Brewington A Factor

From: Hartford Courant - USA - Feb 15, 2005

Providence Guard Succeeding Despite Hearing Loss

February 15, 2005
By TOM YANTZ, Courant Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE - When Dwight Brewington was six months old, he was diagnosed with a profound hearing loss. Since his earliest memory, he has heard and followed his mother's conviction.

"She has repeated it so many times," Brewington said. "Three years ago I had the words tattooed here on my left forearm."

My Dream is Big Enough so the Facts Don't Count. I Love Mom.

The facts are Brewington has a hearing loss of 60 percent, corrected to a degree by the two hearing aids he wears. The facts also are that he is Providence College's second-leading scorer (13.6 ppg).

Growing up in Lynn, Mass., he was taunted and mocked. Children were insensitive that many everyday sounds in their world were those of silence in Brewington's.

"We're all lucky we can hear," said coach Tim Welsh. "We can't imagine or understand what it's like being in his world."

Brewington makes the best of his world.

"The dream is to do whatever my goal is," he said. "Be successful in class, play basketball or whatever. My big dream is to play in the NBA. I've been working hard and love the game that much. I don't want anything to stop me. I'd be the first basketball player who is deaf to play in the NBA."

But Brewington, a 6-foot-5 sophomore guard, gets upset if anyone refers to him as "the deaf basketball player."

"If I wasn't deaf, it wouldn't affect what I do on the basketball floor," he said. "Who am I? I'm a basketball player, who also is deaf."

Gallaudet in Washington is an all-deaf university and fields teams in many sports. At Rochester Institute of Technology, there is a school on campus - National Technical Institute for the Deaf - that has a number of students who play for RIT teams.

But Brewington is one of only six deaf male basketball players at other NCAA institutions, according to Barry Strassler, owner of DeafDigest, a weekly e-news. The others are Ryan Daniel of Auburn, Jeff Hays of Carroll, Joseph Frazier of Cal State-Northridge, Brent Baker of Ottawa University in Kansas and Lance Allred of Weber.

Brewington can play. He scored 23 points against Wake Forest, 23 against Michigan, 21 against Syracuse and 17 against Virginia. The Friars' starting shooting guard is agile and quick, and he's second on the team in three-pointers (44).

But on Feb. 5, he sustained a high left ankle sprain at Villanova. It was another setback for Providence (11-13, 1-9 Big East), which played in the NCAA Tournament last season. He will not play against UConn tonight at Dunkin' Donuts Center. The Friars hope to have him back by the end of the season.

Not having Brewington hurts Providence, which lacks backcourt depth. "Dwight is an established first-line Big East player, and he has improved his game from last year," Welsh said.

Brewington's freshman season was difficult, and it extended far beyond his 5.7 scoring average off the bench.

Brewington can hear someone speak if he gets close enough and he can read lips. But that didn't help him enough in the college classroom environment.

"There were times I'd only pick up 50 percent of the lecture and discussion in class, if the professor had turned away from me and was still speaking," Brewington said. "I'd walk out of class, knowing I had lost 50 percent of what everybody else had. I would have had to go to my room and read the entire book - and I'd still have been behind. But most kids don't have to read a 400-page book because they pick up all the class discussion."

His classwork suffered. He was frustrated and unhappy.

"Basketball has always been a kind of medicine for me," he said. "If you don't have fun playing ball, then you shouldn't be playing."

Brewington wasn't enjoying basketball enough. That's because his frustrations outside the sport were mounting. He thought about leaving school.

"It was a huge disadvantage for him, trying to scrap out of it and then kept getting hit in the face," Welsh said. "Personality and basketball-wise he was down, through no fault of his own."

Brewington's mother, Pamela Harrison, reminded him of her words of inspiration.

Brewington heard them once again.

Brewington, his family, Welsh and Providence officials huddled up.

"We asked what we could do to help," Welsh said. "A lot of it was we didn't understand, again about living in his world. Last year he had a student note-taker. Now he has a full-time helper."

Anne Marie Clarkson sits next to Brewington in each class and takes notes, while he follows the lecture. She can communicate during class with him by sign language, which Brewington said he learned when he was 2 or 3.

Clarkson also is a tutor after class.

"I want Dwight to be successful," Welsh said. "I didn't want him to be a failure. I felt we all had been failures to him last year. Now we have it figured out. He almost made the dean's list last semester."

Welsh said Brewington, whose major is undeclared, has new hearing aids, a "door knocker that vibrates in his dormitory room" and a "little pager."

"He can communicate better with the staff and Ann Marie by sending and receiving instant text messages," Welsh said.

Brewington's speech is clear for someone who is deaf. However, it retains that nasal quality usually associated with someone who is deaf. His verbalization is marked by hard consonant sounds, such as "dill" when he's saying "still." That's because soft consonant sounds like "s" and "f" are outside his range of hearing. He has no point of reference.

During games, Welsh and the players use more hand signals for plays and defenses to communicate easier with Brewington. He has been caught sometimes by a screen because he couldn't hear a teammate's warning from behind him. But most of the time, he avoids the jarring pick.

"I can see the floor, and I know what's going on," he said.

Welsh said Brewington has a sixth sense. "He has a feel on the court," Welsh said. "He has had it his whole life. Whether he's crossing the street or picking up a screen, it's stuff you and I can't understand."

His basketball skills were honed from AAU ball, at Lynn English High and Worcester Academy. Brewington averaged 20.7 points and led Worcester Academy to the 2003 New England prep school title.

"He has unbridled intensity," said Clark University coach Morgan Cassara, who coached Brewington at Worcester Academy. "He always has strived to be the best he could be. He has tremendous pride."

Brewington's story was seen on national television during the NCAA Tournament last year. Since then, Brewington and Welsh have received numerous e-mails and letters from young deaf children who ask if Dwight could e-mail or write them a letter.

Sitting in the empty bleachers at Mullaney Gymnasium on campus last week, Brewington acknowledged he's not alone when he's on the court.

"A lot of kids that are deaf or handicapped take things the wrong way," he said. "Stuff like that can easily put you down, but it really shouldn't. I play for those kids. Hopefully I'll be an inspiration for them not to give up, because the facts don't count when your dream is big enough."

Copyright © 2005 by The Hartford Courant