BLIND Cricket SA hosted its first coaching clinic at Glossop High School recently to work with a vision-impaired year 9 student and give her classmates an insight and understanding of her condition.
The clinic, which was hosted by coach Phil Penn for vision-impaired student Chaniqua Possingham, involved students wearing special glasses – blurring their vision – and playing cricket with a bell in the ball.
Mr Penn said he was “excited” to be at the school.
“My father was blind and founded Blind Cricket SA, so I was really looking forward to coming to the school and working with Chaniqua,” he said.
“By wearing the glasses and playing blind cricket, the students had more of an understanding of what Chaniqua goes through and how they can help her.”
Chaniqua said she was grateful for the experience.
“When I found out Blind Cricket SA was coming, I was so excited,” she said. “I didn’t know something like this existed so I was really looking forward to giving it a go.
“During PE classes, I sometimes find it scary when a ball is thrown at me because I don’t know when it’s coming, so having a bell in the ball is pretty cool.
“It was great that my friends got to understand what I go through.”
Glossop High School physical education teacher Tom Jolly said it was “heart-warming” to see Chaniqua smile.
“I’ve been teaching Chaniqua for two years, she’s a great kid and I just really wanted to do something for her,” he said.
“As a PE teacher it’s sometimes hard to include her in certain sports and engage her so I got in contact with Phil, got him to come down and have us all do something Chaniqua can participate in.
“She was so excited when I told her about it that she actually invited her family to come out and watch her.
“I can tell she’s absolutely loving it and she was very grateful for the opportunity.”
Mr Jolly said he hopes to invite Blind Cricket SA back annually.
“I would love to do this all again not only for Chaniqua, but for the other students also,” he said. “The students have shown a lot of empathy of what not only Chaniqua goes through on a day-to-day basis but what other vision-impaired people go through.”