Signs of Joy : Deaf Cheerleader Does It With Rhythm, Pantomime, Courage

For Stacy Eilbert, a 13-year-old who has been deaf since birth, being a cheerleader could only be a dream.

But the Fountain Valley teen-ager’s dream was shared by many, especially her fellow students in the Hearing Impaired Program at McFadden Intermediate School, where attending regular classes with hearing students is the main goal.

Becoming a cheerleader, Stacy believed, “would show we can do anything, just like everyone else.”

Last year, she tried out for the junior varsity squad but did not make it. This year, her dream came true.

“If I didn’t do it, it would have hurt others,” Stacy said through her sign language interpreter, Tammy Rosas. “We want to show that deaf people can do it, and now maybe we can do other things, like being on the drill team.”

Using both sign language and words, Stacy explained, “It was hard for me, because I had to practice every morning. But I really wanted to do it, and now other deaf girls can try out.”

Liz Hughes, adviser to the squad, said Stacy had to memorize and perform the cheers through a set of counts to keep in formation with the seven other girls.

The cheerleading squad also competes with cheerleaders from other schools, Hughes said, and “sometimes, there are four hours of practice on Saturdays just to prepare . . . that’s even tough when you don’t have an impairment.”

Rosas, who also interprets for Stacy in the classroom, frequently stays after school with her for one-on-one instruction, helping her to learn to mouth new cheers and songs.

Although Stacy has a strong voice, “the tone of her voice didn’t fit in with the rest of the girls, so she moves her mouth as if she was saying it,” Rosas said.

Now, she said, Stacy has perfected the movements of both body and mouth so well that “it would be difficult to pick her out as the deaf person on the squad.”

During a break in a recent basketball game, fellow cheerleader Latanya Green, an eighth-grader, said, “Sometimes we forget she’s deaf. She does everything we do, and there’s no difference. She can do it.”

All the cheerleaders have picked up sign language from Stacy, and most are proficient enough to communicate with her. “She helps us when we make mistakes or get stuck with the signs,” Latanya said. “We help each other.”

To the other deaf students at McFadden, “Stacy is a model,” said Principal Carolyn Rowland. “It was important, on her part, to be successful.”