Greg LevinskyThe loose puck bounced in the direction of Ryder Simmons, and with a burst of speed, with the puck at his stick, he just had to beat the goalie.
Simmons, a 9-year-old member of the Belmont Youth Hockey Association (BYHA) Squirt AA2 team, pushed a shot glove-side and past a flailing Needham netminder. Immediately, Simmons received recognition from his teammates through congratulatory stick taps, thumbs ups and head nods, which Simmons, who has progressive hearing loss, appreciates.
“Sometimes it’s a bit challenging when I’m going up the ice,” said Simmons, who says it’s tough to hear people from across the ice. He is able to hear when conversing closely and focusing on the speaker.
Simmons and 9-year-old goalkeeper Theo Hicks, who is deaf, play the sport they love with finesse, speed and swagger. Simmons also plays soccer and baseball. Hicks plays soccer, lacrosse, baseball and basketball, along with hockey. Both boys said they are accepted by their teammates and fit right in.
“I just play hockey like everyone else,” said Simmons.
Overcoming Barriers on the Ice
An American Sign Language interpreter is at every game and practice, and the league ensures some minor modifications, like a piece of tape with “deaf” written stuck on Simmons’ helmet and a pregame informational talk with the officials.
Coach Rocco Mastrangelo explains to the referees that accommodating the kids doesn’t affect the game, but it does allow Hicks and Simmons to enjoy the game alongside their peers.
Heather Hanson serves as the interpreter for Simmons, Hicks and Simmons’ father, Justin, an assistant coach, who has been deaf since he was 18 months old due to bacterial meningitis.
During full-team conversations in the locker room, between periods and individually during game play, Ryder, who attends Burbank Elementary School in Belmont, and Hicks, who attends the Marie Phillips School for the Deaf in Framingham, dart their eyes back and forth between the interpreter, coaches and the white board mapping out lineups and plays.
Coaching for Inclusion
The interpreter also helps facilitate conversation between the players and coaches, like Justin, who works mostly with the forwards, including Ryder. While getting any youth sports team to focus can be challenging, the players know they have a lot to learn from Justin. He played college hockey at Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota and competed with the U.S. Deaf National Olympic Team.
“Let’s keep it really simple,” he tells the team through Hanson before the game starts, reminding the players to make substitutions quickly and to close the bench door upon entrance. The players mostly look at him, only turning to the interpreter when they have a question.
“I see you guys playing conservative, but I want you to attack with the puck,” he told the three-player line midway through the second period. A few minutes later, Ryder scored.
“This is one of the best experiences I’ve ever had,” Justin said of coaching.
It was Justin who approached the BYHA board in the first week of September during the annual coaches’ meeting. He and Hicks’ mother, Thea Cabral, teamed up to ask for accommodations for their kids, so they would be able to follow the instructions and other communication. An interpreter began attending practices and games soon after. A handful of older children volunteered to shadow Ryder at practices, so they could pass on any information he needed. This allowed Justin to work with Hicks in ASL.
Developing Skills for Life
Hicks’ parents and younger sister are also deaf. Hicks has moderate to severe hearing loss, which may become progressively profound as he gets older.
“It’s good practice now to know how to use interpreters and advocate for themselves,” Cabral said. “Sports are always a good way for deaf kids to develop social and advocacy skills. We just need to provide a way for them to receive and express full information in their language so they can be heard.
“Deaf athletes are often left in the dark or last to know about stuff that their teammates already know about,” she said. “We shouldn’t feel lucky, because access to communication is a basic human right.”
Hicks, through Hanson, said he prefers goalkeeping over the other positions.
“It seems like the easiest position to be able to see everything,” Hicks said. “I just feel comfortable looking at the whole ice.”
Ryder’s hearing loss started when he was a toddler, and appears to be following the same pattern as other members of his mother’s side of the family. He currently has moderate to severe hearing loss, and is expected to be profoundly deaf by the end of high school.
“It is my hope that with this experience, Ryder will learn how to advocate for himself when he gets older,” Justin said. “It is a lot of burden to put on a 9-year-old to ask for help, so it is my role as his deaf father to make sure that he and his deaf peers get all the tools they need to access any information, so they can grow.”
Both boys attended the Stan Mikita Hockey School for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing with their families this summer. Justin went to the Chicago-based camp as a kid, too. This fall, Simmons and Hicks brought back the skills they learned to their Belmont hockey team, and showed them in a recent game.
When the final buzzer sounded on an 8-6 win, the entire team rushed towards Hicks, engulfing him with bear hugs.
