Today we’d like to introduce you to John Marquez.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I went blind in 2009 and like most blind people who lose their vision abruptly, I didn’t really know what I was doing. It took me a while to figure out some resources and figure out how to live a blind life. I had a lot of people tell me to relax, sit back, and they would take care of me and pretty much coddle me in a sense to where they didn’t want me to do anything out of my comfort. I was a pretty independent person before I lost my vision, so I need to be pushed out of my comfort level so I could get back to being an independent person. It took me a while to get there. I spent a lot of the first few years sitting around watching TV and not doing too much. Going out here and there with friends, but just basically to a friend’s house, not really going out in public. But eventually, I started asking around to find out if there was blind sports since I was very active when I was younger. My best friend finally called and set me up with a beepball team and from then on, my world opened up.
I was really pushed out of my shell and I started doing more with my life. I started taking advantage of the opportunities available to me and getting out there and starting my life again. This is when I met Ricky Castaneda who co-founded Metro Blaze with me. He starting doing soccer and is the reason we started our nonprofit group with blind soccer. But, because blind soccer was such a new sport to the USA, there was not a lot of resources and opportunities to play so we decided to create our own resources and then he and I made the USA national blind soccer team and continued to grow our organization. We both continue to play blind sports and our goal is to be the best we can so we can make it to 2028 for the LA Summer Paralympic Games. We hope to continue to bring in more blind sports to our Metro Blaze Blind Athletes of Texas organization and provide resources and opportunities for other blind individuals out there to find their place and community.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It has not been easy road at all. At the beginning I had a lot of people try to help but since I was very independent it was a struggle to find a good balance. But once I became more independent with the help of blind sports, I started going back to school to finish college, and then I started Metro Blaze Blind Soccer with Ricky Castaneda and when we expanded into Goalball, we became Metro Blaze Blind Athletes of Texas. It was very bumpy at first because Ricky and I were doing multiple sports around Texas and trying to learn what we could from other players and teams. Blind soccer is a relatively new sport to the USA so there were no real coaches and no real official players. We had a lot to learn and had no one to really teach us. We were all on a learning curve together and so when we thought we had everything figured out, we would have to learn something new. And we had to change directions a few different times.
With Metro Blaze specifically, it was about the same. We were a new organization that started simply because we found there wasn’t really an organization like what we needed. And so it was a lot of trial and error of how can we organize, how can we recruit, how can we spread awareness and it still is. We are still a new organization but we have grown so much in such a short time and have had a lot of exposure that I feel we have become a leading group in helping push for more blind sports availability. And with being on the national team, it has helped us with making connections and learning and share what we have learned to others so more blind athletes can play.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
What I do in my life is help run my organization Metro Blaze Blind Athletes of Texas and I am also trying to build up my personal brand, Moose the Blind Athlete. I’m trying to help my organization get exposure and awareness to help create resources and opportunities for other blind or people with low vision. I want to be a voice to inspire others who may have started out like me when I lost my vision, to help them learn about all the opportunities they may not know are available to them. My organization helps get people out and help them stay active. We’re getting them exercise and to meet new people. My hope is to not only show other blind individual what they are capable of, but even sighted people as well. There are so many events we go to where the general public has no knowledge of all the blind sports out there for us to play. I am very proud of the work I have done in both my personal life and with my organization.
Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?
I was a class clown and jokester. I tried to have a lot of fun and make people laugh. I was in boy scouts from the age of 11 to 18. So I did a lot of camping and community service. I played football for most of my life but played and tried nearly everything that was available to me which was nearly all sports, but football is where I landed and being from Texas, it just felt right. I was pretty average in school. I probably could have pushed myself harder, but I kept my grades decent enough.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.metroblazebaotx.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/moose_the_blind_athlete
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/john.gonzalez.7121614?mibextid=wwXIfr&rdid=TrRDrOXNtqIo8vhE&share_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fshare%2F19diyJa5d7%2F%3Fmibextid%3DwwXIfr#
