Wolverhampton player spoilt for choice at Paralympics

Paralympics footballer Darren Harris from Wolverhampton is hoping to score a gold medal.

spoke with the player.

Many athletes dream of getting a chance to compete at the Paralympics – but in Beijing, Darren Harris managed to qualify in two sports.

The 35-year-old, who grew up in Brighton Place, off Merridale Road could have chosen to do either judo or football, and in 2008 he chose judo.

However, this time around he has picked football and will be going head to head with other blind players from around the world.

Team GB were playing against Spain in their opening game yesterday afternoon.

The former Castlecroft Primary School pupil has been a key figure for the England blind five-a-side football team for many years, and even captained the side on a number of occasions but he chose to give that all up to make his Paralympic debut in the judo event.

"I would loved to have done both but I was told that wasn't going to be possible," says Darren, whose mother Jean Garwood and father Everton still live in Wolverhampton.

"I had done the footy for such a long time and had given it my all, I wanted a new challenge and to do something different."

At the time Darren, who was diagnosed at just 18 months with Retinoblastoma, was ranked number two in Europe and number nine in the world in the 66kg category in judo.

However, he says football has been the sport he has played since he was a boy. "I learned to play football when I could still see as I lost my sight when I was around 10," says Darren, who has 10 half-brothers and sisters.

"After leaving primary school I went to a school for the blind in Worcester where I was able to carry on playing sports."

Darren, who is a striker and plays for the West Bromwich visually impaired football team, says his mother has only seen him play a couple of matches and he thinks she will be interested in seeing him at the Paralympics.

"I'm really excited about playing at the Paralympics," says Darren, who had 84 England caps when he 'retired' from football in 2007 to concentrate on judo.

"I feel like I'm playing better now than I ever did – I don't know what the reason is, but long may it continue. I planned to retire after Beijing, I didn't honestly believe I'd be at 2012 but officially I went back to football last June.

"I love judo, but it's a young man's game and I only started playing it in 2000. The training we used to do for judo was phenomenal. I just do judo as a social thing now though."

Since returning to football Darren has collected a further 11 international caps, taking his total to date to 95.

The squad will be playing on the pitch that previously played host to the Olympic hockey competition and will be watched by 12,000 spectators.

All the players in the five-a-side tournament are visually impaired. But because they have different degrees of deficiency, they have to wear blindfolds to ensure nobody has an advantage.

Blind footballers mainly use their hearing and this means the crowd has to stay quiet and players navigate by the sound of their team-mates, by the shouts of their coach and by the bell tinkling in the ball.

"When I was at primary school football was one of those things that we always wanted to be doing – I remember we used to scrape the snow off the pitches so we could play," says Darren, who worked for a computer company as an applications developer before he became a professional athlete.

"My friends and I didn't need much encouragement to get out and do sports – now I do mentoring with Dame Kelly Holmes and I've just become patron of the Childhood Eye Cancer Trust so I'm pretty busy at the moment."

Darren says if his team play to the best of their abilities there is no reason why they shouldn't walk away with a medal. He says: "We have been putting in a lot of work over the last few months so we stand a good chance, but there will be other good teams out there."

Darren, who now lives in Sutton Coldfield, says growing up in Wolverhampton he remembers playing at Bantock Park and going swimming at Central Baths.

"You don't realise you have an accent until you leave Wolverhampton and when I went to secondary school I was teased mercilessly for the way I talked," he says.

"After that I lost my accent but now I really regret it as I do feel like I've lost part of my identity.

"Wolverhampton wasn't a great place when I was growing up but now I'm proud to say I come from there."