Miss-Delectable
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Sanderson's action speaks
For Cole Sanderson, born totally deaf, the toughest thing he's had to face in sport, and in life, is a severe back injury that kept him on the sidelines in Grade 11.
"Sport was my everything," he signs through his mom, Kim, "and all of a sudden I couldn't do anything."
Playing competitive beach volleyball in perfect silence on the other hand -- no sweat.
"There's no problem being deaf. It means nothing," he says. "I've never had any problems being deaf and playing sports."
Sanderson, only 20, was never going to win this weekend's Corona Open at Kits Beach, which wraps up today with semifinals and finals. He and partner Kyle Brewer -- both from White Rock -- were one of the youngest teams entered.
But he'd win a few admirers if they knew his story.
While screams of "mine" and "line" and "no one" fill the surrounding air, all is quiet on Sanderson's side of the net, and it's not because he and his partner are having a tiff.
"For him to play," says beach competitor and former Canadian indoor Olympian Ross Ballard, "he has to have more skill. The level he's able to play at, without that communication, it's really impressive. And he's still really young."
Ballard is one of the latest characters in Sanderson's developing tale. Kim Sanderson got talking to Ballard's wife, Julia, at a tournament last year because Julia has two hearing impaired siblings. Now Ballard is Cole Sanderson's coach for the 2009 Deaflympics in Taipei, and, to help him along, Ballard is going to play with him at this summer's Canadian beach nationals in Toronto.
"[Ross] is an amazing player," says Sanderson, who hopes to win gold for Canada in Taipei. "I'm really looking forward to playing with him because I like playing with people who are at a higher level than me. That'll be really cool."
Brewer hopes to be in Taipei too. The UBC pharmacy student, who started playing with Sanderson last summer and won age-group beach provincials with him, has applied for a volunteer mission staff position.
Some rust showed on the partnership Saturday morning, but it was expected with limited training of late.
Sanderson just spent two weeks on Hornby Island as a camp counsellor with Deaf Youth Today, and he's been working long days locally as well for the Family Network for Deaf Children.
That's the other part of Sanderson's appeal. He sees himself as a role model.
This fall, the Douglas College student will be coaching volleyball at Semiahmoo for a third year, working closely with a deaf Grade 8 player. Sanderson transferred to Semiahmoo from the B.C. School for the Deaf in his Grade 9 year and his parents were always at practices and games to translate.
"It's very important to me," he says of working with deaf youth, "because some are really nervous or they don't have the confidence to go out there and try. Some of my friends have never been involved in sports because they feel really left out or lonely.
"I think it's really important to just get in there and try the sports and gesture and teach sign and find ways to communicate with people."
For Cole Sanderson, born totally deaf, the toughest thing he's had to face in sport, and in life, is a severe back injury that kept him on the sidelines in Grade 11.
"Sport was my everything," he signs through his mom, Kim, "and all of a sudden I couldn't do anything."
Playing competitive beach volleyball in perfect silence on the other hand -- no sweat.
"There's no problem being deaf. It means nothing," he says. "I've never had any problems being deaf and playing sports."
Sanderson, only 20, was never going to win this weekend's Corona Open at Kits Beach, which wraps up today with semifinals and finals. He and partner Kyle Brewer -- both from White Rock -- were one of the youngest teams entered.
But he'd win a few admirers if they knew his story.
While screams of "mine" and "line" and "no one" fill the surrounding air, all is quiet on Sanderson's side of the net, and it's not because he and his partner are having a tiff.
"For him to play," says beach competitor and former Canadian indoor Olympian Ross Ballard, "he has to have more skill. The level he's able to play at, without that communication, it's really impressive. And he's still really young."
Ballard is one of the latest characters in Sanderson's developing tale. Kim Sanderson got talking to Ballard's wife, Julia, at a tournament last year because Julia has two hearing impaired siblings. Now Ballard is Cole Sanderson's coach for the 2009 Deaflympics in Taipei, and, to help him along, Ballard is going to play with him at this summer's Canadian beach nationals in Toronto.
"[Ross] is an amazing player," says Sanderson, who hopes to win gold for Canada in Taipei. "I'm really looking forward to playing with him because I like playing with people who are at a higher level than me. That'll be really cool."
Brewer hopes to be in Taipei too. The UBC pharmacy student, who started playing with Sanderson last summer and won age-group beach provincials with him, has applied for a volunteer mission staff position.
Some rust showed on the partnership Saturday morning, but it was expected with limited training of late.
Sanderson just spent two weeks on Hornby Island as a camp counsellor with Deaf Youth Today, and he's been working long days locally as well for the Family Network for Deaf Children.
That's the other part of Sanderson's appeal. He sees himself as a role model.
This fall, the Douglas College student will be coaching volleyball at Semiahmoo for a third year, working closely with a deaf Grade 8 player. Sanderson transferred to Semiahmoo from the B.C. School for the Deaf in his Grade 9 year and his parents were always at practices and games to translate.
"It's very important to me," he says of working with deaf youth, "because some are really nervous or they don't have the confidence to go out there and try. Some of my friends have never been involved in sports because they feel really left out or lonely.
"I think it's really important to just get in there and try the sports and gesture and teach sign and find ways to communicate with people."