[blindkid] Fwd: Great article NYTimes Sports Desk: A FEEL FOR THE GAME

[Carol Castellano]

Hello Everyone,

I am passing along this heart-warming article which I received as a 
holiday gift.  I hope you enjoy it.  Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, 
Happy Holidays to all!

Best,
Carol

Carol Castellano
National Organization of Parents of Blind Children
973-377-0976
carol_castellano at verizon.net
www.nopbc.org

>This is such a great article, please read, it is from Today's 
>12/23/10 NY Times Sports desk, love it. Merry Christmas!
>
>Peace
>
>DD
>
>
>A FEEL FOR THE GAME. By KAREN CROUSE. ANAHEIM, Calif. --  During the 
>California, Berkeley men's basketball season opener last month 
>against Cal State Northridge, the Straw Hat Band and the student 
>cheering section tried to rattle Matadors  forward Michael Lizarraga 
>with chants of 'tuna' every time he touched the ball.
>
>Singling out a skilled opponent and trying to throw him off his game 
>is a Cal tradition. It started decades ago with a successful attempt 
>to rattle a U.C.L.A. player in a No. 42 jersey at the free-throw 
>line by shouting, 'Forty-twoooo! Over the years it has been 
>shortened to 'Tuna!
>
>By razzing  Lizarraga, a 6-foot-7 senior, the students were setting 
>only themselves up for embarrassment. As his teammates stifled 
>smiles at the Haas Pavilion crowd's wasted breath, Lizarraga, the 
>only deaf men's basketball player in Division I, produced a 
>career-best 15 points.
>
>For someone whose goal in life is to assimilate in the hearing 
>world, being singled out for heckling on the basketball court 
>represented the highest form of praise. In the eyes of the Cal fans, 
>he was the Matadors' No. 42 and not 'the deaf player.
>
>Speaking through a sign language interpreter after a tournament game 
>here in November, Lizarraga, 21, said: 'For me, my biggest dream was 
>always to play for a Division I team. There were people who said I 
>would never be able to do it. That made me more determined.
>
>I would say my favorite quote is, 'Don't tell me I can't because I will.
>
>In town to watch the Matadors play in the 76 Classic were his 
>parents, Tavo and Cari Lizarraga, who made the trip from their 
>Northern California home.
>
>They had been married less than a year when they took Michael, then 
>17 months old, to be examined by doctors for chronic ear infections. 
>A series of tests revealed that he was profoundly deaf, a diagnosis, 
>Cari said, that stunned and numbed them. The couple's younger child, 
>Natalie, now 16, was also born deaf.
>
>There's no deafness in our families,' she said. It was something 
>that was just so unknown to us.
>
>Lizarraga's parents had bonded over music, especially pop and rock. 
>One of the hardest realities to accept, Cari said, was that the 
>children would never be touched by the melodies so central to their lives.
>
>You start thinking about all the things that you think that your 
>child's going to miss out on,' she said. We turned that around real quickly.
>
>Lizarraga's parents adopted the attitude that their children's 
>deafness would be an issue only if they made it one, which helps 
>explain why the most vocal supporter of the Matadors during the 
>tournament was the father of the player who cannot hear.
>
>Tavo Lizarraga was in fast-break mode for the full 40 minutes, his 
>running commentary peppered with exhortations for his son and the 
>other Northridge players that prompted a few bemused stares from 
>spectators in his section.
>
>That's why I cheer,' he said. Because if Michael was hearing, I'd be 
>saying the same things.
>
>Lizarraga attended a mainstream elementary school, but for his 
>middle school and high school years,  he transferred to the 
>California School for the Deaf in Fremont, a 90-minute commute each 
>way from his family's home in Dixon. His mother's eyes welled with 
>tears as she recalled the conversation that precipitated the switch.
>
>He came home from school crying one day,' Cari said, 'and said he 
>didn't understand why he was different, why he couldn't hear like 
>everyone else.
>
>In high school, Lizarraga starred in football, baseball and 
>basketball. His coaches and teachers encouraged him to pursue 
>athletics and academics at Gallaudet in Washington, the nation's 
>only liberal arts university for the deaf and hard of hearing.
>
>Lizarraga had his sights set elsewhere. He chose Northridge, which 
>houses the National Center on Deafness and has about 200 students 
>who are deaf or hard of hearing among an enrollment of more than 
>35,000. He tried out for the team and earned a precious walk-on spot.
>
>The Matadors' coach, Bobby Braswell, is known for being as intense 
>as his tirades are long. He has a stare that could bend steel, but 
>in the course of making Lizarraga tougher, Braswell softened.
>
>Because Lizarraga absorbs information with his eyes, not his ears, 
>Braswell has had to become more demonstrative when teaching -- 
>showing and not just screaming. As a result of working with 
>Lizarraga, Braswell said he was more attuned to all of his players' 
>nonverbal cues.
>
>In the beginning, Braswell said, 'because Mike didn't get a lot of 
>playing time, he couldn't really work through his mistakes and kind 
>of redeem himself.
>
>Braswell added, 'He has such an intuitive feel for the game, he 
>picks things up pretty fast.
>
>Lizarraga, who broke into the starting lineup as a junior and 
>started nine  of the first 10 games this season, said that he could 
>not explain how he knows when an official has blown a whistle or a 
>teammate is trying to get his attention, just that he does.
>
>Most of the time it's just instinct,' said Lizarraga, who was 
>averaging 6.2 points and 5.1 rebounds heading into Northridge's game 
>Wednesday night against Santa Clara.
>
>In his pregame talk before the Matadors played DePaul here, Braswell 
>challenged his players to follow the example of Lizarraga, who has 
>not let obstacles turn into excuses for not succeeding. Northridge 
>went out and handed the Blue Demons an 88-66 defeat, becoming the 
>first Big West team to beat a Big East team since 2005.
>
>Just imagine hanging out with these guys, going places, whether it's 
>to a restaurant, whatever it is, and you're not really being able to 
>hear what's going on,' Braswell said. To be in the locker room and 
>sometimes there's a sign language interpreter, sometimes there's 
>not, and you have to deal with all those things. Guys on the bus 
>with headphones on listening to the music and you can't do that. 
>Because he's always smiling, you wouldn't even sense that he misses anything.
>
>Lizarraga, a recreation, tourism and management major, employs humor 
>as a bridge to the speaking world. Using pantomime and his face, 
>which is as malleable as putty, he does imitations that his teammate 
>Lenny Daniel described as hilarious.
>
>Every time I'm with Mike I laugh,' Daniel, a senior forward, said. 
>He has a good spirit. When he's being a jokester, we feel like we 
>don't have to be so self-conscious that he's deaf.
>
>Their laughter sometimes comes at the expense of an unwitting 
>referee, as happened at the Cal game when one approached Lizarraga 
>to tell him something. When he failed to respond, the official moved 
>closer and spoke louder until a Northridge player tapped him on the 
>shoulder and, according to Daniel, said: 'Dude, he can't hear you. He's deaf.
>
>Daniel  said: 'When you're around Mike, you realize you take a lot 
>of stuff for granted. You can't feel sorry for him because he 
>doesn't want you to. He added, 'I've never met a guy like Mike in my life.
>
>Kendra Blessing, a hearing student from Pennsylvania, went to 
>Northridge to major in deaf studies because her dream is to be a 
>sign language interpreter. She was introduced to Lizarraga last year 
>at a bowling party, and before long they were staying up all night 
>--  signing.
>
>Last weekend, during a four-and-a-half-hour hike, they ended up 
>under the iconic Hollywood sign where Lizarraga proposed. Blessing 
>enthusiastically accepted. At that moment Lizarraga's future felt boundless.
>
>The sun was setting,' he  wrote in an e-mail message, 'and it was 
>such a clear and beautiful day, you could see the entire city.
>
>PHOTOS: Michael Lizarraga, who is deaf, communicated with Coach 
>Bobby Braswell with help from a sign language interpreter, Erin 
>Matthews. (B13); Thomas Jacobs using sign language with his teammate 
>Michael Lizarraga, the only deaf men's basketball player in Division 
>I. (PHOTOGRAPHS BY DANNY MOLOSHOK FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES) (B18)  .