The Gretna East football team’s assistant coach and equipment manager Jamey Dougall is blind, but he’s not letting that stop him from living out his dream of coaching kids.
Dougall was diagnosed with retina detachments in both eyes, leaving him completely blind in his right eye and seeing shadows from a distance plus vague shapes and colors up close out of his left. He received the diagnosis when he was a few months old. Dougall underwent multiple surgeries to identify the cause, but doctors have been unable to determine it. He doesn’t see his blindness as a difficulty, however.
“I’ve kind of taken a different approach, and I don’t look at it as challenges,” Dougall told Hurrdat Sports. “I look at it from opportunities.”
Dougall’s first equipment manager opportunity came when Omaha began its hockey program in 1998. Dougall reached out to the university connected with the equipment manager, with the process taking off from there.
He moved to Arizona in 2002, before coming back to Nebraska in the summer of 2022 and settling in the Gretna district. Once there, he connected with the Gretna East program and has been with the team since the school opened in 2023.
“The minute I heard East was opening I got a hold of athletic directors, and they got me in touch with (head coach Justin) Haberman, and here I am in year four,” Dougall said. “I couldn’t ask for a better program, from the administration on down.”
The Griffins’ coaches, football players and student managers have done their part to help Dougall. They help guide him around at games, and his student managers have used a Cricut machine to help label the equipment with braille letters. He’s also hung up the jerseys in number order, by level, to help stay organized. He said the opportunity to work with the athletes means a lot.
“When I shared with Habs my knowledge of the game, my passion for the game, and my ability to listen a lot and kind of hear what’s going on with the boys and monitor social media and just know that there was a lot of other things with technology I could do behind the scenes,” Dougall said. “Working in IT is my full-time job, so it meant a lot. It was the right fit. He needed somebody to do it to take some of that stuff off of his plate, and it’s worked out fantastic.”
Haberman said Dougall means a lot to the team.
“He’s a tremendous person, a great person to have around our young men and our program,” Haberman said. “He’s just a great person in this community.”
Dougall grew up in the Omaha community. A 2000 Omaha North graduate, Dougall grew up playing sports. He wrestled from first to eighth grade, played soccer, then was part of the football team in high school. Although his blindness presents challenges in coaching, Dougall is sure to do his best while having a positive outlook on life.
“Sometimes it gets a little frustrating not being able to catch a ball from a kid, or pitch a ball to a kid, that kind of stuff and drills, but there are too many positives that outweigh the negatives,” Dougall said. “I’m just glad being here, and I do what I can do.”
He does a lot. Dougall said the biggest challenge is keeping everything organized when there are changes in schedules, but he’s adapted well.
“They might need these pads at 4:20 at this corner of the field, and that might change to 5:10 at another corner of the field,” Dougall said. “So just getting things moved around, and then being sure that I watch where I’m walking on the field and don’t get ran over …
“Challenges become opportunities; you’ve just got to find a different way to do it.”
As for how Dougall has remained so positive while overcoming obstacles, he credits his inner circle.
“I always say it takes a village not only to raise kids, but just to have a good life,” Dougall said. “The people around you will impact you whether you think it or not, so you’ve just always got to make sure you have a good circle, and within that circle you’ve got to have people who care about you and love you and take care of you.”
Dougall is back on Gretna East’s sidelines living out his dreams in 2026. The Class B No. 2 Griffins opened the season with a 27-20 win at Norris and will play Hastings in their first home game of the season on Friday.
“My message to anyone with a disability is just get out there and make the most out of life,” Dougall said. “Use the abilities you have rather than looking at the disability that you have …
“You have to reach out. You can’t be scared; you have to own your outcomes.”
