Shawn Duffalo’s hand rises as he clenches it into a fist. A rock is ahead in the whooshing, fast-flowing waters of the West Virginia mountains, and he needs to let his daughter — who can’t hear him from the back of the kayak — know.
Maddie Duffalo has been deaf since she was 5 years old and worn cochlear implants for more than a decade. The roaring current masks remaining sounds, so hand signals are the only form of communication that works here. They navigate safely around the rock and the river is theirs again.
Now 18, Duffalo hasn’t let her disability slow her desire to push her body to the limits, whether that’s white-water rafting, skiing, mountain bike racing — or spiking a volleyball. Duffalo played a key role on C. Milton Wright girls volleyball’s regional championship team last season. Her eyes are focused on a repeat.
“She likes a challenge,” Karen Duffalo, Maddie’s mother and the Mustangs’ junior varsity coach, said. “She doesn’t let it stop her.”
The Duffalos first learned of Maddie’s disability during a routine doctor’s visit. They thought she maybe had an ear infection but soon got more crippling news
She’d lost her hearing entirely in one ear and it was slowly fading in the other, they were told. They first tried a hearing aid in the still-functioning ear, but when that also dissipated, she qualified for cochlear implants, a small, electronic device that provides some sense of sound to a person who is severely deaf.
It consists of two parts, one that rests on the user’s head behind the ear and another that is surgically placed under the skin. Rather than a hearing aid, which only amplifies sound, a cochlear implant picks up sound, then bypasses the damaged portion of the ear to send signals directly to the auditory nerve. A magnetic plate keeps the exterior portion of the device latched on, can be taken on and off any time, and connects to Duffalo’s phone and other Bluetooth devices.
“She’s very, very fortunate in that she was born hearing and learned to talk before she lost any of her hearing,” Karen Duffalo said. “Without [the implants], she can’t hear.”
It took getting used to and created moments the family can now look back on and laugh. She once forgot the charger on a trip to New York City and experienced “The city that never sleeps” largely without sound. The exterior chip falling off in the middle of a volleyball set isn’t uncommon, but Duffalo promptly races to grab them, snaps them back into place and is back in the action in seconds.
Maddie Duffalo wears two sound processors that sit off of each ear and have a magnetic connection to the cochlear implants under her skin. (Karen Jackson /Freelance)
Maddie doesn’t see her condition as a hinderance. Quite the opposite actually.
“I like to think of it as a positive thing,” Duffalo said. “I can’t hear the audience, so I can’t hear whether they’re saying something positive or bad. It’s very easy for me to ignore the opposing team because I can’t hear it. There are definitely some times when there’s a little confusion on the court, but at that point I just decide if I can’t hear them, I assume they can hear me. I’ve learned to become very loud.”
The adjustment period is largely over now as most of the limits and challenges it once presented are no longer an issue. But some obstacles still exist.
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C. Milton Wright’s girls volleyball coach David Naugle selected Duffalo for the varsity team as a freshman. Before that season, the coach met with his up-and-coming star to ask what he can do to best suit her needs.
He learned he needed to make an effort to look at Duffalo when speaking to her so she can read his lips. Teammates have learned to do the same, in addition to using hand signals when applicable. And when Naugle can’t face Duffalo’s direction and she doesn’t hear him over the deafening gym, he’s learned to trust she knows what to do on her own.
“We’ve had honest conversations with the rest of her teammates, and she personally has probably had conversations with her teammates about the best way to communicate with her,” Naugle said. “Maybe there’s times where that kind of holds her back. Volleyball is a game where it’s super loud on the court and maybe she doesn’t hear everything. But you certainly would not notice.”
Duffalo leads the Mustangs in hitting percentage and serve-receive rating through five matches this season. In 23 contests last season, the then-junior posted 135 kills and 64 aces and was named to the All-Aegis second team.
Last year, she helped the Mustangs win a regional championship. At 4-1 with a month to play this season, Duffalo is confident they can repeat.
“I think we have a real shot,” she said. “If we bring our full potential, we can do it.”
Maddie Duffalo spends her free time mountain bike racing, along with rock climbing, white-water rafting and other extreme sports. “She likes a challenge,” her mother said. (Courtesy photo)
Naugle has gotten used to Duffalo’s father, also C. Milton Wright’s boys volleyball coach, sending photos of scars and bruises suffered from his star player’s extreme hobbies.
But each of those nerve-wracking updates comes with a reminder that she doesn’t know when to quit — a word likely not in her vocabulary anyway.
“Her dad will send me a picture of her all banged up and bruised up, and I’m like, ‘Well, is she OK?’ Oh, she’s fine,” Naugle said. “And she’s right back at practice tomorrow.”
C. Milton Wright High School varsity volleyball player Maddie Duffalo who has cochlear implants practices with the team.(Karen Jackson /Freelance)
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