Meet the Founder: Eli Bomers
I’ve been blind my entire life, so blindness has never been something I “adjusted” to. It’s simply how I’ve always experienced the world. Growing up, I was the kid who couldn’t see, but that never stopped me from wanting to play.
Basketball was always one of the sports I loved. If there was a game happening at school, I wanted in. I wanted to shoot, pass, compete, and be part of the team, even if figuring out how to participate looked a little different for me. I may have broken a few pairs of glasses along the way, but sitting on the sidelines was never really my style.
My Vision
My vision condition is complex and still not fully understood. Doctors once thought I had Leber Congenital Amaurosis, but my diagnosis has become less clear over time. I have tumours in my eyes that bleed and affect my vision, so I receive eye injections every six to eight weeks to help control the bleeding. I’ve been told I’m the only person in Canada with this specific condition, which is also a reminder of how different vision can be from one blind or visually impaired person to another.
Most of my remaining vision is in my left eye, where floaters move through my central and peripheral vision depending on where I’m looking. My right eye has light perception only.
Finding My Place in Sport
While basketball was a sport I loved, blind hockey was where I first experienced what it meant to have a sport intentionally create space for blind and visually impaired athletes.
I was introduced to blind hockey at five or six years old through a Try Skating event run by Courage Canada in Halton Region, where I grew up. That’s where I first met Mark DeMontis, and there are pictures proving just how tiny I was in that jersey.
Since 2018, I’ve attended every Blind Hockey National Tournament, skated with the Toronto Ice Owls, and, since 2023, competed at the adult level through development camps and regional tournaments.
During a transitional time in my life, I also volunteered with Canadian Blind Hockey, helping with outreach ahead of a national tournament. Seeing fans in the stands for every division and every game and seeing how much the sport had grown since my first tournament, changed the way I thought about what could be possible for other sports.
It made me think about basketball.
Why Blind Basketball
I’ve always loved basketball. I’m a big Toronto Raptors fan, although I’ll admit I was a Lakers fan because of Kobe when I was young.
My experience playing basketball was very different from my experience in blind hockey. I didn’t have the same opportunities to step onto a basketball court, develop my skills, compete, and be part of a community built with blind and visually impaired athletes in mind.
Eventually, that difference became a question I couldn’t shake:
Why couldn’t we build those opportunities in basketball too?
My experiences with Canadian Blind Hockey, together with the mentorship of Mark DeMontis, showed me what can happen when people build a sport community around accessibility, competition, and belonging. I started imagining what that could look like on a basketball court.
That’s why I founded BBAC.
My vision is to create opportunities for blind and visually impaired athletes to pick up a basketball, learn the game, develop their skills, compete, join a team, and belong to a basketball community.
Because blind athletes shouldn’t have to wonder whether there’s a place for them on the court.
We should be able to play the game, too.