Shelby Cassesse tells the story of former Seton LaSalle soccer standout Tyler Stack, who is now playing at Mount Union and is heading to Brazil to compete with the U.S. Men’s Deaf National Team.
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Former Seton LaSalle soccer standout bound for Deaflympics
Tyler Stack was a freshman soccer player at Seton LaSalle in 2016. One day at the end of practice, the team decided to shoot penalty kicks.
It's pretty typical for players to yell, scream, say anything to the teammate kicking to try to break his concentration. As Tyler lined up to kick, hearing the joking taunts of his teammates, his older brother and teammate Christopher, reminded him to take his ears out. The world went quiet, and Tyler hit the back of the net.
“From that point just kind of solidified my personality on that team,” Tyler said.
Now a sophomore at Mount Union, Tyler was born deaf in both ears from a genetic condition, and has cochlear implants. He was almost a year old, when something seemed off to his mother, Sue.
“The next door neighbor happened to have a whistle, for whatever reason, and it was right next to Tyler,” Sue explained. “He blew the whistle really loudly. It frightened most of us, but Tyler never moved.”
After rigorous testing to confirm, Tyler started with hearing aids, then received his first cochlear implant at two, the second about five years later. As much as it all changed the lives of the Stack family, it's simply the norm for Tyler.
“It really didn’t bother me that much,” he said. “I knew I had to learn how to talk and listen.”
Sue says communicating with her middle child didn't always come easy, but they saw big improvement when he started attending DePaul School For Hearing and Speech in Shadyside. Tyler was there for nine years.
At the same time, a special bond was forming. Wherever Christopher went, Tyler would follow, including to the soccer field.
“He had more of a set of skills than me playing soccer,” Tyler said. “So just watching him was like watching him teach me how to play soccer.”
Though a lot of older brothers might roll their eyes at their younger sibling tagging along, Sue says Christopher was always happy to teach him the game, and still remains his biggest fan.
“The two of them were just always together, and when they were together, they were playing soccer,” Sue said.
Tyler graduated from St. Margaret of Scotland and enrolled at Seton Lasalle with his brother just a few years ahead. But by his junior year, Tyler was no longer little brother, he was dominating.
“On the field, I was faster than most players, I was scoring more goals, I was giving out assists and all that stuff,” Tyler said.
It wasn't long before colleges, including Mount Union, came calling. But he recently got another call he didn't expect. Tyler was invited to camp for the U.S. Deaf Men's National Team, something he didn't even know was an option.
“It kind of opened my eyes to the world of deaf soccer,” he said. “I’m still learning, I’m still new at it. I’m still happy to experience more out of it.”
Tyler was selected to the team's roster, and is headed to Brazil for the Deaflympics next month. Though he says removing his cochlear implants like he did that day in practice isn't a strategy he uses often, it's a requirement for his new team. Players aren't allowed to compete with hearing assistance, only sign language.
“I’m still learning some sign language, at least in soccer terms,” he said. “But, fortunately, the guys do a lot of lip reading. So that makes it easier.”
But adapting and learning has been something Tyler has done more so than most for his whole life, just ask his mother who has had a front row seat every step of the way.
“If you give him a challenge, he’s going to take it, he’s going to run with it and he’s going to blow it out of the water,” Sue said. “He does it with absolutely everything.”
And for Tyler, he says excuses simply aren't part of the plan.
“Just keep moving forward, that’s my standpoint,” he said. “Me not being able to hear well, I just move on, just keep working. You’ll get there.”