Ferraro spoke at Pennsylvania College of Technology about those days and how he garnered dozens of victories in school.

The question-and-answer session followed a viewing of the documentary “A Shot in the Dark,” which traced his wrestling days including footage of many of his matches.

Born with a genetic condition known as Leber Congenital Amaurosis, Ferraro began wrestling in junior high and early on experienced mostly setbacks learning the sport.

By high school, he was winning nearly every one of his matches and finished his scholastic career with more than 100 victories.

“The only disability is a bad attitude,” he told the audience gathered at the Klump Academic Center.

The documentary highlights both the highs and lows of his wrestling days, including the tough losses in postseason tournaments, and the tears and meltdowns he experienced. He was unable to reach his goal of winning a New Jersey state wrestling championship, which would have made him that state’s first blind champion.

He said he worked extremely hard to accomplish what he did but acknowledged that it was sometimes difficult to deal with the losses.

“I didn’t always stay resilient,” he said. “I sometimes wanted to give up.”

But he said he understood that quitting was basically not an option.

He credited his family and his coaching staff at St. John Vianney High School in Holmdel Township, New Jersey, for his success.

Much of the documentary focuses on head coach Pat Smith who fires Ferraro up before matches and makes him believe in himself.

As Ferraro’s father put it in the documentary, “He took Anthony from nothing to becoming a champion.”

Smith referred to Ferraro as one of the best wrestlers he ever coached at St. John.

His mother, Sue, called him “a survivor.”

Born premature at just five-and-a-half months, he nearly died when his bodily organs basically shut down.

Wrestling teammates appearing in the documentary noted that Ferraro was the hardest worker on the team.

Ferraro, whose older brothers were wrestlers, realized that wrestling was a sport, unlike many others, where a blind person could compete.

“Don’t expect to be good at first,” he said.

He recalled winning just one match in his first year of wrestling.

“You have to sacrifice to be good,” he added.

He said his focus was to set small goals and build on them. After all, wrestling takes hard work and is not a sport to take lightly.

“You have to know what you are getting into,” he said.

Before enrolling at St. John, Ferraro was rejected by another school, Christian Brothers Academy.

It was a rejection that he bitterly resented and carried with him for many years afterward.

At the time, school officials indicated they could not properly accommodate his disability.

Ferraro, now a motivational speaker, visited the school years later and was able to erase the anger.

“Going back to Christian Brothers Academy to speak was freeing,” he said. “That was my moment of forgiveness.”

Ferraro continued wrestling in college before giving up the sport when he sustained concussions.

“Everything happens for a reason,” he said.

He later took up judo and is now training in that sport for the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris.

Ferraro, who often used music to motivate him before matches, plays guitar and enjoys skateboarding.

“I love the blues,” he said.

His appearance at Penn College was sponsored by the Deaf-Blind Resource team at BLaST Intermediate Unit 17.