On Saturday 11 February children from the Healthway Youth Goalball Participation Program will head back to the court to begin their first term for 2012.

The 2012 program will introduce some exciting new initiatives to the children. We spoke to Gerry Crowley, Goalball Coach, about the upcoming term and plans for the year.

‘We have some great events happening this year including the Australian Nationals in Melbourne, the London Paralympics in late August and early September and a school based Goalball Program to run through from mid first term till the end of the school year,' said Gerry.

‘It's an exciting time for Junior Goalball with the team competed in the Australian Goalball Nationals for the first time in October last year'.

In 2012 the funding for the Junior Goalball Program is provided by Healthway. Part of the funding from Healthway will assist the Goalball Road Show, which has been on the road for over a year.

‘Before the funding from Healthway we could only go to schools that could afford to cover our expenses, and this limited our delivery of the program,' explains Gerry.

‘Now thanks to Healthway we can visit more schools. We're particularly targeting schools that have a student who is blind or vision impaired. In those instances, we not only introduce the sport of Goalball, but also give the other kids in the school an awareness of what it is like to be blind or vision impaired. This helps them to understand and respect those with a disability.'

In 2011, as part of the Active After Schools Program, Gerry coached Goalball at several primary schools.

‘This term I'll be coaching Goalball at Montessori School in Burswood (AASC). The aim of this particular endeavour is to coach as close to our base at Handa Academy in Victoria Park as is possible to enable the junior Goalball team to have a local competition against the school at some stage'.

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