(This article, reprinted with permission,featuring Jim Crane, class of 2003, appeared in The Columbus Dispatch on February 2, 2007)  2/4/07

DEAFLYMPICS
Hockey a gift for deaf athlete
Bexley graduate is captain of U.S. team

Bill Rabinowitz
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Deafness isn’t a liability for Jim Crane. He considers it more like a gift.

"I would not change anything about being deaf, and I’m really proud of it," Crane said through an interpreter.

The Bexley High School graduate has reason to be proud these days. Crane, 22, will represent the United States as a captain of the U.S. ice hockey team at the 2007 Deaflympics in Salt Lake City starting today against Russia.

"To the deaf community, it’s a very big deal," he said of the Games.

This will be Crane’s second Deaflympics. He played tennis at the 2005 Summer Games in Melbourne, Australia. But hockey is his primary sport, and it stems from his childhood.

Like his older sister Jesse, who is also deaf, Crane was educated in Bexley schools. Though his parents are grateful for the education Jim received as a mainstreamed student, he faced challenges socially because his classmates weren’t fluent in sign language.

"He found his niche, his identity, through sports," his mother, Meredith, said. "He has said hockey saved his life, saved his sanity."

Jim took up the sport through his father, Jay, who served as an assistant coach/interpreter during Jim’s years in the Columbus Amateur Hockey Association.

"He was always a pretty good player, but he was small," said his father, a minority owner of the Blue Jackets. "He was one of those late bloomers who didn’t really hit his growth spurt until after high school."

Crane said deafness isn’t a major issue on the ice. Though he can’t hear the whistle, he knows to stop playing when other players stop. He can’t hear a checker approach, but he compensates with peripheral vision.

"I think we have better eyesight than hearing people," Crane said. "We notice things easier, I think."

Ohio State coach John Markell, whose son played youth hockey with Crane, has watched his development. He described Crane as a steady player who is strong on his skates and has good ice awareness.

"You look at him (on the ice) and go, ‘He’s deaf?’ " Markell said. "It truly is an outstanding thing he can do to play at this level without being able to hear."

Tryouts for the Deaflympics are coordinated through Chicago Blackhawks legend Stan Mikita’s camp for deaf players. Crane, who unsuccessfully tried out for the 2005 Winter Deaflympics, was one of more than 50 players attempting to make the 23-man U.S. team this year.

Crane, a forward, survived the first cut in Chicago and headed to Michigan for the final round.

"I was just hoping I would make the team," he said. "I certainly wasn’t expecting to be captain."

U.S. coach Jeff Sauer, the former highly successful coach at Colorado College and Wisconsin, said Crane has embraced the captain’s role.

Sauer said he chose Crane in part because his personality and leadership skills reduce friction between team members who have limited hearing and those who are completely deaf.

Crane’s parents describe him as a caring free spirit.

As a junior high student, he wrote an essay in which he described his deafness as "a gift from God."

He still feels that way.

"It blows me away," his mother said. "I think in his own unassuming, quiet way, he really lives by the motto that deaf people can do everything except hear.

"He lives a more fulfilled life than a lot of people I know. I don’t know whether his deafness fuels his energy and zest for life or whether that’s just Jim."

Crane attends Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., the country’s only college designed for hearing-impaired students. Gallaudet doesn’t have a hockey team, so he has competed on the soccer, swim and tennis teams.

But because hockey is his first love, he considers the Deaflympics the pinnacle of his athletic career.

"I’ve been playing since I was 4 or 5 years old," he said. "I finally feel this is my chance to show America what I’ve got. I know we’ve got a great team, and we all want to win the gold."

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