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Blindness no bar to Bonner sports enthusiast [The Philadelphia Inquirer](Philadelphia Inquirer (PA) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Apr. 11--You can be sure that wherever senior Matt Wallace sits to eat lunch in the Monsignor Bonner cafeteria, the table talk will be about sports. By lunchtime, Wallace, who hopes to become a broadcast journalist, has already immersed himself in the day's sports. Yet he never tires of it. Upon arising each morning, Wallace turns on ESPN or one of the satellite radio stations to find out what's happened in the sports world, in preparation for his weekday stint on MBTV, his school's student-run TV station. "His sports knowledge is awesome," said Steve York, Wallace's friend and fellow lunch-table talk participant. "He can go from talking about the Final Four to the NFL. And the way he gets around is incredible." In his excitement to talk about his friend, York virtually glosses over the fact that Wallace is blind. He was born without eyes, a condition known as bilateral anophthalmia, which occurs about once in 100,000 births. Wallace, who wears a pair of prosthetic eyes during the day, can talk about sports from an athlete's standpoint, too. He was a member of the swim team in three of his four years at Bonner. And he has the athlete's aches and pains to show for it. Many of them have come from collisions with pool walls or getting tangled up with lane lines. When Wallace transferred from the Overbrook School for the Blind to Bonner for his freshman year, he was looking for a physical activity. Since he had done some recreational swimming at Overbrook, he thought he'd give the swim team a try. "Basketball was certainly out of the question, but I thought I was a pretty good swimmer. So I decided to give it a try," Wallace said. "I was a little cocky. I found out the swim team was a whole different game." He was ready to quit when coach Steve Stuhltrager talked him into staying. The team made some adjustments for Wallace, who will be the first to admit that he doesn't always swim in the straightest of lines. He's tapped on the head or shoulder with a padded pole to let him know when he must make a turn in the water so that he doesn't hit the wall. "One time when I flipped [for a turn,] I missed the wall," said Wallace, who swam in the team's sprint freestyle events. "There have been times when I've hit the wall." With his high school swimming career now over, Wallace looks back on the challenges with fondness. He's just sorry he did not swim his junior season. "I swam my freshman and sophomore years. It's a good question why I took my junior year off," said Wallace, who turned 18 last month. "I guess I was lazy. I regretted it after the fact." He also regrets that he did not give the 500-yard freestyle more of a try before the final meet of the season. He now says it's his favorite event. "The first time I did it, as a sophomore, it took me about 81/2 minutes to finish," Wallace said. "In the last meet, I did it in 71/2, and I loved it. You can make three or four mistakes and still be competitive." Although Wallace didn't score a lot of points for Bonner, he proved to be a key ingredient for the team. "He's so inspirational," Stuhltrager said. And not just to team members. Nick Gomberg, a friend who is also blind, particularly admired Wallace's effort for the swim team. Gomberg is a junior at Lower Merion and has known Wallace since they were very young. "I tried wrestling in ninth grade," Gomberg said. "I appreciate what a commitment swimming takes." Wallace's stepmother, Lucy -- his birth mother died of cancer when he was very young -- says the move from Overbrook to Bonner made a huge difference in his life. Up to that point, he had always attended schools for the visually impaired. Wallace said he wasn't in favor of the move from Overbrook. "I wanted to stay where I was. I felt very comfortable there," he said. "But I guess it's worked out for the best. I've certainly grown up a lot." His stepmother said she knew he needed more of a challenge as soon as she met him. "Matt's come a long way," she said. "When I came into the picture, he was 4. He was very pampered. I remember him sitting in a corner rocking. He was always intelligent and knew how to play the system." With his June 5 graduation around the corner, Matt Wallace is preparing for his college career at Temple. He goes to the university two Fridays a month to familiarize himself with the Broad Street campus. He's also checking out the latest computer software. "I'm trying to learn to do a Power Point presentation -- and that's not easy for a non-sighted person," he said with a chuckle. He's also basking in the knowledge that he made honors for the third marking period. "Physics had been keeping me off [the honors list], but I made it this time." Contact staff writer Don Beideman at 610-696-2652 or [email protected]. |