National radio program covers annual track meet for the blind
On the Saturday, May 24 addition of NPR's Only A Game, commentator Bill Littlefield covered the 62nd Annual Eastern Athletic Association for the Blind (EAAB) Track & Field Tournament, which was hosted on Perkins' campus.
Click here and scroll to "Blind Athletes Take Over the Track" to listen online.
Over the weekend of May 16-18, high school athletes who are blind from six Eastern seaboard states gathered at the Perkins School for the Blind campus for the tournament.With a few adaptations, young track and field athletes who are blind competed like their sighted counterparts in public and private high schools.
Click here to read the Watertown TAB's story and see video of the event.
Just like any other track and field competitors, these young athletes strive to throw farther, jump higher and run faster. Sprinters used a cable to show them the line markers. Distance runners had sighted runners as guides. Long jumpers aimed for their coach’s shouts as markers.
“It’s about what these young people can do, not about their disabilities,” says Perkins Coach Jim McNiff.
Students from six schools for the blind competed in events like the 100-yard dash (with guide cables), tandem mile run (with sighted guides), long jump, and shot put. On Saturday night, the students relished their accomplishments, socialized and danced to DJ selections. Participating schools included: Perkins School for the Blind (host), Maryland School for the Blind, New York Institute, Governor Morehead School for the Blind (Raleigh, NC), Overbrook School for the Blind (Philadelphia, PA), and West Virginia School for the Blind.
Only A Game airs Saturdays from 7 a.m. to 8 a.m. on 90.9FM in Boston and is nationally syndicated on 164 stations.