This story aired in the May 21, 2026 episode of Crosscurrents.
Every Wednesday night in Berkeley a group of athletes gets ready to practice their sport. The first thing they have to do is line the court with a tactile marker––string taped to the floor around the perimeter––because this game relies on just two senses, hearing and feeling.
This is goalball, a sport invented for blind and low vision people which involves hurling a heavy ball filled with bells at each other.
It is sort of the opposite of dodge ball because players are trying to block the ball with their bodies. It might sound painful! So KALW's Rachel Longan visited a goalball tournament and later even padded up to play to find out if it is worth the risk.
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Story Transcript:
REFEREE: Welcome to the second half of the bronze metal between the Crown on my left , the Prime Time players on my right.
REPORTER: The 28th annual Goalball Tournament is a two-day event attended by people from all over the Western U.S.
REFEREE: Quiet, please.
Sound of ball rolling
REPORTER: Everyone is excited to be here but they're staying totally silent. In fact, it's so quiet in this auditorium you can hear the two kids in the stands crunching their Cheetos...
Sound of crunching
REPORTER: …and even the toilet flushing from down the hall.
Sound of toilet flushing
REPORTER: The goal of goalball is simple: to get a goal. The athletes wear eyeshades to block out any vision they might have. The players try to roll the ball across the court into the opponents net and the other team, relying only on hearing, tries to block it. That’s why they need silence.
Sound of whistles and cheering
REPORTER: The two whistles means someone got a goal.
Goalball was invented in 1946 to help visually impaired World War II veterans learn how to navigate without sight. It became a Paralympic sport in 1976 and the women’s event was added in 1984. About a decade later the Bay Area Outreach and Recreation Program or BORP started their goalball tournament. That’s where then UC Berkeley student Ann Kwong first played the sport. At her first game, she remembers one of the athletes rolling the ball across the court.
ANN WAI-YEE KWONG: Fortunately for me they did not have the best aim so it would hit the wall and go boom. And I am like, “Great, glad that was not my body.”
REPORTER: Ann doesn’t remember if her team won that game.
KWONG: Probably we lost. It was still just an exhilarating experience.
REPORTER: Today Ann is an advocate for students with disabilities at UC Berkeley. She says playing goalball is fun but it also pushes back on society’s tendency to coddle blind and low vision people. Unfortunately it’s common to find people who think...
KWONG: Maybe we should protect them from risks meaning, maybe they shouldn’t do dangerous sports.
REPORTER: Her middle school adaptive P.E. class took this idea to the extreme. The teacher had the disabled students do a marshmallow eating contest instead of actually playing a sport. Ann says the point of P.E. is to teach healthy competition and team building.
KWONG: But how is someone supposed to learn that when they are not given the opportunity to participate in a dignified way, in a meaningful competition where you are putting forth effort? I don't think it takes that much effort to shove marshmallows into your mouth.
REPORTER: Why would a teacher resort to having students eat marshmallows when they’re supposed to be doing physical education? When I hear this story, it makes me think about how many people can’t imagine a fully functioning blind person. Most sighted people fear blindness.
I get it. That’s how I felt before I went blind, too.
I had trouble imagining my own life without vision. It didn’t help that I had an eye doctor tell me that I wouldn’t be able to feed myself if I went blind. That fear is stifling, whether it comes from yourself or from someone else.
Sound of two whistles
REPORTER: Back at the tournament, the goalball game being played here is basically the polar opposite of a marshmallow eating contest.
After an intense game, the players take a break between matches. Bryanna Stubbert has been playing for 15 years. She says this game was the first time she felt like she was allowed to move freely.
BRYANNA STUBBERT: So I never had experienced that level of authority over my own risk because most of the time someone steps in and they are like, “Oh don’t…! You are going to…ugh! But because the coaches can’t talk, the audience can’t talk, it is just us out on the court, you have the opportunity to mess stuff up without the consequences of someone being, “Oh my gosh!”
REPORTER: Bryanna says that at first, everyone gets anxious when they are learning the game because they’re trying to navigate the court without their usual tools like a cane or a guide. It can feel like you’re lost in space.
STUBBERT: As soon as I put the eye shades on and my vision wasn’t a factor because everyone wears the black out shades, it really felt like I could be more aggressive and move more fluidly. I wasn’t afraid because everyone is okay with being run into. That is the whole point, you know! (Laughs)
REPORTER: Another player, Christian Portillo, has been playing for about a year. He says, not only has goalball expanded what he thought was possible for himself but it has also provided a community.
CHRISTIAN PORTILLO: It’s nice to just know that I can be here, I can be myself without having to worry about the vision. These people get me, you know? And I get them.
REPORTER: When Christian leaves practice, he takes with him what he learns on the court.
PORTILLO: Doing this has taught me to be more confident in myself and the space I take up both physically and the way I advocate for myself.
REPORTER: So far, Christian, Bryanna, and Ann are all making a good case for trying this sport even if it means getting pummeled by that heavy ball.
PORTILLO: When people say, “Aren’t you afraid of being hit by the ball? Doesn’t it hurt?” And I am like, “Yeah but that is part of the fun. That is the risk and then the reward, right?”
REPORTER RACHEL LONGAN: What are your thoughts about just taking risks?
PORTILLO: My thoughts on risk? I say, take it.
REPORTER: OK Christian, let’s see if there is a reward. I am going to try it!
LONGAN: Ok we are approaching the gymnasium for goalball practice.
REPORTER: A couple of months later, I head to the Berkeley Adult School for one of their weekly practices.
LONGAN: OK we are approaching the gymnasium for goalball practice.
Sound of white cane scraping sidewalk
LONGAN: you can hear my cane scraping
REPORTER: The gym feels familiar to me. I realize that the last time I was here, I was pulling my knee pads on for a pick up game of volleyball before I went blind. That was more than thirty years ago.
Now here I am about to play a team sport after decades of thinking that I would never be able to again. I am feeling excited and a little scared.
Sound of people talking and throwing balls in a gymnasium
LONGAN: We are getting close to the door. We have arrived!
BRANDON YOUNG: (to another player) One, two, three…
LONGAN: I hear Brandon’s voice.
Sound of ball hitting floor
YOUNG: There you go!
REPORTER: Brandon Young is coach for the Wednesday night goalball practices. He has been playing for thirty years and even competed in the Paralympics in Sidney in 2000.
YOUNG: Rachel, what’s up?
LONGAN: Hey Brandon.
YOUNG: Welcome, welcome, welcome. You wanna to play tonight, huh?
LONGAN: I do, at least I think I do.
REPORTER: Brandon drops the ball into my hands.
LONGAN: Oh my god it is heavy.
YOUNG: Yeah, three and a half pounds. You got this.
REPORTER: That’s about the same weight as a 9-inch cast iron frying pan. I put down my cane and Brandon has me follow his voice out onto the court. I never go anywhere without my cane or a guide so without those tools, I’m starting to get what Bryanna meant when she talked about being lost in space.
Here’s what I sound like trying to follow him.
LONGAN: Are we in the way? I have completely lost track of which direction I am facing yah I am completely and totally disoriented am I out of the way? I am out of the way, right?
REPORTER: There is nothing but a strip of tape on the floor to show me where I’m supposed to be. I hang on to that tactile marker like my life depends on it.
YOUNG: That’s your line, feel it under your feet? We feel the court with our feet with our hands, with our butt sometimes, you know. You feel it with your knees, your elbows.
REPORTER: Brandon gives me a quick lesson before the game starts. He has me lie on the floor on my side with my arms stretched above my head. He says to make my body a solid wall to block the ball. I make sure to point my nose to the ground so the ball doesn’t break my face.
YOUNG: Excellent. You ready? The ball is going to hit you. I will roll it to you very gently. Make sure you have your head turned towards the ground.
Sound of ball rolling
LONGAN: Ugh! All right, I got it. That was gentle? Oh my lord!
YOUNG: Once the ball hits you…
LONGAN: Yeah?
YOUNG: I want you to pick it up and throw it back towards me.
REPORTER: Brandon throws the ball supposedly gently. I can actually clearly hear it coming toward me.
I lie there, tense, bracing for the impact.
This game is ridiculous. You just wait around for a ball to slam into you.
YOUNG: Be ready to defend, defend, defend. Make sure you have your chin down.
Sound of ball rolling
LONGAN: Oof!
YOUNG: You are in it to win it! You ready?
LONGAN: Yeah.
REPORTER: After that quick lesson, Brandon leaves me over on the sidelines to wait for my turn to play. I hope to get called soon before I completely lose my nerve.
LONGAN: Oh man, I think he just said “sub” so I think that is me. I have to put these things on.
REPORTER: I put on my eye shades and Brandon shows me to my position.
REFEREE: Quiet, Please!
REPORTER: He coaches me from the sidelines, literally talking me through every play.
YOUNG: High ball! Rachel, I want you to stand up.
REPORTER: Did you hear that? That was me throwing it! That was me failing to block it.
What you can’t really hear is my teammate groaning as I miss the ball.
Someone makes a goal. I am embarrassed to say I’m not sure which team. But then poof! it’s over. I am subbed out to let someone else play.
From the sidelines, I listen to the rest of the game. I don’t know if we win or lose but it doesn’t matter. It’s still so exhilarating.
LONGAN: I am going to take my stuff off. Goggles and elbow… Oof that ball was real sweaty. Gross.
REPORTER: I am just kind of sitting here buzzing with the feeling of happiness.
LONGAN: It is totally amazing to play a team sport again. It has been so many years. Super fun and my body hurts.
REPORTER: Then I hear the voice of Christian Portillo, one of the players I met at the tournament.
LONGAN: Christian, is that you?
PORTILLO: Glad you made it out.
LONGAN: That was so fun!
PORTILLO: Yeah, you liked it? Are you going to come back?
LONGAN: Yeah, hell yeah!
PORTILLO: I tried to give you a break. Glad you had fun. It is such a cool game.
LONGAN: It is totally fun.
REPORTER: Christian and the others were right. It is a blast to move through space with a bunch of other blind and low vision people who are willing to get hit in the face by a ball. But playing this game also emboldens you. To take a risk and prove to yourself and others that you can handle it.
Note: If you want to find out how to join in the goalball fun, check out Bay Area Outreach & Recreation Program (BORP) here and here!
