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Show Thursday, June 26, 2008 AMERICAN FORK CITIZEN Page 7 Goalball Continued from Page 6 youth goalball championships champion-ships on Utah's girls team in 2005 and 2006, and has now moved up to the next level. "I've been playing since I was "Goal-ball "Goal-ball is a sport seven," explained. ex-plained. "It's really intense aAay You can't r see, so tromev- y0uhave erything every-else. every-else. It's about all II , different all On IIS senses, a plus OWn. it's all about the Herschel JS-Kelly JS-Kelly Ky. ' on the LOCAL GOAL- otv,er BALL PLAYER Y FROM HIGH- na"a- land had nev er played the sport at all until the last few months. "In September, I went to a goalball practice with the girls team and I started playing play-ing with them," he said. "The men's team heard I was playing, so they came down and showed me what men's goalball was. Lots of it was about speed and communication. communica-tion. The gameplay is faster and you have to be paying attention to where the ball is at all times. It's intense and you have to use a lot of strategy." Jepson said that both players play-ers have their individual strengths and have become great additions to their respective re-spective squads. "They are such great kids," the coach explained. "Morgan has been playing with us for maybe 10 years since she was a cute little thing. She has so much desire and she is really, really good. She plays hard, works hard, has a good throw, is a good defender, she loves playing and she's an integral part of the team. "Hershel is a great guy. I'm so glad that he has become be-come a part of our team. He's only been playing with us for six months and that's because he's been losing his vision. He hasn't had a lot of experience, but he has picked up really quickly how to play." Kelly's eyesight has degenerated degen-erated over the last few years, so he has had the chance to play other sports. He says that he loves the opportunities presented pre-sented by goalball. "I played baseball when I was 13 and I stopped playing play-ing because I kept getting knocked out," he said. "I was in the outfield and I see multiples, so when I was trying to catch the ball, sometimes my glove wasn't where the ball was. Goalball is a sport away from everything else. It's all on its own. It's designed for the blind and this is our sport." Although the young man from Highland is still picking up the nuances of the game, he has the advantage of learning from one of the best players in the world: Para-lympian Para-lympian and Bingham High grad Chris Dodds. "Dodds has kind of taken Hershel under his wing," Jepson said. "He's spent a lot of time working with him in training and outside of practice. It's so much fun to see Hershel developing as a player." Both players believe that having the national competition compe-tition is a great opportunity for the sport in the state. "It's so crazy," Oxbor-row Oxbor-row said. "We've never had nationals here. States from all over the country come to compete. I think we've done a good job, though. It's unlike un-like anything else. You start and work so hard to come to these and then it's like, wow. It's fun." But it also means some added pressure for the local teams. "It's kind of intimidating," Kelly explained. "We've got to win. This is our turf. But it's fun and a good experience, experi-ence, and I'm glad I have the chance to participate." No matter what happened this year or in the future, Kelly and Oxborrow think that this is iust one more step in a lifelong enjoyment of the game of goalball. "I want to keep playing until I can't any more," said Oxborrow. I Jared Lloyd can be reached at jlloydheraldextra.com. Explaining goalball history and its rules Jared Lloyd DAILY HERALD Most people outside of the visually impaired community have never heard of the sport of goalball, nor do they know anything about the rules. Those who do find it to be as fascinating and exciting as any other athletic competition. But bund and visually im paired players love to pit their skills against others in a sport uniquely suited to their abilities. abili-ties. The history of the game of goalball has its roots in post-World War II Europe, according ac-cording to Tony Jepson, who works for the Utah Foundation Founda-tion for the Blind and Visually Impaired and coaches of both the Utah men's and women's goalball teams. It started in Europe after World War II because there were so many veterans that were blinded in the war that wanted to have some sort of sport they could continue playing," play-ing," Jepson said. "They developed devel-oped the game of goal ball and it became popular in Europe and spread around the world." The coach explained that goalball has been part of the Paralympic Games since the 1970s and has been played in Am. Fork Dean Von Memmott SPORTS CORRESPONDENT In Utah Baseball Academy League action at American Fork on June 24, the American Ameri-can Fork Cavemen shut out the Springville Red Devils 10-0 in a 16-under division game. American Fork's besting Springville in five innings was a nice return to form after the Cavemen were routed 13-7 on the Bingham Miners' South AF Giants take Pony League Dean Von Memmott SPORTS CORRESPONDENT The race for the American Fork Pony Leagues regular season sea-son pennant ended June 19 with the Giants defeating de-feating the Pirates 64 in a thriller at Buss AF GIANTS 6 AF PIRATES 4 Manning Field. The contest completed a Giant Gi-ant sweep of a two-game series that they had played against the Pirates. Going into the series, neither team had lost a league game. The Giants got the edge on the Baseball Continued from Page 6 That didn't stop the Cavemen Cave-men from picking up another run in the inning, however. Garner singled in Whatcott 5 Utah for the past 18 years. "It's expanded since then. We have little kids playing, old people playing," he said. "It's just a lot of fun." The state has one of the top teams every year, including having won a national title in 2006. Other top teams this year came from Florida, Michigan and Pennsylvania. Many of the best players including Utah's Chris Dodds are also preparing for the upcoming Paralympics in Beijing, China, that will take place in early September. The USA squad is a goalball medal favorite, along with Lithuania, Sweden and China. The rules of goalball aren't complicated but take on new significance when you consider consid-er that vision is completely taken tak-en away (eye shades cannot be touched or removed during the game). Everything has to be done by feel and hearing. Three players can be on the floor at one time for each team a center and two wings and play takes place on a playing area the size of a volleyball vol-leyball court, with goals covering cover-ing the entire width at both ends and with a ball that has a bell inside. "Teams need to have enough information to know where the J- ' - '. r 1 ' it ! - Hi ' ' f " - ,,, ...W..- 16-U baseball team blanks Springville Jordan diamond on June 21. For the first three innings of the Springville game, neither the Cavemen nor the Red Devils Dev-ils could score runs. Players on both teams did make hits during the first three frames, though. In the top of the first, Chase Beardall singled off American Fork pitcher Colton Dunn but would end up stranded. Caveman Kyle Hall launched a one-out single into Pirates, though, by defeating them 7-6 in a June 17 game. The Pirate chances of winning a share of the regular season pennant ended in the June 19 rematch. "Both of our pitchers threw well from the bump," Giant coach Kerry Devey said. "Everybody put in a great defensive effort. After they had won 7-6 over the Pirates, they didn't want to finish the season with just a first-place seed for the tournament next week. They wanted to finish the season with an undefeated record." The Pirates gave the Giants everything they could ask for but ended up just short. "We gave it everything we had," Pirate coach Brian Park and a Miller wallk loaded the bases for the Cavemen. American Ameri-can Fork looked poised for a big inning but Petersen tagged M iller to stop the comeback attempt. In the fourth, Peterson tripled Cluff in, then he came " . . -. . S I '-'-.. f"i i JL w , -"-rf-" .i-,,, 'J jfTJ rillllli-T" 1 North County archive photos Above: Marty Langworthy, of the Utah Explosion, stretches to defend his goal during the Men's Goalball National Championship Tournament on Saturday. Below: Luke Patterson falls to block a thrown ball from Fernando Tarazon during a practice game of goal ball in 2000. Bottom left Goal ball player Luke Patterson throws a hollow ball with bells inside toward the opposite goal. ball is going and react," Jepson said. "It has to bounce at least twice, so they can get a read on it." The lines on the court are made with tape on top of string, so the players can literally feel their way into position. Teams only have 10 seconds to get rid of the ball and each player may only throw the ball twice before another teammate takes a turn. "If the ball bounces away and they have to go after it, that eats up a lot of the time," Jepson said. The ball also must touch the ground before the high ball line and must touch the ground a second sec-ond time before the long ball line. left during the bottom of the first but Red Devil pitcher Aaron Gray kept Hall stuck on base as well. After the first, neither team could make further hits until the fourth. That inning opened with Beardall singling into center but the Cavemen kept the Red Devils from profiting from the hit. In the bottom of the fourth, singles from Hall and Tyson Smith paved the way for an er said. "They haven't lost a game yet, and they got the hits at the right time. We just didn't get the hits when we needed them. Both teams played really well tonight." The Giant streak of domination domina-tion from the June 17 contest continued in the top of the first. Zach Devey singled in Brian Hagen and Hunter Huffman. After West Miller had singled two runs with one out, Pirate pitcher Mark McDonald struck out two straight batters to shut down the Giant rally. In the bottom of the first, pitcher Hagen struck out the first two hitters to hamper the Pirate effort. McDonald managed man-aged to smack a single off Hagen Ha-gen but Giant shortstop Huff home on Landon Jenkins' sacrifice sac-rifice fly ball. Garner received much help from shortstop Duersch in holding Bingham scoreless in the fifth. After being walked by the pitcher, Nelson stole his way around to third. How- 1 J . , ML 3 "It has to be down on the court, even though it's going fast and hard," the Utah coach explained. "They bounce it, but if it goes too far, it's a penalty." Any violation of the rules results in a penalty, where the offending team only has one player defending the entire width of the goal. The main strategy is getting the entire length of the body on the ground to cover the angles and keep the opposing team from getting the ball into the goal, but Jepson explained that a lot more goes into preparing for a top-level match. "There are only certain times in the game when we can coach and it's not very much," American Fork rally. It opened with Ben Beddes bashing a two-run double. American Fork picked up its next two runs on an error before the rally climaxed with Ryan Pitcher stealing home. The fifth opened with Colby Relyea singling into left. American Fork caught him in a fielder's choice play at second. sec-ond. After Tyler Brown had singled off Dunn, the Cavemen shut Springville down. regular season title man grabbed a Mitch McGeary fly ball for the third out. Along with striking out three Giant batters during the second and third, McDonald held the Giants scoreless. However, How-ever, the Pirates still couldn't put together an attack to narrow nar-row the Giants' 4-0 advantage. It became harder in the top of the fourth. Walked by McDonald that inning, Josh Rugner advanced to third on an Austin Watts single and then stole home. Hagen singled in Watts to extend the lead at 6-0. After hitting a one-out single in the bottom of the fourth, McGeary came home on a Taylor Frost, two-out triple to put a run on the board for the Pirates but the ever, Duersch threw out two straight Miners to keep Bingham's Bing-ham's lead stuck at 6-2. Duersch singled into left during the bottom of the fifth but Bingham nabbed him in a fielder's choice play at second. Smith doubled into center, .u fTt he said. "We have to do all the coaching in advance. We look at weaknesses on the other teams, as well as speeding up the game or slowing down the game. We also look at it moving the ball from player to player, down the line or across the court. Players have to have their heads in the games." People of all ages can give goalball a try with the right equipment, but good luck winning if you're facing off against a team of visually impaired im-paired players they have all the advantages in this intriguing intrigu-ing sport. I Jared Lloyd can be reached at jlloyd&heraldextra.com. In the bottom of the fifth. Hall tripled in two runs then came home on an error. With two outs, Ryan Blackhurst blasted a two-run triple that won the game for the Cavemen. Cave-men. "When they first came up to bat, they played down to the Springville pitcher's level," American Fork coach Jarod Ingersoll said. "They adjusted, though, and made real big hits for us." Giants kept Frost struck at third. In the bottom of the fifth, Eli Probst hit a single into left and set the stage for a Pirate comeback come-back that lasted two innings. Colt Walker joined Probst on base after getting beaned by a pitch. McDonald doubled in Probst and Walker. "That two-run double got us back into the game," Parker said. "We were just a base hit away from tying it in the sixth. We just couldn't a tying run across the line." Aided by Frost's second straight double, the Pirates loaded the bases with two outs. A Walker walk scored Matt Pulsipher but the Giants didn't let the Pirates go on a scoring rally and preserved the win. giving American Fork a good chance at getting on the board. However, Washburn struck out two straight batters. With two outs in the top of the sixth, Whitney doubled in Giron to complete the scoring for the night. F |