How Colorado’s deaf high school volleyball players set each other up for success
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COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — The Colorado School for the Deaf and Blind (CSDB) gymnasium was buzzing as the crowd clapped and stomped their feet. The CSDB Bulldogs emerged from their pre-game huddle and stepped into position across the net from their opponents, the Elbert Bulldogs, a hearing team.
The match dazzled with aces, spikes and diving saves, coordinated through constant communication between players and coaches. Teams united after each point, sharing high fives and signs of support, as is typical in a sport characterized by frequent cheering and check-ins.
The Elbert Bulldogs beat the CSDB Bulldogs in three sets, though not without strong competition, and both sets of Bulldogs walked off the court to cheers and stomping from spectators, who literally sent positive vibrations through the floor so the players could feel their support.
For seniors Nyla Stingley and Yoleth Valtierra, the approach to each game is no different than Elbert’s: leave everything on the court, support your teammates and, most importantly, have fun.
“Playing against other schools… that’s really great for communication,” signed Stingley, who communicated with Rocky Mountain PBS through an American Sign Language (ASL) interpreter.
“We try to encourage people to do their best and express themselves and not hold back.”
The volleyball program at CSDB started at least 66 years ago, according to the school’s history committee, whose earliest records include details on a second place finish at a 1958 Utah School for the Deaf volleyball tournament.
Today, there are two women’s teams — middle school and high school — each with about seven to 10 players. They compete in the 1A Black Forest League, which includes schools like Elbert High School, Kiowa High School and the current division leaders, Simla High School.
Yet Stingley and Valtierra are confident that they can take on any competition, hearing or not.
“Honestly, I don’t care what people think about me or my team just because we’re deaf,” signed Valtierra.
“We can do it. So we’re going to show them that we can do it.”
Jonathan R. Kennedy, a school worker with three deaf children, founded the Colorado School for the Deaf and Blind more than 150 years ago. Colorado was not yet a state.
Originally called “The Colorado Institute for the Education of Mutes,” the school was located in a rented house and served a student body of just seven kids. Today, the Colorado School for the Deaf and Blind, renamed in 1895, now stands on a large campus near downtown Colorado Springs. Colorado Springs founder William Jackson Palmer designated the campus.
It is the only residential school for the deaf in Colorado and serves students from across the country. Because the school is state-operated, Colorado residents do not pay tuition.
Today, it serves more than 700 students, half of which live in residential dorms on campus.
About two-thirds of attending students are deaf and about one-third are blind, and they attend one of three schools on the CSDB campus equipped to meet their needs, plus a school for post-high school students.
In addition to volleyball, students compete in goalball (a sport designed for visually impaired athletes), track & field, wrestling and basketball.
The CSDB also competes against hearing and non-hearing teams and sometimes travels to regional tournaments against other deaf teams. This year, the Bulldogs will play against the Minnesota School for the Deaf and the New Mexico School for the Deaf at a tournament in New Mexico.
Players rely on sign language to communicate. They set game plans and positioning ahead of each play, signed Valtierra. This guarantees that everyone is on the same page before play starts.
“Sometimes we have to make sure and get someone’s attention, make sure everybody’s looking, because during the game, we’re not really communicating that much while the ball’s in play,” signed Valtierra.
CSDB women’s high school volleyball coach Myranda Zigler, who is also deaf and a former CSDB volleyball player, signed that she uses a combination of hand waving, foot stomping and movement to get the attention of her players.
“I always emphasize to my players to check-in to make sure they look over periodically to see if we want to share something,” signed Zigler.
Valtierra, Stingley and Zigler acknowledged that communication can sometimes be a bit tricky, but Zigler pointed to benefits to using American Sign Language (ASL) instead of verbal cues.
Zigler thinks that this helps prevent potential miscommunications or misunderstandings in instruction. Because players are getting messages directly from her through her signs, signed Zigler, there’s no worrying about there being a lack of communication or needing interpreters.
She also appreciated the bond that ASL forms between individuals.
“It’s beautiful. It’s a beautiful process,” signed Zigler about using ASL. “I absolutely love that feeling of connection with my students.”
Zigler is in her fourth year leading the CSDB women’s high school volleyball team, and she follows the example set by her own coach, Pammy Wilding.
“[Wilding] was an incredible volleyball player. I just loved her style,” signed Zigler. “She’s deaf, and I learned so much from her, everything about her ability… I wanted to be as good as her.”
According to the high school sports site MaxPreps, there are about 70 high schools for the deaf in the United States that offer women’s volleyball programs.
Deaf and hearing-impaired athletes do have the opportunity to continue their efforts professionally post-graduation, though options are limited. The Paralympics do not include hearing impairment among the listed “impairment types,” meaning there are no qualifications designated specifically for deaf athletes.
However, elite mens and womens volleyball players can join the USA Deaf Volleyball team, which offers youth and professional programs that compete in tournaments across the world.
While not a Paralympic sport, USA Deaf Volleyball will be competing at the Deaflympics next year in Tokyo. Originally known as the World Games for the Deaf, the Deaflympics were founded 100 years ago in 1924, about 24 years before the Paralympics.
The key to being an effective coach for a deaf sports team is to teach very visually, including through signed instructions as well as acting out plays and drills, she signed.
Even more important than skill is fostering a player’s love for the game, Zigler signed, a “palpable love” she first experienced while playing under Wilding.
Zigler wants to pass on this passion to her players while developing “confident” and “optimistic team players,” something she has seen in seniors like Stingley and Valtierra.
“I feel powerful,” signed Stingley. “I’m a really powerful server, and I tend to ace a lot… that really makes me feel good.”
Valtierra remembered the shaky and “awkward” start of her volleyball career back in the fifth grade.
“At that time, I felt like I wasn’t a good player… I just felt like I probably couldn’t do it, but I stuck with it,” she signed.
“I got better, and I realized, ‘Wow, I can do it. I can ace the ball, I am powerful, I am strong.”
As seniors, both Stingley and Valtierra now help guide and support some of the younger players on the team, both with their skills as well as with their confidence and teamwork.
Zigler hopes the lessons and mindsets players pick up on the court will stick with them post-graduation, just as they had with her.
“I encourage that they apply what they learned in sports in their lives in the future,” signed Zigler.
“And definitely that way of thinking, encouraging my players so that they feel good about themselves regardless of the situations that come up at home or at school with friends, families.“
“Just seeing that you are valued.”