The campers stepped into the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex in Cranberry, firing questions.
“Are we on the ice?”
Counselor: “No, we’re not on the ice yet.”
“Can we see the rinks?”
No, they could not, because of these 58 young people, ages 5 to 18, half are completely or almost completely blind. The others have a range of vision impairments. As part of this week’s Envision Blind Sports camp, they were bused Wednesday from Slippery Rock to the Penguins Rinks to try blind hockey.
Yep — blind ice hockey. It’s a new thing, and Pittsburgh looks to be a driving force behind growing it, here and across North America and beyond.