. He undergoes daily therapy and is progressing slowly.

Her brother cannot talk, but he sometimes gives Karabogias the thumbs-up gesture during matches.

“It makes you happier to have the big things,” Karabogias said. “I really don’t let little things bother me. If something bad happens to me during the day, I don’t let myself get tense like I’m ready to explode. I can’t be mad about the way it is.”

Her father, Mike, feels plenty of emotion.

“I cry inwardly,” he said. “I try to remain stoic, but I reminisce when [Michael] was younger, and he was a great athlete himself. To see her as an athlete, it’s amazing.”

Her father, a former setter at Santa Monica City College, can take more than partial credit for Karabogias’s success. He set up a net in the backyard and taught her the basics before her freshman year.

She made the freshman team as an outside hitter, but changed positions when the starting setter transferred.

Granada Hills Coach Patti Leiblie liked the soft hands that Karabogias displayed. Leiblie also liked her demeanor.

“She’s one of those types that pushes and pushes and pushes,” Leiblie said. “If she makes a mistake, she looks at me and knows what she’s done and is able to let it go, to move on to the next play. She doesn’t dwell on anything.”