A look inside the Kentucky School for the Deaf athletics program

The following story was originally published in the print edition of the Lexington Herald-Leader on Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2001. Its original headline, subhead and body copy can be seen below along with some archive photos.

COMPETITION, NOT DEAFNESS, MAIN FOCUS

ATHLETES DEAL WITH THEIR DIFFERENCE

DANVILLE — Coach Byron Wilson set up an inbounds play in great detail for his girls’ basketball team. Everyone was on the same page when the ball was inbounded under the basket.

A nod from one player and a hand motion from another led to a wide-open three-point basket.

Wilson didn’t have to call a timeout to set up the play. There was no screaming from the sideline.

Wilson coaches at the Kentucky School for the Deaf.

“We’re lucky in one way,” explained Virginia Sylvestri, one of Wilson’s players. “Because we can’t hear, we notice other things. We have another form of communicating. We see things other people don’t see.”

Most of the girls on the team agree. They say that when you’re a deaf athlete, the biggest obstacle is never that you can’t hear. It’s that people who can hear think that you’re disabled.

But don’t imply to the deaf athletes that they are different from any other high schooler.

Deaf and hearing-impaired athletes deal with not hearing every day. They get up every morning and can’t hear. They go to classes and lunch and can’t hear. They socialize and go to parties and can’t hear.

They get on the court and can’t hear. That doesn’t mean they can’t play ball.

“It’s not about not hearing,” Sylvestri said. “Some teams aren’t sure what to do against us. And sometimes it’s hard. But sometimes it’s an advantage.”

The advantages don’t stop on the basketball court.

Athletic Director Paul Smiley likes to tell a story about the KSD football team that points out the oddities deaf athletes sometimes encounter.

The KSD team was in the state eight-man football finals a few years ago.

It was third-and-five. The opposing team, a hearing team, was trying to draw the KSD team offside. The opposing quarterback tried a hard count. The Colonels didn’t budge and the quarterback’s team was penalized for delay of game.

“It’s funny,” said Smiley, who is hearing. “They should have known better. You can’t hard count a deaf team. Our kids watch for the ball, they can’t hear the quarterback.”

At the KSD swimming pool, a flashing light signals deaf athletes to leave the starting blocks. The swimmers joke that the light has an advantage over a starting gun or whistle.

“Light does travel faster than sound,” said Sue Spangenberger, outreach coordinator for KSD.

Amid the cute anecdotes, deaf athletes face a unique set of challenges.

When KSD plays basketball against mainstream schools, coaches and players notice a difference.

“Sometimes when a hearing school plays against us, they start out really tentative,” Smiley said. “Then they see we can play with them and they pick up the pace.”

Billy Lange, boys’ basketball coach at KSD, was born deaf. He said when mainstream schools play against his team, it’s difficult to know how they’ll respond.

“I don’t think they really want to lose to a ‘second-class team,’ if you understand what I mean,” Lange said through Spangenberger. “They don’t want to say, ‘We lost against a physically disabled team.’”

Lange’s team has been struggling early this season. It’s 4-7 after 11 games.

James Alcorn, one of the school’s newest coaches, has quickly developed a special respect for KSD’s athletes.

After initially struggling, the girls’ assistant coach is learning to communicate in a whole new way.

“I want to learn,” Alcorn said. “I’ve learned (to sign) words like rebound and slow down and speed up. ... It’s an adjustment to talk to the head coach (Wilson) and the girls.”

Parts of the game that most mainstream athletes take for granted, such as officials’ whistles and coaches’ instructions, present difficulties for deaf athletes.

KSD uses the same officials that other Kentucky high schools use. The officials don’t have special training to deal with the hearing impaired. That creates some interesting situations.

“A lot of times when you blow the whistle, it takes a little time to break up the action, when someone gets fouled or whatever,” said Roger Gossett, who officiated a game at the school in mid-December. But, he added, it helps that officiating signals are universal.

Boys’ basketball player Sekoe White knows all about officiating problems. During the Eastern Kentucky basketball camp last summer, an official blew a whistle after a foul. White kept playing and was given a technical for not following the official’s instructions.

The referee was told after the game that White couldn’t hear the whistle, and he apologized, but White said he is used to such issues.

Amber Haggard played sports at a mainstream school in Hardin County before moving to KSD. She said it was embarrassing when she’d miss an official’s whistle.

“One time I was going down the court and (the official) blew the whistle at halfcourt,” Haggard said. “I kept going and laid the ball in. I felt kind of stupid afterward when it didn’t count.”

But she hasn’t had that feeling since joining the KSD team.

“It’s like a family; we’re all friends here,” she said. “And it’s nice to be around people who understand.”

This story was originally published December 11, 2017 at 4:03 PM with the headline "A look inside the Kentucky School for the Deaf athletics program."