By Muhammad Waheed
Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writer
Soccer players and coaches from around North America came to Baltimore last week as the first step toward creating an American blind soccer team that can compete in the 2028 Paralympic Games in Los Angeles.
The North American Blind Football Development Camp was hosted by The Maryland School for the Blind (MSB) from June 25 to 28 and featured about 35 athletes who are visually impaired.
The camp consisted of athletes and coaches participating in a variety of drills and playing an actual game on the last day.
The camp aimed to help jumpstart the development of blind soccer in the U.S.
The idea for the camp came from Michael Bina, the president of MSB and chairman of the board for the U.S. Association of Blind Athletes.
Bina said he was surprised when he noticed that the U.S. did not field a blind soccer team during the Rio de Janeiro Paralympic Games in 2016 – and he decided to change that.
“In the Paralympics in Rio there was not a team that the U.S. fielded in blind football so when we were there observing in Rio we said, ‘The United States needs a team just like these other countries,’” Bina said. “We’re planting seeds today to begin the development, eventually, of the USA having a team at Paralympic competition.”
Bina said that MSB welcomed people from all over the world and that his school has the proper facilities, including the only blind soccer field in the nation, to begin development of the sport in the United States.
“I see a bunch of motivated athletes,” Bina said during the camp event last Wednesday. “I see some excellent coaches… We’ve got all the right elements together for a wonderful camp… I’ve seen from the beginning progress each of the athletes have made and they’re having fun.”
The camp concluded with a soccer match between two teams who showcased the skills they learned during the week.
“The players were really moving in an efficient flow,” said Kevin Brousard, membership and outreach coordinator for USABA. “The gameplay was a very good pace. Watching that game you would have thought the players were playing for a couple years instead of a couple days.”
Brousard said he was “impressed overall with how the athletes picked up the major points of this game.”
Brousard said blind football has existed since the early 1990s and has been a Paralympic sport since 2004, but development has been limited in the United States.
“Really it’s a historic event,” Brousard said of the camp. “I was telling the athletes and coaches the start of the camp we’re going to look back at this event right here as the beginning of something great. It’s been a long time coming.”
The U.S. will host the 2028 Paralympic Games in Los Angeles and the nation will have an automatic bid to have a blind soccer team compete at the event, Brousard said.
The camp had about 35 individuals in attendance with every athlete being paired with a coach, Brousard said.
“All of us are brand new to the idea and concepts of blind soccer or blind football,” Brousard said. “It’s important for the athletes to have some one-on-one tutorial as we all get use to the new rules and skills we need for this game and then from the coaching prospective it gives them a hands-on experience on how to coach a blind athlete in a certain sport.”
Brousard said the camp coordinators hope that athletes and coaches will return to their communities and start local blind soccer programs.
The development of local programs will help establish an athlete pool that could eventually lead to the creation of national and international teams, Brousard said.
Brousard said that over 80 individuals applied for the camp, but only 40 were selected.
The interest level was unknown, but the amount of applicants for the camp shows potential for future growth for blind soccer, Brousard said.
The camp consisted of skill development, including field orientation and communication, Brousard said.
Ulrich Pfisterer, chairman of the International Blind Sports Federation Football Sports Committee, said his responsibilities include informing individuals around the world about blind soccer.
“The most important thing for me is that I hear in the weeks or months or years to come that my visit bears some fruit and we will see development of blind football in the United States,” said Pfisterer, who came from Germany to instruct athletes and coaches.
Luis Castanedi, who came from Bogota, Columbia, said he came to the camp wanting to help the U.S. develop its blind soccer program.
“I know if United States going to have a national team they going to be a nice national team to represent in the international competitions so I hope the United States going to be the next world championship in the blind soccer,” Castanedi said.
Castanedi said that the athletes at the camp had good body profiles to make contact and play blind soccer.
Tim Taylor, adapted physical education teacher and head coach of MSB’s blind soccer team, said that Bina approached him to develop the school’s program in 2016.
The blind soccer program will be an official varsity sport at the school this coming fall, Taylor said.
Taylor said he was trained on blind soccer last summer and began an intramural blind soccer program at MSB that practiced once a week last fall. He said this turned into practices being held twice per week with 10 students during the spring.
“Now I have permission from the school to start in the fall to be an actual varsity sport so whoever comes out they can get a varsity letter and we will practice three days a week for a season in the fall and hopefully get some competition going on as well,” Taylor said.