Anthony Ferraro J1, USA, -73kg - IBSA Judo Grand Prix Baku, Azerbaijan 2023 - Round 2

Blind👨🏽‍🦯ParaJudo🥋ParaSkate🛹 🇺🇸TeamUSA🦯Musician🎸MotivationalSpeaker🎤Podcaster🎙Four Bad Eyes Podcast👀👀Blind Busking Livestream Music Tour🚌 "the only disability is a bad attitude” #jkl and one love!!
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A Shot In The Dark - Anthony Ferraro
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Despite a lifetime of adversity, a blind high school wrestler attempts to win a New Jersey State Championship before the end of his senior year. Anthony Ferraro has always tried to live a normal life. As he entered junior high, Anthony decided to try his luck at wrestling. After a dismal first season, he begged his father to enroll him in a wrestling club. His father obliged and found a coach willing to teach a blind kid to wrestle. The following year, despite his obvious disadvantage, Anthony went 24-1. Three years later, Anthony has set a number of goals for himself; to become the first three-time District Champ in his school's history, break the school record for most wins, and become the first blind state champion in New Jersey wrestling history. The question is, does he have a shot in the dark?
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▶️Follow along my life - Anthony Ferraro. A Musician, Judoka, Motivational Speaker, Podcaster, Video Creator, Traveler, Adventurer, Son, Brother, Friend, Husband, Uncle, Dog Dad and more.
▶️Anthony is currently traveling the world in hopes to make it to the 2024 Paralympics in Paris, France. Anthony is a Blind Athlete (B1 Classification). Ranked #1 in -73kg category. Representing the United States of America and the Great State of New Jersey!
▶️Podcast Recap: www.fourbadeyes.com
▶️To learn more about Anthony Ferraro and the team at ASFVISION check out www.asfvision.com​ or www.turmericteatime.com​ or www.fourbadeyes.com
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The Story Behind “A Shot In the Dark” - Chris Suchorsky - Director / Producer:
In the winter of 2012, I received an email from a former teammate and All-American wrestler, Lou Cerchio. He had come across a sizzle reel about a blind high school wrestler named Anthony Ferraro. Ollie, Anthony’s brother, had posted the sizzle with the hope of finding some help. He was looking to make a film about his little brother, who was a star wrestler, but also happened to be blind. I reached out to Ollie to discuss the project. To my surprise, he was now living in LA working as an editor for Hulu and had essentially abandoned the idea. A few months later, when he returned home to visit family, we met for lunch and discussed the film. Ollie was interested in making a short, but I thought there was potential for a feature film. After meeting with Anthony, we decided we would film him over his senior year of high school and “see what happens”.
A few months later, we were filming. Ollie produced from LA while my crew and I followed Anthony and his team throughout the 2012-2013 season. By the end of the year, the film had hit a standstill. Both Ollie and I were consumer with other projects. I believed there was a story in the can, but knew it was going to be a Herculean task to put a film together.
By 2015, I decided I wanted to finish the film. I had the first 15 minutes edited and had planned to sit down with Ollie to look at what I put together. Sadly, a few days later, Ollie passed away. At his funeral, I told Anthony I would finish the film.
Two years later, we had a rough cut of the film. We launched a Kickstarter campaign with the hope of reaching $40,000. We hit that number in four days and raised over $83,000 by the end of the campaign.
The film premiered at the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival and went on to win eight Best Documentary and Audience Awards over the next year on the festival circuit. We received a number offers for the film including Soul Pancake (Rainn Wilson’s company), Chassy Media (Adam Carolla’s company) and Gravitas Ventures. We opted to release the film independently.
Sincerely,
Chris Suchorsky
Director / Producer

[@why_bro]

GOO ANTONY WE ARE SO PROUD OF YOU 🎉

[@andrewgross5882]

This is inspiring! You are inspiring. Love your videos man! I hope you and your little new family are doing wonderful! One love!

[@stinkybanana3453]

I love judo also I swear this guy does everything

[@_LVC]

American warrior 🇺🇸

[@pronkster9550]

Very cool!

[@TNEKJA]

Stay focused brother!!

[@MMA-Mishap]

So inspirational!!

[@bmo14lax]

Way to represent man 👌

[@E_Money7]

One Love Anthony. 🫶🏽🙏🏽

[@weeep4652]

[@ScrewySquid]

One Love!!

[@johncho7149]

Let’s gooooooo 🎉

[@everycoLor_312]

❤

[@laneycruz4748]

F@Ck yeah!

[@mpkloetstra]

I am also e judoka from the netherlands iam the best of The north

[@jessicashlager7193]

I'd love to know more about what we are watching.... does that mean the other person won the round? I am not familiar with this sport. Where is this taking place? I loved watching it.

[@dirtygeazer9266]

The way someone wins is by submission or by ippon when they get thrown in the air if they land flat on back they lose

[@mugzyhillbillie6284]

It seemed like the guy in the blue had some of his vision I seen him look over at Tony and the ref huh

[@vicmackey7]

Gotta start eye poking. Signature move

[@mcrunnin1737]

Is his opponent also blind? Seen a lot of blind wrestlers and what that match looks like, very different for Judo. Good job Anthony!

[@redyankeerose]

I think the J1 category is for the blind and also the red patch on their gi. I’d imagine both Anthony and his opponent are evenly matched

[@OldManBOMBIN]

What does the little square next to the score mean?

[@OldManBOMBIN]

BJJ - Blind Joker Judo

[@MM-yh2mi]

So awesome. Just curious why they don’t have both athletes wear blindfolds like they do in goal ball so everyone is on an equal playing field as far as visual input (or lack of it)

[@wuhlfzebayne]

they have divisions for each degree of blindness. anthony only faces opponents as blind as him.

[@MM-yh2mi]

@@wuhlfzebayne thanks!

[@wuhlfzebayne]

@@MM-yh2mi one love yo ✌️

[@surrrekike8930]

Anthony looks strong asf , other guy was very tired . Anthony looked cool calm and collected