Gold Coast Pirates goalkeeper Isabella Quinn won a most valuable player award at the Kanga Cup on Friday despite being legally blind.
In a remarkable effort, Quinn turned heads at the Kanga Cup this week as the "blind goalkeeper" who has just 35 per cent vision in her left eye.
Quinn is completely blind in her right eye. But she refused to let her vision stop her pursuing her soccer passion and she was named the best player in the under-18s girls division at the Kanga Cup.
Quinn was involved in a horse-riding accident when she was 14 years old but she continued playing netball and soccer even as her eyesight degenerated.
She started seeing an ophthalmologist in Sydney, who taught her techniques such as flight path and echo location to help her locate the ball and players, relying almost completely on her hearing to defy the odds by saving shots at goal.
"Flight path is hearing the ball through the air, it is kind of like soundwaves pretty much, but hearing the motion and the path the ball takes in the air," Quinn said.
"So if it's on my left or right side I can hear the ball coming. Most people find it hard to understand."
Amazingly, Quinn can also feel ground vibrations of other players and taps her feet on the pitch to get a virtual map of the field in her head using echo location.
The 18-year-old spends 30 minutes before each game walking around the field, counting her steps, jumping up and hitting the posts around her to size up the goals.
"I feel the ground for vibrations so I can tell if players are coming from my left or my right and where the ball is located," Quinn said.
"I tap the ground a few times and I can hear the vibrations that tell me whereabouts the positions of the players are through echo location.
"Every time I make a run I make sure I count every step so I know whether I'm out or not.
"Measuring the goals takes about three minutes before each game because each field is the same size.
"It takes about 15 minutes to get used to it and adjusting whether it's day or night takes about half an hour."
The Kanga Cup finished on Friday with a host of grand finals after 378 teams converged on the capital for the biggest soccer tournament in the southern hemisphere.
Quinn's amazing story was the perfect way to finish after Pirates coach Jasmine Eather gave her an opportunity to play.
Despite her eyesight proving no hurdle for the inspiring teen, Quinn said some teams had turned her away.
"I have tried a lot of techniques and have been shut down a lot of times because I've been a liability to teams," Quinn said.
"No one has really wanted to work with me because it's really difficult. I do have dreams of going to the Paralympic Games, but I don't know if that's going anywhere.
"I'm certainly going to try and hope for the best."
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