This camp is teaching blind youth how to play hockey — and helping the sport grow internationally

Joe Fornasier thought his hockey days were over when, at just 10 years old, he lost 96 per cent of his vision in two months.

The aspiring young player was diagnosed with Leber hereditary optic neuropathy, a rare disorder causing vision failure, and told he would have to hang up his skates.

"It crushed me," he said. "Pretty much my whole world flipped upside down at that point."

But six years later, Fornasier became the youngest player ever to make the Canadian National Blind Hockey team. 

The turning point, he tells CBC News Toronto, was when he enrolled in the Canadian Blind Hockey summer camp a few years after losing his sight.

"That same passion and fire that I had in regular hockey—it came back to me and I was able to play again," said Fornasier, despite there only being a handful of players there.

The camp is now celebrating its seventh year at the Iceland Arena in Mississauga and is now attracting youth, adult and elite players from across the country as the sport grows in popularity, organizers say. 

Now 19 years old and a three-time gold-medallist with the national team, Fornasier says blind hockey is "light years ahead" of when he started playing and is giving blind and partially-sighted kids across Canada the chance to play the game.

A large part of what makes blind hockey possible is a hollow, adapted puck — three times the size of a regular hockey puck — which has eight ball-bearings rattling inside so players can hear it.

The game is also played with shorter nets. An attacking team must also pass at least once after crossing the offensive blue line before it can score.

The most notable difference is players must be legally blind, meaning they have no more than 10 percent of their vision, while goalies must be fully blind.

Canadian Blind Hockey executive director Matt Morrow says this year's camp will feature most of the national team, as well as some elite players trying to make the cut.

"Any time we host an event like this, it has the effect of growing the para sport of blind hockey," said Morrow, adding there are 55 participants this year, including players from Europe.

He says the camp not only helps develop the elite players, but gives them a chance to mentor youth players, some of whom are as young as six and lacing up for the first time.