Miss-Delectable
New Member
- Joined
- Apr 18, 2004
- Messages
- 17,160
- Reaction score
- 7
http://www.stltoday.com/news/state-and-regional/missouri/article_e5f712e4-3827-5942-8e21-568c79e3190b.html
When Bloomfield High School's award-winning cheerleaders take to the gym floor, they move with exact precision.
Among the girls who never misses a beat is Torrie Baker, who is deaf. She hears almost nothing, but is in perfect sync with the rest of the squad.
Torrie, whose hearing loss was discovered shortly after birth, aspired to be a cheerleader since middle school. She failed to make the highly competitive team in Bloomfield, 50 miles southwest of Cape Girardeau, as a freshman and sophomore.
But she was not to be denied.
After the sophomore defeat, Torrie attended every basketball game, and using her cell phone, video-recorded every move of every cheer and dance.
"She played those over and over and over," said her mother, Lorrie Duckworth, "and then she'd practice the moves just as the girls had done them."
Torrie made the team at the start of the current school year.
Torrie's hearing loss was diagnosed when she was a baby. She later got a hearing aid and at age 11, a cochlear implant.
Because that device is so delicate, she has to remove the exterior part of it during cheerleading. She performs without any sounds, relying on signals from team members and her training.
"She's my hero," said Torrie's cheerleading coach, Kim Fox.
When Bloomfield High School's award-winning cheerleaders take to the gym floor, they move with exact precision.
Among the girls who never misses a beat is Torrie Baker, who is deaf. She hears almost nothing, but is in perfect sync with the rest of the squad.
Torrie, whose hearing loss was discovered shortly after birth, aspired to be a cheerleader since middle school. She failed to make the highly competitive team in Bloomfield, 50 miles southwest of Cape Girardeau, as a freshman and sophomore.
But she was not to be denied.
After the sophomore defeat, Torrie attended every basketball game, and using her cell phone, video-recorded every move of every cheer and dance.
"She played those over and over and over," said her mother, Lorrie Duckworth, "and then she'd practice the moves just as the girls had done them."
Torrie made the team at the start of the current school year.
Torrie's hearing loss was diagnosed when she was a baby. She later got a hearing aid and at age 11, a cochlear implant.
Because that device is so delicate, she has to remove the exterior part of it during cheerleading. She performs without any sounds, relying on signals from team members and her training.
"She's my hero," said Torrie's cheerleading coach, Kim Fox.
