The entire crowd at a high school basketball game stayed silent for a blind player, so she could hear the hoop.
17-year-old Jules Hoogland has been fully blind since being born with a rare disorder called retinopathy of prematurity, in which abnormal blood vessels grow in the eyes of premature babies.
But her life changed dramatically after that video went viral on social media, and she was flooded with interview requests from everywhere. She says all the fan mail that she’s getting is interesting and fun and something she never expected in all her life.
But the moment that catapulted the Zeeland East High School student to the heights of fame was when she stepped onto the basketball court for the second time against Zeeland West High School during a Unified Sports game in Michigan.
Hoogland was awarded a free throw in front of the packed gymnasium that went silent when she lined up the shot so she could hear the backboard being tapped before she threw the ball.
As soon as the 11th grader’s aim landed in the middle of the basket, all 2,500 members of the audience jumped up in applause.
Many people were moved by the video, including her mother, who was scrolling through Facebook at work and saw the team’s video going viral.
She then saw that it was about her daughter and was over the moon.
Hoogland said, “She then told me, ‘I can’t stop watching it and every time I watch it I cry’.”
Watch: School Basketball Crowd Stays Silent for a Blind Player So She Can Hear the Hoop
And you thought March Madness was exciting. Zeeland Public Schools Unified Basketball took over the court this morning, and the crowd went WILD! #ZpsLearningForLife pic.twitter.com/jrnFeBy7bP
— Zeeland Public Schools (@zeelandschools) March 22, 2022
