Utah
Utah girls' goalball players win national tournament
SALT LAKE CITY — For the second year in a row, the Utah High School Girls’ Goalball team has won the national championship. The competition took place this year at the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind in St. Augustine, Florida. In the final round, the Utah team beat the West Virginia team by 9 to 1.
Utah player Reese Branch was named the tournament’s MVP. Because she was one of the top six girl goalball players, she made it to the All-American Goalball Team, as did her teammate Kelsey Kartchner.
Truly a Utah team
Utah’s girls’ goalball team members come from all over the state. They include Branch from Tremonton, Kartchner from Smithfield, Julie Jenson from Pleasant Grove, and Kalinka Brown from Clearfield.
And while that makes them a great representative of the state, the distance can interfere with their training as a team.
“We can’t get together like every day, like a lot of high school teams. So we practice usually once a week in Midvale.”
Then, like a lot of workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, the athletes train on their own, at home.
“It’s a lot of like finding your own time to work out, and then obviously, our amazing coaches help us so much,” Branch said.
The Utah Foundation for the Blind and Visually Impaired manages the team. Rachel Jepson and Jalayne Engberg coach the team. Jepson is a former Utah goalball player. Engberg is a teacher and mobility instructor in the Alpine School District.
What is goalball?
According to the Utah School for the Deaf and Blind, Goalball was a rehabilitation tool that originated after World War II in Germany. It’s played on an indoor court with a ball that has bells in it.
“There are three people on each side of the court,” Branch told KSL NewsRadio.
“You’re blindfolded, and the goal is to throw the ball into the opposing team’s goal. You block it with your body and then stand up and throw.”
Utah boys’ goalball
The Utah High School Boy’s Team got to the tournament’s quarterfinals before they were eliminated. Their team includes Kelton Health, Greer Merrill, Caleb Rice, and Luke Sorenson.
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Summit County Health Director Phil Bondurant said the early 2026 survey found men are suffering with significant mental and behavioral health challenges between the ages of 10 and 44. In the U.S., Bondurant said, suicide is the second leading cause of death, behind unintentional injury.
“It’s the eighth leading cause of death nationally across all ages of men,” he said on KPCW’s “Local News Hour” June 8. “When we look at this in Utah, we are two times the national average in suicides, and when you look at men, three of the four suicides in the state of Utah are men.”
He said that’s disproportionate to women. Roughly 31 out of 100,000 suicide deaths in Utah are men while less than 9 deaths per 100,000 are women.
FULL INTERIVEW: Summit County Health Department Phil Bondurant
Bondurant said those statistics are related to men feeling isolated, experiencing depression and uncertainty about the future. But, he said the health department has worked to develop programs to break the stigma around men’s mental health and help people access care.
“It’s important that we remember that connection, conversation, help and support, just like our physical health, when we’re not feeling well or we break a bone, we go to the doctor, and they do what they do to help us get better and help our bodies mend,” he said. “Our mental health is the same way, we need to take care of it.”
He said uninsured residents that need help can call the health department and speak with the behavioral health team.
There is also a 24-hour 988 crisis hotline for people who need help or know someone who needs help. Utahns can also download the SafeUT app to speak with licensed counselors, submit safety tips and confidential help.
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