Lakeshore Goalball team wins 3rd straight title

The Lakeshore Youth Goalball team won its third straight United States Association of Blind Athletes National High School Goalball championship in St. Augustine, Fla., Nov. 6-8.

Parker Stewart and Josh Welborn were named All-Americans and Welborn was named tournament most valuable player.

Nicholas Rollins and Tanner Wood are other team members on the team coached by Cliff Cook and assisted by Linda Welborn.

The team has been dominant since 2013, having not lost a game in youth league play since.

Lakeshore had to come from behind to defeat Texas 5-3 in the championship game.

Goalball is a team sport designed specifically for blind athletes, originally devised in 1946 by in Austria as a means of assisting the rehabilitation of visually impaired  World War II veterans. Participants compete in teams of three, and try to throw a ball that has bells embedded in it into the opponents’ goal. 

After quarterfinal action on the boys’ side of the draw, the final four teams  (Lakeshore Foundation, Georgia Panthers, Texas Wildcats, and Arizona Sentinels) faced off to decide medal positions.  In the first semifinal, Lakeshore played outstanding defense and demonstrated offensive prowess in their first semifinal win, 11-1 over Arizona. 

In the championship game, Lakeshore and Texas fought a tight defensive battle for much of the game and finding themselves tied up at 2-2 late in the second half, the Lakeshore Foundation’s championship experience would prove to be the determining factor. Lakeshore won the closest contest in a medal round, 5-3, to win the gold medal and 2015 National Championship, and the Texas Wildcats claimed the silver.