Blind and visually impaired soccer players rely on the sound of a ball that is filled with bells and on the voices of their teammates and coaches.
During a recent match at the Miami Lighthouse Academy in the Little Havana neighborhood, as a player moved, he or she said in Spanish, “Voy!” or “Going!”
Arianna Taylor, a Miami Lighthouse Academy student and soccer player, said she was glad to have learned and be able to play.
“It looks hard at first, but once you get to learn it, it seems easier,” Taylor said.
Virginia Jacko, the president and chief executive officer of the Miami Lighthouse for the Blind and Physically Impaired, said 145 of her students play soccer.
“Too often, blind children are leftover of team sports, and team sports teach us so much,” Jacko said.
Oseas De Leon, the Miami Lighthouse’s soccer coach, has experience with the USA Blind Soccer Men’s National Team. He was a baby when a severe case of measles caused blindness.
“The fact that our children don’t have the opportunity to do any physical activity, I think it’s more than a reason to have blind soccer here with us,” De Leon said. “Unfortunately, we are the only ones in the country.”
The International Blind Sports Federation, which included blind soccer in the 1990s, credits Spain as the pioneer of blind soccer in the 1920s and Brazil for increasing its popularity in the 1960s.
De Leon has had big dreams for the national blind soccer movement, so he developed a curriculum for kids as young as one in collaboration with the U.S Association of Blind Athletes, or USABA.
Aside from De Leon, the soccer program also includes eight other employees of the Miami Lighthouse.
To support them, Roborock announced a $50,000 donation and equipped a new classroom “to advance accessibility and independence through technology.”
Useful link: Donate now to support blind soccer at Miami Lighthouse
More on local coverage of the World Cup
- Star sighting in Palm Beach
- Today’s schedule and progress report
- FIFA Fan Festival in downtown Miami
- FIFA exhibit in downtown Miami
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