As winter sports take up all the gym space, regular Goalball Club meetings will consist of walking around the school blindfolded, planning events, and one-on-one scrimmaging. This, however, creates a new opportunity for the club to participate in more events outside of school.

Goalball Club sponsor Dave Romano said club members have been going to regular Monday meetings and the Thursday practices with the adult team in Indianapolis since last semester for 3 hours to prepare for tournaments. On January 23 from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., the club members and adult team will be heading up to Fort Wayne to compete against teams in the Midwest at Turnstone, a gym that procures the athletes with equipment and gym space in order to increase goalball awareness with the men’s national team.

Romano said, “(The purpose of this tournament is) in order to enter the nationals in June, the team has to enter in a sanctioned event, which is very competitive and a lot of teams will be there, so they (Turnstone) want people to have experience and see how one (tournament) is run before going to a sanctioned event, an event sponsored by the USABA (US Association for Blind Athletes) or the IBSA (International Blind Sports Federation). (The reason is) there’s a lot of things coaches can’t do during the game to help their players, but there’s a lot of things coaches can do to become a detriment on the team because one mistake can penalize the team according to national rules. Make your mistakes at the scrimmage, and you won’t make the same mistake again at the tournament.”

Meanwhile, club members will be working on individual projects such as creating a website, recording practice videos, getting volunteer hours, getting an officiating license, and finishing an Eagle Scout project with the Indiana School for the Blind and Visually Impaired (ISBVI) revolving around goalball.

Goalball Club President and senior Allyson LaFon said, “I, personally, am working on a project; I have a friend in southern Indiana who is trying to start up a goalball club at his school, so we’re working with him on that right now so that we can hopefully play some other schools and get some more coverage in Indiana about this sport.”

“In general, we’re hoping to get a bit more involved in outside goalball events such as tournaments, workshops, and projects to spread awareness about goalball,” LaFon said.