Blinded by an IED, soldier finds renewal and a new goal

Lauren Ready and Jane Fugate | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption An IED took his sight, but this game gave him much more When an IED explosion took his sight during combat, he thought he'd spend the rest of his life listening to books on tape and sitting on the couch. But an email about a sport he'd never heard of got him out of the house.

ATLANTA – Casimir Werda is the quintessential athlete. He is fit, focused and a competitive goalball player.

Reaching such a high level of goalball competition for Werda is quite an achievement, considering he had never heard of the sport until a few years ago. "I'm blessed to find this sport, it changed my life," Werda said.

Werda grew up playing sports like football, wrestling and lacrosse. But these sports became a distant memory when he lost his sight in an explosion in 2007.

While on patrol in Iraq in the 1st Infantry Division as an Army specialist, an IED detonated near him and his convoy, causing Werda to lose both his eyes.

He spent a year in rehabilitation on both his mind and body. The recovery was "more about dealing with the blindness," Werda said. "The blindness was the hardest part."

Werda had given up all hope of being the athlete that he once was. "I pretty much thought I was done," he remembers. "I thought my life was over and I was going to become a couch potato and I was going to be listening to audio books."

Being a couch potato wasn't in the cards for Werda. An invitation to a goalball event for veterans introduced him to a sport that would prove life changing for him.

Watch the video above to see Werda in action on the goalball court.

Goalball is played exclusively by athletes with visual impairments. Imagine the game of dodgeball with three-pound balls being thrown at 30-40 miles per hour, and then imagine it with a blindfold on. Goalball was invented in 1946 as a type of rehabilitation for veterans who returned from World War II with visual impairments. Goalball is now one of 22 sports played at the summer Paralympics.

Werda currently plays on a goalball team made up of other veterans. He is aspiring to become a top U.S. goalball athlete, and possibly a Paralympian one day.

Watch the video below to learn more about this Paralympic sport.

This is reverse dodgeball with a blindfold on Imagine the game of dodgeball with three-pound balls being thrown at 30-40 miles per hour, and then imagine it with a blindfold on.

For more inspiring videos like this, LIKE Humankind's Facebook page.