BENSENVILLE (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Stan Mikita and sausage magnate Irv Tiahnybik started the weeklong “Stan Mikita Hockey School for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing” in 1973, as a way to help Tiahnybik’s son, Lex, who had a nightmare of a coach.
“He told my father, ‘He’s better off being a waterboy,’” Lex Tiahnybik said. “He didn’t want him putting me out … because he was afraid I was going to get hurt because I couldn’t hear. My father said, ‘No, he’s capable to play.’”
Five decades later, thanks to countless volunteers, the school is going strong. Just ask 10-year-old Dylan Vore of Maryland, who spoke through interpreter Jessica.
“I like the camp,” he said. “I feel like it’s good because I get to hang out with my deaf friends, and it’s not like [the] hearing and the deaf kids are separated. We’re all together, so it’s awesome because I get to improve my skills, and everyone just understands each other.”
In addition to progressing as a hockey player, Dylan said the camp has helped provide him with “really good growth.”
The 2023 camp is at Edge Ice Arena in Bensenville. There are 13 new families and more than 50 returning players, some as young as 5, who get patient, high-level coaching and have fun along the way.
American Hearing Impaired Hockey Association board member Karen Gintoli, who’s had three children take part in the camp, said the Stan Mikita school is a special one.
“Getting the extra communication help that they needed, coaches having the patience to re-explain things, having the interpreters on the ice to make sure that communication came through,” she said. “When we got home to their hearing team, they had this new confidence.”
That confidence carried over into the classroom, Gintoli said. All of her children are now college grads, in part because of the communication skills they learned on the ice.
Another parent in attendance was Gregory Cyrus, of Stoughton, Wis., who said he has two daughters participating at the 2023 camp. Cyrus spoke with WBBM about what makes hockey more difficult for those with hearing difficulties.
“They have to be a lot more alert; they have to be a lot more visual, you know, really be paying attention,” Stoughton said. “Hockey’s a pretty vocal game when they’re on the ice, [with] people calling, ‘Here, here; mine, mine.’”
Cyrus said it’s the second year for his 5-year-old daughter Dolly and the third year for his 10-year-old daughter Marie.
“She loves it. It’s a highlight. She’s always really excited, and they do — besides the hockey instruction — they do so much to make the week really special for the kids,” he said. “The Jesse White Tumblers come out, [they do] dinners together. It’s really a great experience.”
The school runs through Saturday.
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