Dunmore High School's deaf running back Kyle Lasher: an inspirational story

… will challenge Ligonier Valley 

Ligonier Valley High School Coach Roger Beitel realizes that in order to defeat powerful Dunmore in the PIAA state AA playoffs Friday night, his District 6-AA champion team will have to stymie the Herculean efforts of Kyle Lasher.

Dunmore (13-0) has been to the PIAA State AA Football Championship in three of the past four years, losing every time. The Bucks advanced in the playoffs last Friday to earn a shot at LV by riding the back of one unique high school athlete.

Lasher rushed for 248 yards on 48 carries in Dunmore's 48-35 victory over York Catholic last week, excelling on both sides of the ball. He also recovered a fumble that he turned into a TD a few plays later.

However, what makes Lasher's story even more compelling is that he was born deaf and must communicate with coaches and players through an interpreter.

His story is so inspirational that the NFL did a pre-game piece on Super Bowl 50 earlier this year on Lasher. That lasted just a minute and a half, but they then followed it up with a longer, more in-depth piece this fall.

Not a disability

Lasher does not want to think of himself as someone who has a disability. "It never stopped him from doing anything,” his mother, Rose told the Dunmorean about her son, who was born with the defect. “He doesn’t look at it at all as a handicap and neither do his coaches. Coach [Jack] Henzes views it as not a problem at all. He has been great with Kyle. He is treated just like anyone else.”

Coaching the deaf

Only one college for the deaf exists in the United States, and the school does indeed have a football team. That is Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C.

During my years of coaching NCAA Div. III college football, we played Gallaudet. It was a special kind of event. Communication was a challenge, but they used a bass drum that was lined up on the sideline instead of using a verbal cadence in telling them when to move. The drum would provide sound waves through the ground that the deaf could feel, but others could not. Even their wideouts would get down into a three-point stance, at least they did in the 1970s and 80s when I was coaching.

Obviously, they needed to sign in the huddle and on the sidelines, and they could not always hear the whistle to end the play. As a result, offensive players had to be aware that they might be hit after the play had been whistled dead.

Lasher wants to attend college and perhaps play football, so Gallaudet may be his final destination.

Lasher says team wants to win state title

The 6-foot, 190-pound speedster told the Dunmorean that his team wants to do what no other Dunmore team has since 1989. “We are looking forward to seeing how far we can go in the playoffs. We will practice hard week by week and take one game at a time … Yes, we think we can achieve a state title. We can get there if we continue working hard.”

Lasher does have one similarity with many LV players: His favorite professional team is the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Teaching the deaf

In a teaching career that spanned five decades, I have experienced teaching the deaf and hearing-impaired. That was particularly true in my college experience since 2000.

Since I, like most teachers, do not know how to sign, we must rely on interpreters in the classroom. That is what Lasher has to do at Dunmore. He has an educational interpreter for his classes, and then he has a football interpreter, who is like an assistant coach on the team.

That is what attracted NFL Films to Lasher to further explore the Dunmore senior this fall. Brian Rosenfeld was the director of the film that was done earlier in the football season. “We are really looking forward to telling his story of overcoming adversity,” Rosenfeld told the Scranton Times-Tribune prior to the filming. “You look and see how far he has come and what he has achieved, and the relationship he has with [his interpreter] Nora (Foley), who is like a coach, and it’s really amazing.”

My first experience teaching the deaf in college occurred when I had students from Central America who were attending Mount Aloysius through a program with Georgetown University. Since these students spoke Spanish as their primary language, teaching them to write in English Comp was a challenge. Structurally, the languages are very different.

The most challenging one was teaching public speaking to a student who was deaf but also mute. Fortunately, her primary language was English, but she had to not just learn from me via sign language, but had to also give her speeches with sign.

Lasher in the huddle

The one question I have about Lasher is how he is able to understand the Dunmore quarterback in the huddle. With Gallaudet, all of the players understood sign, so the QB could use that. However, I was not able to determine in my research about Lasher if his interpreter signed in the play from the sideline or if they have another means of communication.

Last season, Lasher ran for 615 yards and 11 touchdowns since he had two outstanding running backs ahead of him. Now, he is the primary focus of their offense, and despite his adversity, he is responding well.

Stopping Lasher will be the primary focus for the LV defense this week, and they realize that he has recorded 1,465 yards on 166 carries (8.8/carry) thus far this year.

What they may not realize is the adversity that Lasher has faced in reaching this pinnacle of his career.

The game will take place at 7 p.m. Friday at Bald Eagle Area High School in Centre County.

Links

Times-Tribune Dunmore-York Catholic story

http://thetimes-tribune.com/sports/lasher-s-big-night-leads-dunmore-past-york-catholic-1.2119990

Dunmore on MaxPreps

http://www.maxpreps.com/high-schools/dunmore-bucks-(dunmore,pa)/football/home.htm

The Dunmorean Athlete of the Month

https://dunmoreannews.wordpress.com/2016/11/02/athlete-of-the-month-kyle-lasher/