The last time Colorado Public Radio saw Tayler Moses was with Colorado School for the Deaf and Blind goalball team playing the Colorado Springs Police Department in a friendly match in front of a packed gym on campus.
Moses, who was born with a rare type of inherited eye disorder that causes severe vision loss at birth called Leber congenital amaurosis (LCA), would train hard for the sport every day. She still plays for the CSDB goalball even though she now attends Fountain-Fort Carson High School.
Her goal is to one day represent the United States in international competitions of the sport.
Moses took a huge step over the weekend by playing in the 2025 Goalball National Championships at the CSDB.
“I was really nervous at first. But once I got into the groove, it was really fun,” Moses said about her first adult competition and first national championships.
Moses played for the team Code Blue. The team was made up of players from Utah, Texas, and Florida. She was the only player on the team from Colorado. As a pool player, she was selected for the team because they needed an extra player.
The team had their work cut out for them: They never practiced together and met for the first time on the first day of the tournament.
Moses admitted there was a bit of a learning curve during the tournament. The speed of the rolls from players was no problem for her because she played against men's teams in high school. It was positioning that presented a challenge.
“It was definitely a completely different playing field,” Moses said. “I had to learn a different style because I'm used to playing on the wing line. But, they had me play on the hash mark on the center line.”
There’s plenty of excitement for the future of the sport not only in the country, but in Colorado. The sport’s national governing body, the United States Association of Blind Athletes, recently moved the goalball residency program to the United States Olympic and Training Center in Colorado Springs over the summer.
Stories of the sport’s legends written in Colorado
Eighteen teams from across the country competed in the two gyms at CSBD during the three-day tournament.
Some of the teams featured Paralympians like Amanda Dennis and Daryl Walker. One was on the comeback trail. The other closed out a legendary career.
Dennis competed at the championships for the first time in a year. The native of Peachtree City, Georgia, was born with aniridia which means she has no iris in her eyes. This causes the eyes to receive more sunlight than normal.
Her mother and her brother also have the condition. As a kid, Dennis started out trying to play soccer because of her brother. But she soon gave up sports altogether. She was introduced to goalball at a sports camp for the visually impaired hosted by BlazeSports America in Atlanta.
She made her competitive debut as a 7-year-old and won bronze with a team from Utah in the 2002 Youth National Championships. Dennis made her international debut with the U.S. Women’s National Goalball Team at the Malmo Lady Intercup at age 15.
Her Paralympic debut came in 2012 in London. The team finished eighth after winning the gold medal at the previous games in Beijing. But, Dennis and the team would climb back in the Paralympics winning the bronze medal at the 2016 Games in Rio and the silver medal in 2020 Games in Tokyo.
Team USA’s Paralympic rise came to a halt after the women’s team didn’t qualify for the 2024 Games in Paris despite winning the silver medal at the Parapan American Games in Santiago, Chile. Dennis was unable to help her team due to a torn biceps.
She said it was an experience that left her salty.
“I would just say that we did not have the best ending. All of the resilience that we learned in Tokyo. I think we kind of let that go when it came to the Pan Am Games,” Dennis said.
Another reason for the layoff was that she gave birth to a son with her husband Michael. The two met at the 2013 IBSA Goalball World Youth National Championships in Colorado Springs. Michael Dennis represented Germany in goalball at the 2016 and 2020 Games. He’s currently an assistant coach for the USA Men’s National Team and National Championships tournament director.
Amanda Dennis is now a 31-year-old veteran leader of the Valkyries from Atlanta. The team is made up of young players. Dennis has enjoyed her role in helping the young team.
“They're like kind of a fearless group of young girls who want to go out there and just be the best that they can. And so, I couldn't think of playing with a better group, or a more exciting group or a more loud group, or a more group that's just like the way that I was when I was young,” Amanda Dennis said.
For Walker, he played his first national championships in the CSDB in 2001. He made the decision to end his 25-year career at the same venue prior to playing on the weekend.
Walker was born with albinism, which means he lacks pigmentation, which affects his vision. He was born in Hoboken, New Jersey, and spent the majority of his life in Jacksonville, Florida. While attending the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind in St. Augustine, he said the sport found him. He admits that he didn’t like it at first.
“I was still kind of like glue to basketball, which was like my first passion. But then I realized I just couldn't see that well. So, I can't do these sports in the way that I would like,” Walker said. “And then, goalball just was the last resort that I would just like to do every now and then on the side, like a hobby.”
He played in local and regional competitions until trying out and making the national team in 2003. Walker made his international debut in May of that year at the Vilnius-Trakai Goalball Invitational. He lists Lithuania as one of his favorite countries to compete against.
Walker went on to make his Paralympic debut at the 2008 Games in Beijing; the team placed fourth. He’s competed for a medal in all three Paralympic Games he’s appeared in. He won the silver medal at the 2016 Games. He placed fourth in the 2020 Games in Tokyo, which would prove to be his last.
Walker, who now lives in Sandy, Oregon, continued to play the sport on the domestic level. He decided to retire after the national championships to focus more on outdoor activities.
“I've been getting into things like camping, hiking, climbing. I’m looking to get into some backpacking and skiing here pretty soon and stuff,” Walker said. “So, it's really just about taking a step back from the game that I've been playing for the past 25 seasons and getting more involved with the activities that Oregon likes to provide.”
Going into the weekend, his Seattle-based King Cobras were the defending champions. The team is made up of players from the Pacific Northwest. And over the weekend, he had the opportunity to win an unprecedented seventh national championship.
“It's fine. I'm gonna leave everything all out there,” Walker said. I’m going to work my hardest and stuff. “And everybody knows this is my last. Everybody respects it.”
Walker had previously been on the California Crown team that won four national titles in a row. So, he was confident that his team could win its third in a row.
Goalball sets up residency in Colorado Springs
The USABA has fielded men’s and women’s goalball national teams since the sport became an official Paralympic sport that debuted at the 1976 Paralympic Games.
Since then, the USA has won 12 Paralympic and 11 World Championship medals. The USABA set up its first-residency program for the sport at the Turnstone Center in Fort Wayne, Indiana, in October 2015.
In an effort to continue that success on the road to the 2028 Paralympics in Los Angeles, the very first resident program at the United States Olympic and Paralympic Training Center in Colorado Springs began in June.
Michael Dennis said the move will be huge for the teams’ performances in the future.
“They have recovery equipment there. They have access to sports psychology, They have access to athletic trainers,” Michael Dennis said. “So like it's a huge step up from like all the resources around playing goalball in relation to Fort Wayne.”
Having the sport based in Colorado Springs also allows more exposure to students at the CSDB like Stevie Zylstra, who is in ninth grade at the school.
Like Moses, Zylstra is visually impaired due to LCA. When he’s not running the audio and visuals for the school’s band, he’s playing for the goalball team.
“It's encouraged me to really participate in goalball and really try to get better,” Zylstra said.
Zylstra had quite the experience when the U.S. men’s national team visited the school and practiced with the goalball team in May.
“It was really cool. We got to play with them. I got hit by a ball from one of them,” Zylstra said.
He interacted with more Paralympians at the tournament over the weekend. He also was allowed to hold some of their medals. His stepmother Ali even became a fan of the sport.
“For me I don't even play goalball and that was really encouraging to me,” Ali Zylstra said.
According to the USABA, the resident program will consist of three to four on-court training sessions and two to three weight room sessions per week. That’s along with one to two goalball specific training sessions. The program will run through December 12, 2025.
Walker caps off storybook career with a golden goal in OT. Dennis starts strong march to LA28
The National Championships didn’t disappoint.
Amanda Dennis led her Valkyries team to a dominating 10-0 win over fellow Atlanta team the Blazers. The new mom knows that she has a long way to go before she’s back before competing on the international level again.
“After giving birth, your body goes through a lot of changes, and then getting back into sport is really hard,” Dennis said. “I'm facing that and seeing that now. So, I hope to come to some training camps next year. But building back into it right now is kind of where I'm at.”
Amanda Dennis said she will be making some trips to Colorado Springs on her road to the 2028 Paralympic Games in Los Angeles — dubbed LA28. Her next international competition is the ISBA World Goalball Championships in Hangzhou, China.
And Walker closed out his 25-year career in a magical fashion. Trailing by three points throughout the gold medal match against the DC Stars, the King Cobras battled back into the final seconds to force overtime.
With the crowd behind him. Walker hit the golden goal to win the match 12-11 and a seventh unprecedented national championship. The CSDB gym went into a frenzy. The crowd carried Walker off into glory.
Walker described it like an NBA game.
“It was like a fantasy of mine as a kid and stuff like that to be a part of that,” Walker said. “Just going to war with all that. The whole support that the fans gave and everything was what I needed.”
Dennis and Walker won the Tom Parrigin Award as the named most valuable players in their respective tournaments. An emotional Walker, whose father passed away in 2013 and wife couldn’t attend the tournament due to an illness, paid tribute to his former national team coach who passed away in 2021.
“In 2001, this is where I was with him for my first men’s national Goalball Championship. In 2003 for my first training camp. I was here upstairs with him for my first training camp. He was my first coach to go to Lithuania with Team USA.”
Parrigin was also the coach who called him to try out for the national team.
“He was my coach at my first Paralympic Games in 2008. So at the end of the day, Tom Parrigin, if you are looking down on me right now, thank you man. I love you and I appreciate you,” Walker said. “I appreciate everybody and stuff for the sport of goalball and it's my game and it's always going to be with me.”
