Joe Chadbourne loves going to movies.
He sits in front of the television for hours during football, baseball and basketball games.
He attends Firestone High School sporting events and is in his second year competing for the Falcons’ swim team.
Joe Chadbourne has been blind since birth.
But Chadbourne, a junior who turns 17 on Nov. 9, never has let his disability set his limits or limit his words.
“We say he watches the games, or he went to see a movie,” said his mother, Therese Chadbourne. “We talk like you would normally talk, even though he’s not really seeing it.
“He’s got a great sense of humor about his blindness. I’ll say, ‘Did you talk to Mr. Zupke?’ and he’ll say, ‘No, I didn’t see him all day.’ ”
During those kinds of exchanges, Firestone assistant principal Bob Zupke is the one who feels self-conscious.
“Joe will always say, ‘See you tomorrow, Mr. Zupke,’ ” Zupke said. “I’m shaking my head.
“Joe’s my hero,” Zupke said, choking up.
Chadbourne has Leber congenital amaurosis, which causes degeneration of the optic nerve. The doctor told the Chadbournes that on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being least affected by the disease, Joe was a 10.
Therese and her husband, Bill, were both carriers of the gene but didn’t know it until Joe was born. LCA is prevalent in two or three per 100,000 births, according to the Foundation for Retinal Research; it is found more in males than females and occurs 25 percent of the time when both parents are carriers. So the Chadbournes waited 2½ years before having their second son Jeffrey, now a Firestone freshman, who had no symptoms.
Because visually impaired youngsters are often overweight, the Chadbournes encouraged Joe to participate in sports and he wrestled at Litchfield Middle School.
Hooked on swimming
For his sophomore year at Firestone, Chadbourne and a friend decided to join the swim team. His friend lasted three days, quitting because of the time commitment of 20 hours a week, which includes 90-minute practices before school.
“I didn’t like his decision, but I understood it,” Chadbourne said.
His mother said Chadbourne was hooked after his first swim meet in 2010, a road trip to Upper Arlington High School in Columbus. He talked about it for a week afterward. And his mother was thrilled he didn’t leave any clothes behind at the hotel.
“I really like the competition,” Chadbourne said. “There are days I don’t want to be there. But I like it because it really calms me down after a long school day.”
His parents had fears because Chadbourne hadn’t done much swimming since he was little. They worried that his studies would suffer. Chadbourne participates in Firestone’s International Baccalaureate program and his grade-point average hovers between 3.7 and 3.8, his mother said.
He does his homework on a BrailleNote, an eight-key Braille keyboard. It is attached to a printer so copies can be made for his teachers and an embosser to make a copy in Braille for him. There are nights when Chadbourne gets home from practice at 6, stays up until 11 p.m. studying and must rise early for the 6 a.m. swim.
“I thought it was crazy at first,” said Therese Chadbourne, who teaches family consumer sciences at Firestone. “Once he got into it, he has been so dedicated. He hates to miss a practice. His teammates, the coaches, the teachers, everybody has been so supportive. It turned out to be the best thing that’s ever happened to him.”
The feeling is mutual.
“He probably won’t want to be considered an inspiration, but he is. I know he’s an inspiration to me,” Firestone swimming coach Cindy Virdo said. “He didn’t miss a day last year from being sick. I’ve said, ‘Why can’t we have a whole pool of kids like Joey?’ He’s a dream come true.”
Seeing the challenges
Chadbourne does miss the first hour of Tuesday practices for mobility training, which helps him learn the neighborhood around school and how to better use his cane. One Tuesday last year while he was gone, Virdo had the Falcons swim the length of the pool underwater with their eyes closed.
“They were struggling,” Virdo said. “Imagine what he goes through every single day and he has no fear. He gets out there and does it. No complaints, no fear.”
Junior Mark Belanger said he ended up in “a couple different lanes” as Virdo attempted to illustrate Chadbourne’s challenge.
“It was very weird. You’ve got to know where the wall is going to be based on the number of kicks you did under-water,” Belanger said.
But when Chadbourne joined the Falcons’ team, there were issues.
In her 15 years as coach, Virdo has had only one other disabled swimmer, Todd Eisinger, who had Down syndrome. She called a coach at University School in Cleveland who’d had experience with a blind swimmer. To let Chadbourne know when he’s nearing the wall and it’s time to turn, he suggested that Virdo use what she calls the “Joey Stick,” a broom handle with a tennis ball duct-taped on.
“When he does flip turns, either freestyle or backstroke, we’ll tap him,” Virdo said. “He caught on quickly. He has that trust in us that when we tap him, he’ll do his turn, push off and go.”
At least he trusts them now. Virdo conceded that Chadbourne “had a goose egg or two on his head” before they got the system down.
“It took months last year to get it timed right,” Chadbourne said. “I lost a lot of time at a couple meets because we didn’t have the turn perfect.”
Virdo said she was apprehensive when Chadbourne arrived and last year, “every day was a new surprise.”
“I think sometimes we have this assumption of the handicap. ‘Can he do this?’ ” she said. “Up in the weight room, whatever it is, nothing stops him.”
Chadbourne participates in all the training, which includes running, lifting weights and Pilates. Earlier this month, the Falcons held their annual triathlon, in which Chadbourne swam a mile, ran 2½ miles and biked 15 miles before the team’s picnic. He rode a tandem bike with Zupke, who volunteered so Jeffrey Chadbourne, also a team member, could compete. Zupke showed up at 10 on the morning after his daughter’s wedding.
“During the biking part, the kids are coming past us, heading back to the start. They’re saying, ‘Hey, Joe, good job, keep up the good work,’ ” Zupke said. “Before I can tell him, ‘That was Mark’ or ‘That was John,’ he’d say, ‘That was Mark Belanger,’ or ‘That was John Scantling.’ He recognizes the voices. He’s got a calculator in his head. A couple times he said, ‘We’ve got five more girls we have to pass.’ I’m thinking, ‘Joe, how the devil do you know?’ ”
Living a normal life
Outside of school, the Chadbournes make every attempt to treat Joe the same as Jeffrey.
On Browns Sundays or during Indians games, Bill Chadbourne will sit with Joe in front of the television and listen to the radio because the broadcasts are more descriptive. Chadbourne will go to movies with friends or with his father. They’ll sit in the back so when there is no dialogue, someone can whisper what’s happening.
“He’s a really good listener,” Therese Chadbourne said. “He can put things together and figure out what’s going on.”
Roller coasters are Chadbourne’s passion and a trip to Cedar Point is an annual family excursion. His mother said water park slides are another favorite, perhaps liking both because he doesn’t know what’s coming.
“I’m really big on somewhat dangerous stuff,” Chadbourne said. “I love to ride roller coasters. I’d probably bungee jump if you wanted me to. I love speed. I haven’t done much of that stuff, but I definitely would.”
Belanger said when the team practiced at the University of Akron this summer and finished with a jump off the high dive, Chadbourne jumped, too.
Help from friends
Chadbourne’s story is not just about his spirit and fearlessness, but how far his friends and teammates will go to help him.
Last year he ran regularly with a senior, Toby Alkire, now swimming at Queens College in Charlotte, N.C. Alkire didn’t mind pointing out when Chadbourne needed to lift his foot for a bump ahead or having Chadbourne touch his arm the whole way.
“He has such wonderful teammates who have been so supportive,” Therese Chadbourne said. “They always watch out for him. A lot of the swimmers are in the IB program, so a lot of them are in his classes. One is doing her community service hours by being his scribe in math. One of the guys is going to take notes for him in chemistry.”
Chadbourne’s sense of humor about his blindness may have helped gain his teammates’ acceptance, along with his dedication and commitment to improve.
“None of us look at it like we have to help him around,” Belanger said. “We’re running with him; it’s team activities.
“Seeing how much he’s grown and how much faster he’s gotten is ridiculous. He’s dropped astronomical amounts of time. Everybody on the team is amazed at how great he is.”
In the Firestone hallways during the four minutes of chaos between classes, Therese Chadbourne described it as like “the parting of the Red Sea” if students see Chadbourne coming.
“Everybody knows Joe,” Zupke said. “It’s touching to see the kids around here take care of him. Kids will help him down the steps, through the halls.
“A couple times the cane has been knocked out of his hand. He gets jostled a lot. It’s heart-wrenching to see that happen.”
But Therese Chadbourne said her son has never had an incident at school.
“Mr. Zupke said, ‘Let one child do something to this kid and they’re out of here,’ ” Therese Chadbourne said.
When Chadbourne graduates and heads to college with hopes of becoming a writer, his bond with Zupke might remain strong. Especially considering how much the administrator who has become Chadbourne’s personal protector says he takes from his “special” student.
“There are times I sit down and want to complain about something and I think about Joe,” Zupke said. “I’ve never seen him down, never seen him upset about anything. He’s always so positive.
“There are a lot of kids around here who could learn a lesson from Joe’s attitude and his work ethic and perseverance.”
Many at Firestone have already been touched by a lesson that knows no age limit. And the “Joey Stick” was nowhere in sight.
Marla Ridenour can be reached at mridenour@thebeaconjournal.com. Read her blog at http://marla.ohio.com/. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MarlaRidenour. Follow ABJ sports on Facebook at www.facebook.com/sports.abj.
