Teacher attends coaching camp on blind soccer. Now she aims to bring it to Kansas City

Soccer has always been a huge part of Nicole Drake’s life.

So when the Kansas State School for the Blind physical education teacher was invited to participate in a coaching camp about blind soccer, she was fully on board.

“I played (soccer) growing up all my life. My husband played it in college. My daughter played for Park University,” Drake said. “So when this opportunity came up, it just kind of felt right.”

Drake was one of 30 participants at the inaugural USA Blind Soccer Coaching Education Summit in Staunton, Virginia last week. While there, she learned how to integrate the sport into her Kansas City, Kansas school and, most importantly, learn its rules.

The game is generally the same as soccer: Played on a smaller field with five players to a team instead of 11, blind soccer adds noise adaptations to the sport.

The ball rattles, for instance. Players have to yell “Voy!” when attempting a tackle. And the goalkeeper, who is sighted, coach and a third guide can each tell players which part of the field they’re in.

Penalties and fouls are more complicated. Blind soccer has two-minute penalties like hockey, foul-outs like basketball and penalty kicks for certain fouls like soccer, trying to limit injuries while all four players in the field are blinded.

“There’s a ton of different aspects of the different games that are kind of pulled into it, which I think is really cool,” Drake said. “I wouldn’t want to be a ref for it, but it is a really cool game.”

The United States Association of Blind Athletes (USABA) approached Drake and other blind schools across the country for the summit. Team USA has yet to field a blind soccer team in the Paralympics since the sport’s introduction in 2004.

Now, when the U.S. hosts the 2028 Paralympics, Team USA will also make its blind soccer debut with the help of Drake and others who are growing the game with the help of the summit.

“I’m excited for this opportunity to be able to bring this to the state of Kansas and kind of get more people into the game just because it is so new and most people haven’t heard of it,” Drake said.

The Kansas State School for the Blind is looking into adding a blind soccer field when it updates its track, and Drake plans to take advantage — not only using the sport in school activities, but also holding clinics and hosting kids from across Kansas to play blind soccer in Kansas City.

Drake got her start in teaching through Leawood Middle School’s special education program. While working with a deafblind student, Drake was asked to be an intervener: a trained individual who can bridge the communication gap between a deafblind individual and the world.

So she took part in a training program at Utah State University to become credentialed. During the process, someone who worked at the Kansas School for the Blind reached out.

“They had a student that was coming to them that was deaf and blind, and could really use an intervener to help with him,” Drake said. “My student was aging out and moving on to high school, and so I decided to do that switch and I moved to the School for the Blind.”

After the switch in 2014, Drake is where “she’s supposed to be.” A multi-sport athlete growing up, she said a lot of students at her school weren’t allowed to play sports in their previous schools because of a fear of injury.

Her job includes making modifications to those sports and activities to give them that opportunity: for example, in Capture the Flag, the flag is a football with bells on it.

“It’s just little modifications that can be made but include everyone in the class,” Drake said. “That’s what makes it huge: they are feeling what it’s like to be in a team and to be able to participate with their friends.”

“I’ve been able to see firsthand when these kids get to participate and how much it means to them. That is amazing to watch, just being able to see them light up.”

Blind soccer is the next step in Drake’s job as an adaptive P.E. teacher: If she can field enough players, Drake plans to team up with an Oklahoma School for the Blind teacher and possibly go to a tournament in Texas. The end goal is a blind soccer league in Kansas City, just like the club soccer leagues across Kansas.

First, she’s focused on raising funding at the Kansas State School of the Blind, which will play host to its fourth annual 5K (raising funds toward a new gym and track renovations) on Sept. 24.

“It’s a really great time to come out if anybody wants to see what we’re all about,” Drake said. “It’s a good little snippet of what our school has to offer.”