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High-scoring deaf Tavares High bowler wins Spirit Award -- OrlandoSentinel.com
Although Tavares High's Deanna Walden is a bowler, she never has heard the sweet sound that her 15-pound ball makes as it knocks down all 10 pins.
She is a weightlifter, too, but hasn't heard the clanking as weights are placed on their racks.
She also has missed the sounds that most teenagers take for granted: the ringing of a phone when a friend calls, the sounds a video game makes, the music flowing from an iPod.
Walden is profoundly deaf -- a condition in which a person has at least 80 percent hearing loss -- yet she has been one of Central Florida's best bowlers throughout her high school career. She received the second annual Bill Buchalter Spirit Award on Thursday night at the Varsity Sports Awards banquet at the Live Oak Ballroom at UCF.
The award -- presented to a high school sports figure who displays a can-do attitude despite battling hardships -- is named for the former Sentinel sportswriter who retired a year ago after a 45-year career -- 40 with the Sentinel.
"I know there are a lot of odds against me, and there are a lot of struggles," said Walden, 18.
Walden, who suffered from ear infections as an infant, lost her hearing when she was 18 months old. She now has only 5 percent hearing capability with hearing aids.
"I don't know how this kid does the stuff that she does," said Janet Walden, her mother. "I can hear, and I couldn't do half the stuff she does."
According to one of her teachers, Nancy Gartland, Walden never has let her deafness inhibit her.
"As a teacher, she truly is an inspiration," said Gartland, who worked with Walden from the time she was in fourth grade at Treadway Elementary through eighth grade. "She is someone who I can use to inspire other deaf students. I can tell them if they are determined, as Deanna is, they can be successful and go to college, just as Deanna is.
"She is a phenomenal kid."
Walden, who graduated last week ranked in the top 20 in her class with a 3.9 grade-point average, has attended the same classes as hearing students throughout her schooling. She can read lips and is good at communicating orally, but during her first two years in high school she used to stay up as late as 2 a.m., making sure she didn't miss anything her classmates had gone over earlier.
During her junior year, she was given a sign-language interpreter.
"In ninth and 10th grades, she basically taught herself," Janet Walden said.
Walden, whose family lives in Bassville Park -- northwest of Tavares -- has received a scholarship and will attend Rochester (N.Y.) Institute of Technology. She plans to study biochemistry.
Rochester blends deaf students with hearing students. Some professors use sign language. In classes where the instructors do not sign, interpreters for deaf students often are provided.
"To go to college in Florida, we found out that you have to have two years of foreign language. I was like, 'How can she do that? She's deaf,' " Janet Walden said. "But she took Spanish online. She finished Spanish I, but that left her only 16 weeks to finish Spanish II, and her teacher said it was a 32-week course.
"Then she got admitted to Rochester, and I was like, 'Good, now you don't have to finish Spanish.' But she wanted to finish it, and she did. She finished the class in 14 weeks."
Walden concluded her senior bowling season with a 190.9 average and was the individual girls champion in the District 4 tournament with a 637 series. Walden's all-time highs are a 272 game and a 701 series.
Dave Driscoll, a bowling coach certified with the United States Bowling Congress, said Walden has a good sense of humor with a smile that lights up her face but is very serious when she bowls.
"We don't treat her any different than any of the other students," Driscoll said. "She is a fun kid to work with, very determined.
"But of course, like everybody, there would be some times when she wouldn't be having a good day. When that has happened, I would remind her that she would never let anybody else hold her back, so why is she holding herself back?
"All of a sudden, you would see her blue eyes flash, and she would snap out of it."
Deanna's mother and father, Dean, are amazed at what she has accomplished -- and the potential the future holds for their daughter, who also served as a captain on Tavares' weightlifting team and competed in the 169-pound weight class.
"We sure didn't see her doing everything that she has done," Janet Walden said.
Gartland, her former teacher, is not surprised.
"Deanna is going to make it in the hearing world and in the deaf world," Gartland said.
Although Tavares High's Deanna Walden is a bowler, she never has heard the sweet sound that her 15-pound ball makes as it knocks down all 10 pins.
She is a weightlifter, too, but hasn't heard the clanking as weights are placed on their racks.
She also has missed the sounds that most teenagers take for granted: the ringing of a phone when a friend calls, the sounds a video game makes, the music flowing from an iPod.
Walden is profoundly deaf -- a condition in which a person has at least 80 percent hearing loss -- yet she has been one of Central Florida's best bowlers throughout her high school career. She received the second annual Bill Buchalter Spirit Award on Thursday night at the Varsity Sports Awards banquet at the Live Oak Ballroom at UCF.
The award -- presented to a high school sports figure who displays a can-do attitude despite battling hardships -- is named for the former Sentinel sportswriter who retired a year ago after a 45-year career -- 40 with the Sentinel.
"I know there are a lot of odds against me, and there are a lot of struggles," said Walden, 18.
Walden, who suffered from ear infections as an infant, lost her hearing when she was 18 months old. She now has only 5 percent hearing capability with hearing aids.
"I don't know how this kid does the stuff that she does," said Janet Walden, her mother. "I can hear, and I couldn't do half the stuff she does."
According to one of her teachers, Nancy Gartland, Walden never has let her deafness inhibit her.
"As a teacher, she truly is an inspiration," said Gartland, who worked with Walden from the time she was in fourth grade at Treadway Elementary through eighth grade. "She is someone who I can use to inspire other deaf students. I can tell them if they are determined, as Deanna is, they can be successful and go to college, just as Deanna is.
"She is a phenomenal kid."
Walden, who graduated last week ranked in the top 20 in her class with a 3.9 grade-point average, has attended the same classes as hearing students throughout her schooling. She can read lips and is good at communicating orally, but during her first two years in high school she used to stay up as late as 2 a.m., making sure she didn't miss anything her classmates had gone over earlier.
During her junior year, she was given a sign-language interpreter.
"In ninth and 10th grades, she basically taught herself," Janet Walden said.
Walden, whose family lives in Bassville Park -- northwest of Tavares -- has received a scholarship and will attend Rochester (N.Y.) Institute of Technology. She plans to study biochemistry.
Rochester blends deaf students with hearing students. Some professors use sign language. In classes where the instructors do not sign, interpreters for deaf students often are provided.
"To go to college in Florida, we found out that you have to have two years of foreign language. I was like, 'How can she do that? She's deaf,' " Janet Walden said. "But she took Spanish online. She finished Spanish I, but that left her only 16 weeks to finish Spanish II, and her teacher said it was a 32-week course.
"Then she got admitted to Rochester, and I was like, 'Good, now you don't have to finish Spanish.' But she wanted to finish it, and she did. She finished the class in 14 weeks."
Walden concluded her senior bowling season with a 190.9 average and was the individual girls champion in the District 4 tournament with a 637 series. Walden's all-time highs are a 272 game and a 701 series.
Dave Driscoll, a bowling coach certified with the United States Bowling Congress, said Walden has a good sense of humor with a smile that lights up her face but is very serious when she bowls.
"We don't treat her any different than any of the other students," Driscoll said. "She is a fun kid to work with, very determined.
"But of course, like everybody, there would be some times when she wouldn't be having a good day. When that has happened, I would remind her that she would never let anybody else hold her back, so why is she holding herself back?
"All of a sudden, you would see her blue eyes flash, and she would snap out of it."
Deanna's mother and father, Dean, are amazed at what she has accomplished -- and the potential the future holds for their daughter, who also served as a captain on Tavares' weightlifting team and competed in the 169-pound weight class.
"We sure didn't see her doing everything that she has done," Janet Walden said.
Gartland, her former teacher, is not surprised.
"Deanna is going to make it in the hearing world and in the deaf world," Gartland said.