Paralympic silver medalist Tyler Merren, a Wayland High School graduate, is planning to compete internationally with the U.S. goalball team again in Tokyo in 2020

Merren, 34, and his wife and four children, now live in Coral Springs, Fla., is a community worker and public speaker. He told Coral Springs Talk he likes living here because it has many amenities for visually impaired and its walkability.

Goalball is designed for athletes with a vision impairment. Participants compete in teams of three, and try to throw a ball that has bells embedded in it into the opponents’ goal. Because the players have different levels of visual impairment, they all wear blindfolds to even the field.

Before competing in Japan, he earned the silver medal n the sport at the Rio Paralympic games in 2016. The U.S. Mens goalball team will particpate at the IBSA International Qualifier in Fort Wayne, Ind. in July.

“It’s a really big deal because it hasn’t been the U.S. in 20 years,” said Merren. “I’m really excited about it. I’m going to bring my wife and kids.”

Growing up in Wayland, Merren was diagnosed with an underdeveloped retina as a toddler. He discovered at the age of 14 that the text in his books were getting too hard to read and he was having to sit closer to the front of his classes. He was going blind and was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa.

Many schools in Michigan were set up for the visually impaired and Merren had teacher consultants who helped him with accommodations. He learned to walk with a cane, learned adaptive technology with a screen that read material, and began learning braille.

Throughout his challenges, Merren became a National Honor Society student and graduated at Wayland High School with honors. 

He attended a sports education camp for visually impaired students when he was 15 years old. One of the sports they taught was goalball, which he picked up quickly and was scouted by the Western Michigan University Wrecking crew to play. While competing, the U.S. Olympic coaches saw him and invited him to the Olympic training center in Colorado Springs to play for the USA team as one of their youngest players ever.

He attended Western Michigan University and continued to play goalball, later graduating with a bachelor of science degree in exercise science.

Merren met his wife, Leanne, playing goalball. Avisually impaired and legally blind, she lost her vision due to retinoblastoma.  The couple has been married almost 17 years and have four children: a stepson, 19, and three girls ages 16, 11 and 3 who are homeschooled. 

After working for 24 Hour Fitness for six years, Merren decided to create his own company called Revision Training LLC., to provide training for both body and mind in a spiritually safe environment. A lot of his personal training is done in the Maplewood community he lives in, as well as the Ralph Diaz and Dede Gilmore Memorial Parks nearby.