'They're just Amelia and Maya': Stallard, Lawrie share common bond at Notre Dame Academy

Maya Lawrie's and Amelia Stallard's childhoods were filled with doctor's appointments but they weren't always the annual checkups most parents and children are accustomed to.

Some earliest memories involve seeing pediatricians who helped them deal with their partial hearing loss. Lawrie has worn hearing aids since she was a baby; Stallard began experiencing hearing loss between third and fourth grade.

The condition is a major part of their lives, but they haven't let it affect them in a major way.

"I didn't think it made me different. I thought it made me special," Lawrie said.

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Both are now members of the Notre Dame Academy basketball team. High school sports can be raucous, basketball especially so because it's in a closed space. But Lawrie has grown accustomed to the noise; she has been playing sports since she was young and remembers competing against her sisters Josie and Addie and her brother, Max, who also has partial hearing loss.

Stallard didn’t like that she had to take her hearing aids out to go swimming with her friends, so she turned to the basketball court instead.

When verbal communication is at a premium, the two read their coaches' lips, a skill they picked up when they were young. The Pandas also communicate through hand signals, a tactic many of Lawrie's and Stallard's prior teams used.

"It's more of a blessing than a curse because it teaches our whole team to communicate better and it really just helps everyone out because initially, we were like, 'We gotta communicate more for me and Amelia.' But now the communication helps the team. It's not just us," Lawrie said.

Head coach Kes Murphy has known Lawrie since she was in fifth grade and Stallard since she was in sixth grade. He never saw their additions to the roster as a challenge. Since Lawrie is a junior, she helped to ease Stallard's transition to high school.

"It never really became an issue because they've already had to figure it out in grade school and middle school," Murphy said. "We've not felt as though it's ever held them back."

Just look at the numbers. Lawrie leads the team in assists and steals, is second in blocks and third in scoring. Their contributions on the court are the product of their intense focus in practice. Murphy knows the challenges of keeping a young team on task, but that is not a problem with Lawrie and Stallard.

"I don't have to tell them things twice all the time, especially Amelia as a freshman. She's like a little puppy. She's just so eager to learn," Murphy said.

Stallard is one of three freshmen on the varsity roster, but she is the only one to play in all 17 games. Her willingness to learn has made a difference on defense, as she has helped the Pandas allow just 40 points per game.

Notre Dame recently hosted Great Crossing in a Friday night contest where the school band played for those in attendance. Lawrie and Stallard were briefly worried about how they would handle the additional noise but soon realized they could handle it just as they did any other obstacle.

"Maya and I were talking, like it's gonna be super challenging for us to hear during timeouts when they play music. Music is really hard to hear in, but we always find a way," Stallard said.

In the 32-point win, they combined for 13 points and eight rebounds.

Outside of sports, the most notable challenge they face is when their teachers play videos in the classroom. They're not afraid to ask for the closed captions in the event they can't hear the video.

"I think it's taught me that everyone will help me out when I need it, whether it's repeating something or just simple stuff, that they always do it," Stallard said.

Lawrie added that hearing loss has taught her another way to deal with adversity. She said she's surrounded by great people ‒ her teammates ‒ who don't see Lawrie and Stallard as different from themselves.

"I do think that their teammates, they get it, but it's not one of those things that they really even think about. They're just Amelia and Maya," Murphy said.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Notre Dame basketball takes lessons from May Lawrie, Amelia Stallard