Meet Cooper

"Hi, I'm Cooper.

I absolutely love sport and played many main-stream versions when I was younger- soccer, rugby league, tee-ball. I also have a significant vision impairment and am classed as legally blind (I have less than 10% of my vision).

However, you wouldn't know it by looking at me. I don't require a cane to navigate the world and have no obvious signs of having a vision issue. The only time you might notice is when I need to read something, then I have to bring it right up to my face. It goes to show that not all disabilities are obvious. 

This meant as I got older, it became harder to play these traditional sports with my mates. For instance, I loved playing league but I began to struggle receiving passes or identifying the player who had the ball. It meant I wasn't able to be as involved as I wanted. It was pretty devastating. 

Being the only vision-impaired kid at school, made it quite challenging to find my mates on the playground, playing sports and evening reading the canteen menu. It took a huge toll on my self-belief

In Year 2, I participated in the Goalball-4-Schools program, it was incredible and the ABC program "Play School" even attended the filmed a segment on Goalball using the students from the goalball teams to demonstrate the sport on a series being shot around inclusive sports.

The school's program was excellent! It meant I could play sport with all of my mates without having to worry about how I could contribute.

When I was old enough, I joined the NSW Goalball juniors program weekend competition. This gave me more opportunities to play sport and socialise outside of school. 

To be honest, I was really nervous at first and probably quite shy. The turning point was when I was invited to take part in the NSW junior team at the state championships,. I was only 9 at the time and junior's is 10-14. It was an incredible experience to be around so many vision-impaired athletes and showed me that we are so capable. 

"I love goalball because it is something I feel I can be successful at and make a contribution."

I'm now almost 14 and Goalball has had a significant impact on not only me, but my teammates and friends that I play with. Before goalball I often felt:

• Alone
• Different
• Unsuccessful
• Unwanted

Goalball gives me a place where I have met other vision-impaired people who have all experienced similar challenges to me.  A place where it is normal to read your phone right in your face.  A place where you can talk openly about challenges at school and find out how others overcome challenges.

But goalball is not just for people with vision impairment.

It is an amazing community for anyone and everyone. We have vision-impaired athletes playing with fully-sighted siblings and friends. It is also a great support network for many parents.  

I know my dad is always in conversations about different support services, technology, braille use, school, work, etc. People are happy to share their experiences and knowledge.

Dad always talks about the relief on the faces of both parents and kids when they bring something up that they are embarrassed about and to have practically everyone in the group say “yeah, been there done that”! It brings a sense of normality to it all, because it is normal in the vision-impaired world.

Goalball 4 Schools program was my pathway into this amazing sport and community which has given me self-belief again. I am more confident and take pride in what I achieve on court.

It has flow on effects t other parts of life as well. At school, I am happier and now have people the same age I can talk to about things I finds hard. Most importantly, I can share my success with my friends and what works for me, which helps others in the group.