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Joe Nauman has never asked for special treatment.
The Eastwood sophomore, the youngest of Linda and Ed Nauman’s three children, is legally blind. He has no vision in his right eye and 20 percent vision in his left eye.
But don’t feel sorry for Joe. He certainly doesn’t, and why should he? “I just do what other people do,” Nauman said. “I like to play sports. I’ve never let my vision stop me from doing what I loved.”
Last fall, Nauman was a starting nose guard on the Eagles’ football team and he also wrestles. He won 26 matches at 189 pounds as a freshman and he is 12-6 with 11 pins at 215 this season.
Nauman, 16, suffers from a condition called optic nerve hypoplasia (ONH), which is the underdevelopment of one or both optic nerves. The optic nerve is responsible for transmitting visual signals from the retina to the brain. “I have tunnel vision,” he said.
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For safety reasons, Joe Nauman wears a face mask while
wrestling. “I’ve never let my vision stop me from doing
what I loved,” said the Eastwood sophomore, who suffers
from optic nerve hypoplasia. (Press photo by Lee Welch/
www.FamilyPhotoGroup.com)
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“The way I’ve always described it to people is, cover your right eye completely and roll up a piece of paper with a hole the size of a nickel and look through that. That’s how I see. I have no peripheral vision. I can only see ahead of me, maybe less than two feet. It’s hard for me to describe my vision because I’ve never known anything else. I haven’t let my vision stop me.”
Linda said her son has had the same life experiences as any other teenager. Joe’s two older sisters, Samantha and Elizabeth, have normal vision. “He’s never let his impairment get in the way of what he wants to do,” Linda said. “He gets good grades, he plays sports and he is pretty good at them. He’s an amazing kid and he’s got goals for himself. He’s going to go to college.
“He has surprised us a lot, but we’ve never stopped him from what he wants to do. We’ve always encouraged him to be in whatever activity he wants to be in, within reason. He can’t ride a bicycle and he’ll never drive, but he’s an amazing kid. Most people don’t even know he has a problem. He just goes through life like everybody else,” she said.
Nauman took third place at last year’s Suburban Lakes League wrestling tournament and placed third at the sectional tournament. He was also a successful wrestler in grade school and junior high.
“One year, he was a grade-school state champ,” second-year Eastwood wrestling coach Joe Wyant said. “He was like 30-0 his eighth grade year before he lost. He’s really an easygoing, nice kid. Very polite. His parents try to keep him as normal as possible. They don’t like to think he has a disability, so they teach him to do other things in ordinary life.”
Wyant said the 5-foot-10 Nauman doesn’t waste much time getting after his opponents. Nauman admitted is number-one goal is to go for the pin in every match.
“Joe is very aggressive and that’s probably his biggest thing,” Wyant said. “He really goes after people. He’s strong and he’s got really good balance.”
Nauman, who is ambidextrous, had to overcome an early-season shoulder injury but he said he’s having an “all right” season thus far.
Nauman wears glasses equipped with transitional lenses than turn dark when he goes outside, because his eyes are light-sensitive. He also has astigmatism, which runs in his family. “Glasses don’t really help my vision,” he said, “they’re just there to protect my vision. I only have one good eye that works. When I hit sunlight, it’s not a good idea.”
Nauman has taken classes at the Sight Center of Northwest Ohio in Toledo and he said that organization, which serves a 16-county area, has been a tremendous help.
“I go there during the school year for a checkup and I’ve taken classes there for independent living,” he said. “They’ve helped me out a lot. They’re teaching me to be able to live on my own when I get older, that it’s not impossible. They offer techniques to live on our own and be independent.”
Nauman is in the process of learning to read Braille, and he wants to attend a four-year college and major in broadcast journalism. He has close to a 3.5 GPA at Eastwood.
Nauman views the world in ways many people with perfect eyesight never see. “I have a visual impairment, but I’ve never felt sorry for myself,” he said. “It’s just the way I’ve been raised, just like everybody else. I feel like you shouldn’t let it stop you because you have a visual impairment. I can overcome my (lack of) vision with my hearing and my other senses. There are other ways I can live, just like anybody else who has 20/20 vision.”
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