Dozens of student athletes from three schools competed Saturday in the first wrestling and cheerleading tournament since the COVID-19 pandemic at the New York Institute for Special Education (NYISE), a Bronx school for students with visual impairments.
Coaches and athletes alike from NYISE said the tournament marked a huge milestone in the school’s return after the COVID pandemic with many saying the competition and teamwork helped them come out of their shell.
“ Now they’re learning how to push themselves,” said wrestling coach and rec assistant David Baez at the event Saturday. “They’re learning how to find who they are when it comes to the mat, when it comes to the workout, when it comes to the training and plus the confidence.”
The Bronx home team, the NYISE Stars, took on the Overbrook Huskies and the Maryland Bees in a full day of wrestling matches and cheerleading performances at the school’s campus on Pelham Parkway. Athletes competed to win, but there was no shortage of sportsmanship as competitors encouraged other students, even if they weren’t on the same team.
Bernadette Kappen, Executive Director of NYISE, said sports and extracurriculars are just as much about opportunities for students to engage socially as they are about athletics, especially after the disruption of the global pandemic.
“ As a person who’s blind and visually impaired, there’s a sense of isolation to begin with,” Kappen said. “So then not to be able to be with their friends and interact was really difficult. We tried – we went remote for all the classes right away and we tried to do different kinds of social things online, but it just doesn’t work.”
Ashley Rivera Reyes, 15, competed Saturday in both wrestling and cheering. The young athlete said that the sports help with her self-confidence.
“I had to work on speaking up and not being shy with, when it comes to doing the cheer and being comfortable with my peers,” Rivera Reyes said.
Years after the initial lockdown of the pandemic, students, especially teens, were still facing social challenges after months of isolation and remote learning. A 2022 report on post-COVID Access and Engagement in education by the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) found that families and teachers of students with visual impairments or blindness reported students showing signs of persistent loneliness, isolation and at times reluctance to engage in socialization.
Iolanta Mamatkazina, 13, said it was her first year doing cheerleading. She wanted to join the team to step out of her comfort zone and engage with her peers.
“Usually I don’t talk to a lot of people,” Mamatkazina said. “So, I decided that this year might be the year that I start to be on a team and make more friends and kinda experience what life would be like in a group of people that I’m doing a sport with.”
But the revived sports program helped Bronx students with more than just social skills and confidence. NYISE Wrestling Coach Earl Haley said that this year, the school’s wrestlers worked hard learning a grappling hold called the “Half Nelson,” where an athlete secures their opponent by reaching an arm under the armpit and behind the neck.
He said that wrestlers at the NYISE must rely on different skills to learn the sport, as it is most often learned by watching. Instead, he coaches athletes who have vision impairments or who are blind by teaching them to use touch.
“ We try to work a lot with them on the ground because once they’re on the mat, then that’s something we can work on because then they can find the person,” Coach Haley said.
Amairi Kendra Rey Rodriguez, 15, won several of her matches on Saturday. She said she started wrestling at five years old, but was coming back from an injury she sustained earlier that training season and had to start off slowly. Still, the young woman was quick and confident on the mat, telling the Bronx Times, “ It takes a lot of practice.”
But Rey Rodrigeuz just joined the cheer squad this school year. She said that her injury kept her from making all the practices, but she said she was proud of herself and proud of her team.
“ It was a good match,” said Rey Rodriguez. “The only thing I was looking forward to is just to have fun and just make friends.”
