{"id":8676,"date":"2009-12-09T16:41:07","date_gmt":"2009-12-09T21:41:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/?p=8676"},"modified":"2009-12-09T17:12:48","modified_gmt":"2009-12-09T22:12:48","slug":"texans-rookie-barwin-inspires-deaf-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2009\/12\/09\/texans-rookie-barwin-inspires-deaf-students\/","title":{"rendered":"Texans rookie Barwin inspires deaf students"},"content":{"rendered":"

Texans rookie Barwin inspires deaf students<\/strong><\/p>\n

By KRISTIE RIEKEN, The Associated Press<\/p>\n

December 3, 2009<\/p>\n

HOUSTON \u2014 High school senior Shaina Carthon is unlikely to ever step onto a
\nfootball field.<\/p>\n

Still, Carthon, who is deaf, realized she shouldn’t limit her dreams after
\nhearing Houston Texans rookie Connor Barwin share his story of making it to
\nthe NFL despite being born almost completely deaf.<\/p>\n

“He inspired me,” she said through an interpreter. “I always thought that
\nbeing deaf I can’t do this and this and this, but I see that he plays
\nfootball. Deaf people can do a lot of these things. They can do a lot of
\nthings that hearing people can do.”<\/p>\n

Barwin spent more than an hour with about 50 deaf and hard-of-hearing
\nstudents at Barbara Jordan High School in Houston this week. The program is
\nthe only one for deaf high school students in the state’s largest school
\ndistrict.<\/p>\n

The defensive end told students he was deaf until he was between 2 and 3
\nyears old and doctors realized there was a problem. After the discovery,
\nBarwin underwent almost a half dozen surgeries to repair his hearing and
\ngained hearing in his right ear.<\/p>\n

He remains completely deaf in his left ear despite the many surgeries,
\nincluding one where his ear had to be cut open and flipped back because
\nthey’d already done too many procedures to enter it through the canal.<\/p>\n

Barwin never learned to sign, but said he read lips when he was younger.
\nSeveral sign language interpreters relayed his speech and helped students
\nask him questions.<\/p>\n

It was Barwin’s first experience in talking with deaf students about his
\nhearing loss. He spent years avoiding the subject altogether because he felt
\nso lucky to be able to hear.<\/p>\n

“I thought sharing my story … would make kids that weren’t as lucky as me
\nkind of upset and angry that they didn’t have operations or surgeries to
\nregain a lot of their hearing,” he said. “Then I realized that it’s not how
\npeople are going to look at it. They’re going to look at it as a story about
\ngetting through adversity and finding a way to not think that you have a
\nhandicap and just figure out a way to get through it.”<\/p>\n

Tim Thorn, who teaches in the deaf program, said it’s important for his
\nstudents to meet a person with a hearing loss in a position like Barwin’s.<\/p>\n

“It’s great for the students to see someone who has overcome a hurdle and to
\nsee that you can be successful, that you should not allow your disability to
\nhinder you,” Thorn said.<\/p>\n

Houston coach Gary Kubiak said what Barwin has accomplished is impressive.<\/p>\n

“It’s never been an issue here,” Kubiak said. “He has no problems. You can
\ntell that he’s always paying special attention to what’s going on, whether
\nit’s from growing up that way I don’t know, but he’s very attentive and does
\nnot make mistakes.”<\/p>\n

Barwin was a second-round draft pick of the Texans this year after a college
\ncareer at Cincinnati. He’s done well this season, appearing in each game for
\nHouston and getting two sacks. He’s come a long way from a time a few years
\nago when he wondered if he’d make it this far in his career.<\/p>\n

Barwin was a tight end when he started college and ran into trouble when he
\nhad to line up to the right of the quarterback. He couldn’t hear the call in
\nthe noise of a college stadium and would routinely come off the line late.<\/p>\n

After a meeting with his coach and some practice he learned to watch the
\nball out of the corner of his eye to avoid the slowdown. He told the
\nstudents that it was the first time his hearing loss became a major problem.<\/p>\n

“I thought, ‘I’m not going to be able to keep playing, I might not be able
\nto go to the NFL because of the way I was born and this isn’t my fault,'” he
\nsaid. “It was adversity that I just had to figure out a way to get around. I
\ntaught myself how to use my eyes so I didn’t have to use my ears. I think it
\nmade me a better player in the end.”<\/p>\n

He moved to defense as a senior and found that not hearing the quarterback
\nwas beneficial.<\/p>\n

“All I do is watch the ball and look for the snap and go as fast as I can,”
\nhe said. “Some people look at it and say the fact that you’re hearing
\nimpaired almost helps you play defensive line because I’m reacting solely on
\nwhat I see and not what I hear.”<\/p>\n

John Martinez, who can hear out of one ear, enjoyed listening to Barwin’s
\nstory, but it reinforced his belief that his goal of playing quarterback
\nprobably won’t happen.<\/p>\n

“I really want to be a quarterback but as a quarterback you have to have two
\nears that hear very well,” he said. “It’s hard for me.”<\/p>\n

Though football is probably out for Martinez, seeing what Barwin overcame to
\nreach the NFL made him more determined to succeed in wrestling.<\/p>\n

After the reaction he received from the class this week, Barwin hopes to
\nspend more time with deaf students in the future. He loved their interest
\nand had fun answering the dozens of questions he was peppered with.<\/p>\n

“Knowing that I can help some kids and tell my story and they can somewhat
\nget inspired by it and encouraged by it, makes me feel really good about
\nit,” he said.<\/p>\n

Carthon, who asked several questions during Barwin’s talk, said his story
\nwas eye-opening and she plans to share it with friends.<\/p>\n

“He can play football and he is deaf,” Carthon said. “I didn’t know that we
\ncould have people with hearing loss playing pro football. I have deaf
\nfriends that want to play football but they think they can’t do it and I
\nwill tell them yes they can.”<\/p>\n

Source:
\nhttp:\/\/www.daytondailynews.com\/news\/ohio-news\/texans-rookie-barwin-inspires-deaf-students-432221.html <\/a>T<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Texans rookie Barwin inspires deaf students By KRISTIE RIEKEN, The Associated Press December 3, 2009 HOUSTON \u2014 High school senior Shaina Carthon is unlikely to ever step onto a football field. Still, Carthon, who is deaf, realized she shouldn’t limit…<\/p>\n

Read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[2351,2352,2350,24,831,2348,1412,619,20,523,2349,736,17],"class_list":["post-8676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-deaf-news","tag-barbara-jordan-high-school","tag-cincinnati","tag-connor-barwin","tag-deaf","tag-football","tag-gary-kubiak","tag-hard-of-hearing","tag-high-school","tag-houston","tag-nfl","tag-shaina-carthon","tag-texans","tag-texas"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p752R-2fW","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":9397,"url":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2010\/02\/18\/parents-with-dhh-children-day-picnic-corpus-christi\/","url_meta":{"origin":8676,"position":0},"title":"Parents with D\/HH Children Day PICNIC! – Corpus Christi","author":"Grant Laird Jr","date":"February 18, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Parents with Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children Day PICNIC! 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