The Good Stuff: Blind Faith

BOSSIER CITY, La. (KSLA) - Eleven-year-old Kazyon Hinton lined up his sight, drew back the bowstring, and mere moments after a coach just inches away whispered “release,” his arrow zipped across his archery team’s makeshift practice area, hitting a target 60 feet away.

“I’ve gotten better since I started,” said Kazyon. His archery skills had been improving since joining the newly formed team at Rusheon Middle School in Bossier City.

Of the roughly a dozen shots he took during this particular practice, his arrows only missed the mark once, skidding across the tiles in the cafeteria.

“I was completely speechless,” began Rachel Berry, recalling her reaction when she and Head Coach Sarah Austin Jones first watched Kazyon.

The other middle schoolers on the team are certainly capable of hitting their targets, most of the time. So what makes Kazyon’s feat so incredible?

“He was around 2-years-old and one side of his body would run into the wall,” shared Kazyon’s mother, Lajerika Hinton.

Despite numerous doctor’s visits and surgeries, by age six, Kazyon had completely lost his sight in both eyes.

“Your child is going through something and there’s nothing you could do. It hurts to my core,” she continued.

But it hasn’t stopped Kazyon from doing well in his classes and deciding to try out for his school’s archery team, which he made. Rules allow coaches to walk him to the competition line and give verbal instructions to help him take aim, but the rest is on him.

“I mostly just visualize where everything is,” shared Kazyon, who relies on a heavy-duty amount of blind faith and confidence to join a team where one of the most important things needed is having good aim.

Kazyon’s older brother Jerhayden also made the team.

When they were asked who is the better archer, not surprisingly, Kazyon quickly answered with, “Well, me,” at the exact time Jerhayden pointed at his younger brother.

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