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Antoine Craig: a blind soccer star who guides others
Clip: Season 2 | 5m 10sVideo has Closed Captions
Antoine Craig is a member of the first-ever U.S. Men’s National Blind Soccer team
Antoine Craig plays for the first-ever U.S. Men’s National Blind Soccer team and he’s a Paralympic track and field athlete, ranked number two in the U.S. The star athlete went to VCU, lives in Richmond, and volunteers to coach others with visual impairments. He’s hoping to make it to the 2024 Paralympic Games. Craig’s advice is, “Don't be afraid to dream. Aim for the moon and land on the clouds.”
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VPM News Focal Point is a local public television program presented by VPM
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VPM News Focal Point
Antoine Craig: a blind soccer star who guides others
Clip: Season 2 | 5m 10sVideo has Closed Captions
Antoine Craig plays for the first-ever U.S. Men’s National Blind Soccer team and he’s a Paralympic track and field athlete, ranked number two in the U.S. The star athlete went to VCU, lives in Richmond, and volunteers to coach others with visual impairments. He’s hoping to make it to the 2024 Paralympic Games. Craig’s advice is, “Don't be afraid to dream. Aim for the moon and land on the clouds.”
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship(participants shouting) ANTOINE CRAIG: My name is Antoine Craig and I'm on the U.S. Men's National Blind Soccer Team.
I'm also a U.S. Paralympic track and field athlete which I'm ranked number two in the country.
We are the first ever blind soccer team in America and I believe that we have an opportunity to not just show up in LA 28 for the Olympics there, but I think we have a good chance of winning it.
So tell me how to dribble.
I'm a mental health therapist.
Right now I'm trying to focus more on like individuals with disabilities and men's issues.
Like I've gotten to the point now, like in life and career, like I'm able to give back and kind of be that beacon that I didn't have when I first lost my vision.
So, I've been able to volunteer different stuff.
The next group.
Thank you.
We have the kids coming out from the Department of the Blind and Visually Impaired here in Richmond, and they're part of a summer camp and they introduce them to different experiences.
KEAGAN ANGEVIN: Really appreciative of Antoine and all of his work.
You know, I know he's got a very busy schedule with training, competing.
You know, I think any chance we get to have a role model within the community to work with us at Sportable and work with us at the Department of the Blind and Visually Impaired.
I think it's incredible.
So we're really appreciative of him coming out and excited for a good day.
ANTOINE CRAIG: Well, eventually you get to the point where we can do this.
(football rattling) Our balls, most balls have eight to six, like rattles, like metal casings in it that actually has ball bearings in it, and it makes a rattling noise.
So when it moves, it allows us to track it with our ears 'cause we're all actively tracking the ball.
[Interviewer] Oh, that's interesting.
ANTOINE CRAIG: So if we get a little, certain amount of distance then we got to say voice.
So your hearing has to be pretty, pretty on point.
KEAGAN ANGEVIN: Blind soccer is all about communication and, you know I think that's one of the really incredible things about the game is you really get to kind of key in on who your teammates are, who your coaches are, who your guides are.
And that's, that's one of the things I love.
And so I'd say communication is probably the biggest thing.
And then certainly just trying to orient yourself on the field, learning, you know, similar learning where your teammates voices are but also learning kind of where, you know different pockets on the field are.
And certainly the touch of the ball.
Antoine's an incredible role model.
He obviously, he's on the national team with blind soccer and then he does some other adaptive sports throughout as well.
Huge influence within not only the Richmond community but also national community.
Good, good, good.
Here, here, here, here.
ANTOINE CRAIG: Middle school is really when I started to notice like big changes in my vision.
I was unable to see books, read books in school, the fine print, I couldn't see the chalkboard, and that became a struggle for me.
Like, I wasn't able to, you know, complete like many classes, my grades were suffering just so many things.
And I have a genetic condition called retinitis pigmentosa and it's just basically where your retinas are unable to produce a protein to help fuel them.
So they slowly start to die over time.
The doctor was a little, like, very blunt and they basically told me that I have retinitis pigmentosa and there's nothing I can do about it.
I was going to lose my vision and I was going to go blind.
On my own, I had to kind of start the journey of like figuring out what's my next steps, right?
As a blind person, like how do I even like function now?
Like what do I do?
I had a friend at the time like convinced me to go to school because I really was just uncertain on what I was going to do next.
Like many jobs, you know, I couldn't do anything at that point.
I didn't have any cane skills and I didn't know how to use voiceover or any like, assistive technology.
I didn't know about any of this stuff.
So, school was the next natural progression.
Yeah, there you go.
So after grad school, I started my own private practice called Legendary Youth Counseling.
And one of my goals was to make myself available to individuals with disabilities and individuals who are similar to my story, right?
Like, I'm a young man who lost their vision and maybe not know where to go and I just want to make sure I'd be that beacon for them.
Many of my clients, young men, clients that come in like they don't recognize that there's more emotions besides anger and happy, right?
There's a whole plethora of emotions in the middle there.
And just introducing them to those emotions is something I find very valuable and helpful to them.
Like to allow them to express themself more and not internalize so many things.
Because it's really easy, as a young man, to go through this world and not really be heard or have your feelings validated.
That's why I make it a point, like even with my social media, I try to make sure that like you guys see me doing everything.
(football rattling) ♪ Have you seen ♪ ANTOINE CRAIG: You see all this stuff, all the opportunities that we have.
♪ Dream to be the best ♪ ANTOINE CRAIG: When I first lost my vision I did not know this whole world of athletics, Sports existed.
And I think that would've sped up my ability to just overcome the challenges of like being down or being sad about it.
I think I could have turned into who I am today a little bit quicker.
Don't be afraid to dream, you know, aim for the moon, land on the clouds, right?
So anything that you want to do, there's always somebody out there who can, who's already doing what you want to do.
So just reach out to them, ask them how they did it.
Find you a mentor.
Don't be afraid to try different things, you know I think that's the biggest message, the biggest takeaway.
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