NJ defender started for Deaf national soccer team at world championships in Malaysia
Kevin Fitzpatrick still remembers Hopatcong High School soccer coach Ryan Masterson yelling at him from across the field. Often, Fitzpatrick just couldn't hear him.
Masterson remembers things a bit differently, joking that Fitzpatrick would just turn his hearing aids off when he didn't want to answer.
Fitzpatrick was born with hearing loss. He uses hearing aids, and is able to communicate via speech, reading lips, and American Sign Language.
He's been enjoying a quieter sort of soccer with the U.S. Men's Deaf National Team.
Fitzpatrick, a 5-foot-10 defender, played all but one minute of the United States' first three matches over the past two weeks at the World Deaf Football Championships in Malaysia. The U.S. defeated the the host nation to open the tournament but fell to Egypt and Germany in group play.
After missing the Americans' 1-0 upset of England with an injury, Fitzpatrick subbed in against Senegal in the Oct. 1 quarterfinal, a 1-0 loss. He also came on as a first-half sub in a penalty-kick loss to Iran on Tuesday.
Fitzpatrick worked his way back into the starting lineup for the Americans' seventh-place game against France on Thursday, his 29th birthday.
His parents, Karen and Glenn, and younger sister Kathleen watched the U.S. men's matches via livestream. But after waking up at 4:30 a.m. for the match against Egypt, the feed didn't work – so Kathleen followed the action on social media from the family's Hopatcong basement.
"You have to be very aware of your surroundings. A lot of us have done it our whole lives, where it's a natural thing to us," Fitzpatrick said. Playing without hearing aids "made me be more alert. I never really took advantage of it [until] I came to this team, and realized I had a lot more potential. I lost the ability to hear, so I had to be on my game."
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To be part of the Deaf national team, players must have a hearing loss of at least 55 decibels in their better ear. No assistive devices, like hearing aids or cochlear implants, are allowed during matches.
To communicate during games, players use sign language or gestures, as well as interpreters.
The United States finished eighth at the Deaf World Championships.
"On the field, he is an excellent one-on-one defender, dominant in aerial battles, and has an immense presence," national team coach David Kunitz said via email. "Off the field, Kevin is a tremendous role model and teammate."
Not that different
The genes for hearing loss run in the Fitzpatrick family, though Kevin wasn't formally diagnosed until age 2. In addition to Kevin and his younger sister Kathleen, their father Glenn and an uncle, aunt, and cousin are all hard of hearing. Though Kevin and Kathleen use hearing aids, Glenn Fitzpatrick has a cochlear implant.
Kevin and Kathleen took advantage of the Lake Drive Program in Mountain Lakes, which provides educational services for deaf and hard-of-hearing kids as young as 3. Though Kevin attended Mountain Lakes High School, he simultaneously played soccer and was a sprinter at Hopatcong.
Fitzpatrick recalled leaving Mountain Lakes early and arriving at practice "in a big long, yellow bus just for me. You would think it would carry a team, but it was just me popping out."
He had started playing soccer at age 4, running up and down the field during his sister Kristen's travel practice. He played with the Hopatcong Hawks rec program, then with the Green Machine under-9 team when he was only 7.
Fitzpatrick always used hearing aids on the field, and verbally called out to teammates like anyone else did. His mother recalled a game against Dover when Kevin's hearing aid accidentally fell out. Action paused as both teams searched – and found it near the goal.
"He was one of my favorite student-athletes to coach," said Masterson, an emergency services dispatcher in Morris County who was the Hopatcong boys coach in 2011 and 2012.
"His work ethic, his ability to constantly want to improve and pick up on new concepts, he was willing to learn. ... He mentioned he was going to try out [for the national team.] I had no doubt he was going to make it, that he would eventually get to that point."
After graduating from Mountain Lakes in 2013, Fitzpatrick went on to Sussex County Community College, and then played three seasons at Gallaudet University, the first U.S. school dedicated to the education of deaf students. He studied sociology, with an eye toward bridging the gap between local police departments and the Deaf and hard of hearing community.
Fitzpatrick was called into his first national team camp in 2017, his first season at Gallaudet.
Fitzpatrick made his first international appearance at the 2019 Deaf Pan American Games in Chile. He and Gallaudet assistant coach James Rummo of Butler, another Lake Drive alumnus were part of the Deaf national team's first tournament championship.
Fitzpatrick has made 16 appearances for the U.S. so far. He is working for his cousin's construction company near Charleston, South Carolina, but still hopes to play professional soccer.
"It's been such a life-changer for me, the feeling of being part of a family of likeness," he said "I'd never played with teammates who had the same hearing loss as I had. It was definitely an eye opener of how we all can be the same."
Jane Havsy is a multimedia journalist for DailyRecord.com, part of the USA TODAY NETWORK. For full access to live scores, breaking news and analysis, subscribe today.
Email: JHavsy@gannett.com Twitter: @dailyrecordspts
This article originally appeared on Morristown Daily Record: NJ soccer: Kevin Fitzpatrick at Deaf soccer World Cup in Malaysia
