Photo courtesy of Rachel Breton
We were on the road at the end of November, so it’s time to circle back to give you last month’s most read stories from Purpose2Play.
Between Daniel Kish teaching other blind people how to use echolocation in sports to Lionel Sanders coming back from addiction to turn into a pro triathlete, what a lineup we have!
Our top five:
5. Daniel Kish Helps Blind Athletes “See” By Teaching Human Echolocation
When Daniel Kish wants to ride his bike through a busy intersection, he calls upon his tongue, not his eyes, to decipher whether it’s safe to pedal through.
With rapid-fire loud sharp clicks of his tongue, he scans his environment and updates his brain as he goes, much like a bat or a dolphin does.
Kish, 49, lost his vision at 13 months old to retinoblastoma, an aggressive form of cancer, but he uses human echolocation, or flash sonar, to navigate the world.
4. Life as a Pro Athlete: Sky Blue FC’s Rachel Breton
“Think about it. If I break my leg and can’t play again, what do I have to fall back on? Nothing if I don’t pursue education,” Breton said. “I can’t play forever. I don’t want to play forever. You want to meet opportunity and not have opportunity meet you and be unprepared.”
3. From Drug Addiction to Ironman World Championship, Lionel Sanders Perseveres
“My personality changed once I got into university,” Sanders said. “I prided myself as this guy who could party hard with the rest of them and still make the honor roll and still do well in sports, all at once.”
Soon, Sanders realized the need to excel at everything was no longer necessary. He didn’t need to go to class. He didn’t have to wait till dark to smoke.
The realizations lead to Sanders smoking on a daily basis. As his addiction progressively worsened, Sanders became desensitized. Suddenly, it wasn’t just marijuana; Sanders was on whatever drugs he could get his hands on.
Cocaine, mushrooms, molly, LSA, ecstasy—everything was fair game.
Miles Moscato doesn’t mind going left.
In fact, when he hears the opposition — the coaches on the sideline or the defensive players in front of him — talking about pushing him in that direction, it only serves as an additional motivating force.
The challenge for those opponents is that Moscato, whose left hand became trapped in an amniotic band and never properly developed in utero, is already more than motivated to show off his one-handed skill-set and beat them to the net where he can score in an instant.
“Too many guys are coming back [from service] and trying to fit in. We’re not going to fit in,” Boyer said. “We’re different. What’s inside you is something that led you to some of the darkest parts of the world, fighting for people you’ve never met.”
