Imagine trying to teach someone who was blind and who may have never even seen a basketball how to shoot by using a stick to tap on the rim.

Or imagine helping that same person master the art of hitting a tennis ball while relying solely on a sense of hearing.

That was the challenge facing student-athletes, coaches and administrators at Cabrini College when they hosted a sports clinic for blind youth.

Cabrini Athletics Director Leslie Danehy said though most of the school's sports teams already had participated in some kind of service project during the year, many were interested in adding this one to their list before the end of the school year.

The athletics department partnered with the Pennsylvania Association of Blind Athletes (PABA), a nonprofit statewide community-service organization that promotes and provides sports and recreational opportunities for blind and visually impaired individuals.

Such an alliance made sense. After all, the college and the organization already were linked. Since 1987, Cabrini has served as the site of the PABA-sponsored Northeast-Davidow Games, a weekend-long event consisting of competitions and instructional clinics for youth and adults. Cabrini, along with Eastern University, also was a site for the 2003 U.S. Goalball National Championships. Goalball is an international team sport competition in which blind and visually impaired athletes attempt to launch a basketball-sized ball into the opposing team's goal.

Danehy, who was associate athletics director at the time, contacted PABA administrator Sandy White. Together they planned a sports clinic with a unique twist: All the participants would be blind youth.

White was instrumental in soliciting youth for the clinic from surrounding communities and also spent an hour before the clinic preparing the student-athletes, coaches and administrators for working with clinic attendees.

On March 30, volunteers, including 35 Cabrini student-athletes, shepherded 10 blind youth, ranging in age from 6 to 12, through five activity stations: tennis, basketball, cardiovascular and nautilus equipment, kickboxing, and aquatics.

Student-athletes were quick to learn that in working with the blind, they must pay attention to sound and physically helping participants move their bodies to accomplish the motions required to shoot or swing.

"It literally would take five or six of our people to successfully teach two kids how to learn a new activity," said Danehy. "You need to walk them to where they are going, you have to line them up and you have to try to explain to them what you're wanting them to do."

The tennis station was located on the squash court, which was enclosed. There the head tennis coach and assistant tennis coach taught the kids forehand and backhand strokes by allowing them to hear the bounce of the ball and instructing them to count to one before swinging.

"The kids would start timing it off the sound of the bounce as we bounced the tennis ball on the floor," Danehy described. "If they got good with the forehand, we went to the backhand."

On the basketball court, volunteers tapped on the rims of the lowered goals to alert the kids where the baskets were located. After taking a shot, Danehy said kids would ask if they'd made the basket.

Other activities included using the cardio and weightlifting equipment, kickboxing and, finally, a dip in the pool.

Danehy labeled the event a huge success.

"The children were so coachable and fun to spend the afternoon with. Their enthusiasm and optimism were an inspiration to me," Danehy said. "This was a random selection of a community-service project. The idea was thrown on the table and we went with it. In a way it was more challenging than I thought, but it was much more rewarding, too. Sometimes the spontaneous, random plans provide the best opportunities."

For freshman volleyball player Kacie Green, the experience was rewarding not only because she was able to work with a great bunch of kids, but also because the clinic drew the student-athletes and sport teams closer together.

"The kids seemed really excited to be there and this made me excited. I worked the basketball station, and to see the joy on the kids' faces when we told them that they had made a basket made me feel great," Green said. "It was a great bonding experience not only for our team and the other Cabrini student-athletes but for the visually impaired athletes as well."

According to Danehy, student-athletes and coaches, such as head women's soccer coach Ken Prothero, have asked that the event become annual.

"This was an awesome experience for my players and me," said Prothero. "I hope we can put on another clinic in the fall and continue to do this every year."

This year's event consisted of sports activities only, but Danehy already has started generating a list of ideas for future clinics.

"It was good to start small because we didn't even have the training to know how to teach the kids. This was really our first try at this." she said. "It'd be great to grow it into something with life skills."