El Paso man creates game of blind billiards for his community

EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- Martin Aveces has been legally blind his whole life. He's an El Paso native and University of Texas at El Paso graduate trying to find a way to involve the blind community in public more.

For the last three years, he worked to make a game of billiards for the blind. A guide maker, whose son is blind, helped Aveces make wooden guides for the game.

The game is similar to normal billiards; the goal is to get the balls into the pockets, but you can't see. Players can't fully see what's going on, but they can feel it.

"When they could see, they actually played the game. And that comes back, the full feelings get into effect and getting involved with the game," said Aveces.

The first Tuesday of every month, the players get together at the Marty Robbins Rec Center in East El Paso. The group calls themselves the "Sharp Shooters."

"Living on your own is hard, but it's possible," said Carlos Mosqueda, a member of the group.

Another member, Frank Rodriguez, said he never thought he would be able to play pool again.

"We want the people to get involved and come and do something, you know, to get them out of the house," said Rodriguez.

According to Aveces, about 5,000 people are visually impaired throughout El Paso. He wants to get as many involved in his game as he can.

"Blindness is a major tragic issue, more so than other disabilities. It completely cancels a person's life until they get retrained into society," said Aveces.

His next steps are getting all of Texas invovled, and creating a tournament around the state.

"I'm 70. Between now and 80, I want to see a state championship of this," he said. "Let's say I see a thousand individuals playing pool and that I started this? Give me a break. That's very enjoyable."

Watch the full story on ABC-7 at 6 Wednesday.