November 6, 2002
Sierra Clark scores goalball spot
Traverse City sixth-grader to play in national tournament this week
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
Sierra Clark is heading to St. Augustine, Florida, this week to accumulate as many bumps and bruises as she can.
The sixth-grade student at Oak Park Elementary School is an avid player of goalball, an intense physical sport for the blind and visually impaired. Billed as a combination of hockey and football, goalball players go full out for the game's two ten-minute halves, bodily protecting their goal line from an opposing team's score.
"Goalball is painful but it is fun," said Clark, who plays left and center on a three-person team. "I'm still kind of learning, the most difficult thing is getting enough strength to throw the ball away from you."
Clark first learned of the sport last May at a Junior Sports Camp for the Blind downstate. She played so well, the coach of the Michigan Striders invited her to join their newly-formed youth team and now Clark is the team's youngest player. She is eager to play this weekend in the US National Championship Youth Tournament in St. Augustine.
"The team has players from all over Michigan and one from North Carolina," she noted. "The girls are defending their title."
The ball used is about the size of a basketball and is about the weight of a medicine ball. A bell inside allows the players to track the ball's progress around the court. The court is the size of a volleyball court and the dimensions are defined by raised tape.
"When you play, you can stand up or sit down and feel the lines with your hands or feet," said Clark, who was diagnosed with juvenile macular degeneration when she was eight and is legally blind. "We constantly talk to each other while playing, you have to know who's on the left and who's on the right of you at all times."
Only players who are visually impaired or blind may play goalball. Each player is blindfolded to level the field among varying levels of visual impairment. An array of protective equipment, including goggles and body padding, protect the players as the fling themselves on the floor to block or stop the ball with their body to prevent a score.
Players use a bowling action to move the ball around and have ten seconds to get rid of the ball. A fast-moving game, elite players from around the world can throw the ball between 30-40 miles per hour. Goalball is a Paralympic sport, sparking intense competition among teams worldwide.
Amy Weist, a preschool teacher for the visually impaired and orientation and mobility specialist with TBAISD, hopes to bring goalball to the Traverse City Area. She plans to hold month-long competitions in January, February and March for the blind and visually impaired students in the area.
"We want to explore it to see if there's enough interest," she said. "It is a really interesting sport for people who are blind or visually impaired."
Weist said goalball is a great self-esteem booster for players. People do not often associate the blind or visually impaired with sports, especially such a physical sport as goalball.
"This gives them an opportunity to be an expert as these students are not normally the one picked first in gym class," she noted. "This is a sport only they can play and it is a pretty aggressive and rough sport."
"It's really intense, I've watched adult men play this sport and come out with a broken nose or black eye," she noted.
Crystal Douglass, Clark's mother, is pleased at her daughter's interest and success in goalball, despite the sport being so 'brutal' as she calls it.
"I was just in awe the first time I saw them play," she said. "All these kids are amazing."