FIFA World Cup motivates blind and visually impaired players in Miami

Blind and visually impaired soccer players rely on the sound of a ball that is filled with bells and on the voices of their teammates and coaches. During a recent match at the Miami Lighthouse Academy in the Little Havana neighborhood, as a player moved, he or she said in Spanish, “Voy!” or “Going!”Arianna Taylor, a Miami Lighthouse Academy student and soccer player, said she was glad to have learned and be able to play. “It looks hard at first, but once you get to learn it, it seems easier,” Taylor said. Virginia Jacko, the president and chief executive officer of the Miami Lighthouse for the Blind and Physically Impaired, said 145 of her students play soccer. “Too often, blind children are leftover of team sports, and team sports teach us so much,” Jacko said. Oseas De Leon, the Miami Lighthouse’s soccer coach, has experience with the USA Blind Soccer Men’s National Team. He was a baby when a severe case of measles caused blindness. “The fact that our children don’t have the opportun