[Nfbf-l] In celebration of Disability Awareness Month, University of South Florida held a goalball Tournament

[Alan Dicey]

In celebration of Disability Awareness Month, the University of South 
Florida  held a goalball tournament consisting of 19 intramural teams.
Unique sports tournament shines light on disabilities
By Jessica Prakke, ORACLE CORRESPONDENT
On October 27, 2014
ORACLE PHOTO/JESSICA PRAKKE
Nineteen intramural teams stretched, put on knee pads and talked strategy 
Friday in the USF Campus Recreation Center.
Players blinded themselves with blackened goggles and lay on the basketball 
court floor to guard a goal.
When the whistle blew, the second annual Disability Awareness Month Goalball 
Tournament began.
The event was meant to connect disabled and able-bodied students through the 
sport for the visually impaired and blind, thus raising empathy for the 
disability.
"It's a great way for able-bodied students to experience something 
different," said Jason Werle, the assistant director of intramural sports 
and sport clubs.
Goalball consists of three blindfolded players on each team. A ball filled 
with bells is thrown at a low level and has to hit the ground by a certain 
point otherwise there is a penalty.
The players stay close to or lay on the ground in strategic positions to 
block the ball. If the ball makes its way past the players into the goal, 
the other team gets a point.
Campus recreation and the sports clubs teamed up with Students with 
Disability Services to create the annual event. The plan was to pick a 
different disabled sport every year. A few years ago the event featured 
sitting volleyball.
After the high popularity of goalball last year, they decided to bring it 
back, Werle said.
"Last year it got really, really competitive," said Associate Director of 
Students with Disabilities Services Raquel Pancho.
The visually impaired students who participated in the tournament enjoyed 
feeling normal, said Amanda Furr, a visually impaired student majoring in 
sociology and communication.
"It really brings awareness that blind people can play sports," Furr said.
Students who were not visually impaired had a harder time with the game.
They said the sport becomes difficult once the sense of sight is taken away.
"It's a lot more disorienting than you'd think it was," said James 
Cavanaugh, a senior majoring in history.
Though Cavanaugh's co-ed team lost early on, his men's team continued on.
"I felt very discombobulated," said Kathy Ridyard, a business management 
major and a member of Cavanaugh's team.
The team felt out of its element while playing.
Though it is not an extremely physical sport, it is a skillful and strategic 
one, Cavanaugh said.
Players have to make the decision on how to position the blockers lying down 
or whether or not just to dive for the ball while kneeling.
Cavanaugh also said players try to aim for the corners, but that is hard 
when you don't know where the ball is going.
"We have kind of an advantage," Furr said.
She and David DeLacure, a microbiology major, played goalball together at 
the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind and won gold medals in the 
sport.
As the seeing-students struggled to block the ball or were hit in the gut or 
face as it rolled up to them, they refused to give up, and the game became 
more competitive as the night went on.
"We'll train them," DeLacure said while watching other students play.
At the end of the tournament, Delta Gamma Alpha claimed victory in the 
women's division, Delta Chi won the men's division and Kick It to the Fat 
Kid won the co-ed division.
The goalball tournament was the last USF event celebrating Disability 
Awareness Month, a month that included a lecture by performance artist Anita 
Hollander who continues to sing and dance despite losing one of her legs to 
cancer.
Students with Disabilities Services will also partner with the Tampa Bay 
Strong Dogs wheelchair basketball team to bring a wheelchair basketball 
tournament to USF in the spring.

With Best Regards,
God Bless,
Alan
Plantation, Florida
 Please join me on
www.nfblive.org
where through learning, friendship, activities, and growth, together "we can 
live the life we want."