Miss-Delectable
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http://www.modbee.com/local/story/11221959p-11972902c.html
With the chaos of a football practice surrounding him, Anthony Black is calm.
The Downey High junior stares toward the sidelines before each play, receives the formation and call, and runs to his position.
Whistles blare and coaches scream. Not far away, cheerleaders work on Friday night's routine. On a nearby field, the band — which seems to consist primarily of a percussion section — beats away.
Black, though, is oblivious to the sounds around him. He is deaf.
His cilia, the hairs in the inner ear that allow people to hear, started dying when he was 2. (His four siblings have normal hearing.)
The hearing loss hasn't stopped Black, who turns 17 in November.
He's taking college prep courses at Downey High, the center for deaf and hearing-impaired students in Stanislaus County. The Modesto school employs two teachers, 12 sign-language interpreters and one captioner for its 20 deaf and hearing-impaired students.
Black hopes to get his driver's license over the winter. He plays video games with anybody willing to challenge him. He speaks slowly, his voice slightly muffled but not difficult to understand.
After he graduates in 2007, he's planning on attending Modesto Junior College. Like most of his friends, he doesn't know what he wants to major in.
For now, football is his passion.
The swift 5-foot-7, 150-pounder will start at cornerback in Downey's nonleague game at Roosevelt of Fresno on Friday night. He also shares time at the flyback position on the offense.
His deafness has posed a challenge for the Downey coaching staff as well as Black: How can they communicate their plays to him and the team?
The coaches started by welcoming an unofficial member to the staff: Black's interpreter, April Walker.
She stands next to head coach Frank Bispo and assistant coach Russ Garcia, signing in the plays.
"Never in all my years have we done something like this," Bispo said. "But it's working out."
New position poses challenge
Black's biggest challenge didn't come with his first game. It came from a switch — from wide receiver, his junior varsity position, to the more confusing flyback.
"It's a difficult position to learn because you're doing something different on every play," Bispo said. "Plus, Anthony was trying to read our lips when we were making the calls.
"It got so frustrating for him that he was in tears for one of our early practices."
But he never thought of quitting.
"After my first practices, I wanted to go back to wide receiver," Black said. "But I wasn't going to quit. I've had a lot of people tell me I can't do something, but I've done it."
Some of the seniors didn't know what to expect from Black.
"We really kind of doubted he could do it at the beginning," said running back Mark Newman. "But watching his attitude and effort out there every day … honestly, I'm really impressed."
But a teammate who played junior varsity with Black knew he would fit in.
"He can handle himself," said junior Brandon Lewis. "He had an interception in our first game last year, and was one of our better players.
"Our opponents don't know he's deaf. They just know he's a football player."
Overcoming challenges has been pretty easy for Black, who wears a hearing aid that allows him to hear "a little" when not playing sports.
"I tried (using the hearing aid) while playing baseball last year and got hit in the helmet," he said. "My head wouldn't stop ringing."
During the early practices, Downey's coaches realized they needed to help make Black's transition easier.
"Anthony's a perfectionist," Walker said. "He has to have it right, or he gets really frustrated, and not being able to see the plays was tough for him."
So Walker and the Downey coaches got together and worked something out.
The team sends in every play via a rudimentary sign language. One number means the formation, and another calls the play.
Like the team's quarterbacks, Black has a wristband with a laminated playlist taped to his right arm. He sees the play, reads his arm and moves into position.
"The sign language we use isn't ASL (American Sign Language) or any of the standard sign languages," said Walker, who worked with Black and another deaf player on the junior varsity team last year. "It's football sign language."
Very little special treatment
The signs are about the only special treatment he receives from the coaches.
During Tuesday's practice, Bispo called Black over a couple of times and they talked about his position in a formation. Black stared into Bispo's face, reading his lips, but looked at Walker with a shrug of his shoulders when he needed a translation.
"The coaches have been great," Black said. "They yell at me just like they yell at everybody else."
Without his hearing aid, Black can't hear them yell, but he sees their faces.
"I know when they're telling me something serious," he said.
Friday night, Anthony will see his first extended play of the season.
"I was so happy when Anthony said he was going out for football," said his father, Shawn Black. "I told him, 'If you get a chance, do it; you can do anything you want.'"
With the chaos of a football practice surrounding him, Anthony Black is calm.
The Downey High junior stares toward the sidelines before each play, receives the formation and call, and runs to his position.
Whistles blare and coaches scream. Not far away, cheerleaders work on Friday night's routine. On a nearby field, the band — which seems to consist primarily of a percussion section — beats away.
Black, though, is oblivious to the sounds around him. He is deaf.
His cilia, the hairs in the inner ear that allow people to hear, started dying when he was 2. (His four siblings have normal hearing.)
The hearing loss hasn't stopped Black, who turns 17 in November.
He's taking college prep courses at Downey High, the center for deaf and hearing-impaired students in Stanislaus County. The Modesto school employs two teachers, 12 sign-language interpreters and one captioner for its 20 deaf and hearing-impaired students.
Black hopes to get his driver's license over the winter. He plays video games with anybody willing to challenge him. He speaks slowly, his voice slightly muffled but not difficult to understand.
After he graduates in 2007, he's planning on attending Modesto Junior College. Like most of his friends, he doesn't know what he wants to major in.
For now, football is his passion.
The swift 5-foot-7, 150-pounder will start at cornerback in Downey's nonleague game at Roosevelt of Fresno on Friday night. He also shares time at the flyback position on the offense.
His deafness has posed a challenge for the Downey coaching staff as well as Black: How can they communicate their plays to him and the team?
The coaches started by welcoming an unofficial member to the staff: Black's interpreter, April Walker.
She stands next to head coach Frank Bispo and assistant coach Russ Garcia, signing in the plays.
"Never in all my years have we done something like this," Bispo said. "But it's working out."
New position poses challenge
Black's biggest challenge didn't come with his first game. It came from a switch — from wide receiver, his junior varsity position, to the more confusing flyback.
"It's a difficult position to learn because you're doing something different on every play," Bispo said. "Plus, Anthony was trying to read our lips when we were making the calls.
"It got so frustrating for him that he was in tears for one of our early practices."
But he never thought of quitting.
"After my first practices, I wanted to go back to wide receiver," Black said. "But I wasn't going to quit. I've had a lot of people tell me I can't do something, but I've done it."
Some of the seniors didn't know what to expect from Black.
"We really kind of doubted he could do it at the beginning," said running back Mark Newman. "But watching his attitude and effort out there every day … honestly, I'm really impressed."
But a teammate who played junior varsity with Black knew he would fit in.
"He can handle himself," said junior Brandon Lewis. "He had an interception in our first game last year, and was one of our better players.
"Our opponents don't know he's deaf. They just know he's a football player."
Overcoming challenges has been pretty easy for Black, who wears a hearing aid that allows him to hear "a little" when not playing sports.
"I tried (using the hearing aid) while playing baseball last year and got hit in the helmet," he said. "My head wouldn't stop ringing."
During the early practices, Downey's coaches realized they needed to help make Black's transition easier.
"Anthony's a perfectionist," Walker said. "He has to have it right, or he gets really frustrated, and not being able to see the plays was tough for him."
So Walker and the Downey coaches got together and worked something out.
The team sends in every play via a rudimentary sign language. One number means the formation, and another calls the play.
Like the team's quarterbacks, Black has a wristband with a laminated playlist taped to his right arm. He sees the play, reads his arm and moves into position.
"The sign language we use isn't ASL (American Sign Language) or any of the standard sign languages," said Walker, who worked with Black and another deaf player on the junior varsity team last year. "It's football sign language."
Very little special treatment
The signs are about the only special treatment he receives from the coaches.
During Tuesday's practice, Bispo called Black over a couple of times and they talked about his position in a formation. Black stared into Bispo's face, reading his lips, but looked at Walker with a shrug of his shoulders when he needed a translation.
"The coaches have been great," Black said. "They yell at me just like they yell at everybody else."
Without his hearing aid, Black can't hear them yell, but he sees their faces.
"I know when they're telling me something serious," he said.
Friday night, Anthony will see his first extended play of the season.
"I was so happy when Anthony said he was going out for football," said his father, Shawn Black. "I told him, 'If you get a chance, do it; you can do anything you want.'"