by Todd Strain
KNSD TV7 San Diego
If you were looking at the Stagecoach gym floor in Carlsbad during a recent Sunday, you’d see athletic shoes, knee pads, goals and balls — just like your average sporting event. The only difference is no one on the court that day could see.
This was a practice for the San Diego Goalball team.
Goalball is a sport for those with visual impairments. Every player on the court wears blindfolds over their eyes that black out vision, so whether you’re completely blind, have limited vision or even if you can see clearly, the blindfolds level the playing field.
The game is played on a basketball-sized court with two goals at each end. Players feel for tape on the ground to position themselves. A key part of the sport is that goalball is played in silence.
Another key to the sport is not seeing, but hearing the ball. The ball has a bell, which dictates when, where and how players move.
“There’s a sense of accomplishment,” Antonio Hill, a member of the San Diego Goalball, told NBC 7. “Instead of using your eyes, you’re using different senses.”
“It makes me feel great to score goals or playing defense and making a save,” said Michael Meyers, another San Diego Goalball team member.
So many on the court have dealt with depression or isolation, and most sports for the visually impaired are individual sports. With goalball, you’re on a team. Players say it’s life-changing being part of a group and being included.
“It made me a lot more confident about being blind,” Jayden Heilman said. “It helped me a lot with my confidence, overall happiness and being able to do sports.”
“I didn’t think there was much out there for me. It’s amazing having a little team and being around other people like me,” goalball player Ana said.
“Sometimes you start losing the desire of things that you want to enjoy, and I had lost that for a long time, but goalball brought that back to me. It’s awesome,” Hill said.
“Confidence, encouragement and community are things you can get through goalball,” Meyers said.
San Diego Goalball was founded by Neal and Lori Meyers, whose son Michael slowly lost his vision over time. Goalball was being played in other states and cities, but not in San Diego, so the Meyers created the program.
San Diego Goalball’s first practice in April had maybe 10 players. Now, 30-40 players show up for every practice.
“It was one of those things where we said, ‘Hey, let’s put something together.’ One of those … if you build it, will they come? And people just came. I don’t think any of them knew each other four months ago. Now they have a What’sApp going. They talk to each other all the time, so it’s really the building of the community along with the sport that’s really awesome,” Neal Meyers said.
For a group of people that cannot see, goalball brings so much into focus. Everyone involved says the best part of goalball is not scoring or making saves, but the smiles on faces.
“The smiles and the laughs, it’s all about being together and having fun,” Lori Meyers said.
Hill says he’s “not just surviving, but thriving.”
The San Diego Goalball team is coached by Matt Boyle, the former head coach of the U.S. Men’s National Goalball team. Goalball is paralympic sport and will be part of the 2028 Paralympics in Los Angeles.
Last weekend, San Diego Goalball played in their first tournament, which took place in L.A. San Diego Goalball had four teams in the tournament, with one team winning a bronze medal and another taking fourth place.
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