Hearing-impaired basketball player inspires others

He owns one of the sweetest jump shots east of the Mississippi and loves listening to rhythm and blues, hanging out with friends and playing golf.

Jamel Bradley is no different from other major-college basketball players, with one exception - he's hearing impaired.

Bradley, a sophomore at the University of South Carolina, lost more than 80 percent of his hearing as an infant.

Yet he's playing a significant role with the Gamecocks while functioning as a student and serving as an inspiration to others with the disability.

At 6 feet 2 and 160 pounds, Bradley needs to build up his muscles to compete in the physical Southeastern Conference, but he has been inserted into the lineup more often this season, mainly for his shooting ability.

He has also contributed off the court, often speaking to hearing-impaired groups in the Columbia, S.C., area.

Bradley helped one hearing-impaired high-school student from Florence, S.C., who was struggling to relate to classmates and members of the basketball team.

Five deaf and hearing-impaired students from Battery Creek High, in Beaufort, S.C., visited Bradley during a South Carolina exhibition game a year ago.

"He took them inside the locker room, propped them up on the big leather sofa and introduced them to all the senior stars," said Debbie Dawsey-Brown, a speech-pathologist/consultant for the Beaufort (S.C.) County School District.

Bradley's message was simple: Always wear your hearing aid.

Bradley didn't as a child. It's a common phenomenon for hearing-impaired students who desperately desire to blend in.

"I let them know I'm in the same shoes they are," Bradley said. "They don't wear hearing aids because they think people won't talk to them. I tell them to keep their hearing aids in and listen to what everyone says."

Bradley lost most of his hearing at 18 months, after running a fever of 103 degrees for three days.

It left him withdrawn and lonely.

"It was difficult," Bradley said. "I built a wall around myself. I felt nobody wanted to talk to me when they saw my hearing aids. I was a loner. It took a while before I was able to reach out and touch people."

In third grade, sports became his lifeline.

"Things started clicking," Bradley said. "My brother and his friends would take me to the playground. They were in junior high school and a couple years older than me. They told me to stay in the corner. They'd pass it to me and I'd shoot."

In elementary school, he would come home, complete his homework then work on his game at the YMCA.

"He would stay all day long," said Sharon Bradley, Jamel's mother.

The effort paid off. Bradley led Woodrow Wilson High in Beckley, W.Va., to consecutive Class AAA state titles in his junior and senior seasons.

"During the three years he was on varsity, we lost only 11 games," Wilson basketball coach David Barkesdale said.

Bradley set the West Virginia prep record for free-throw accuracy, connecting on 95 of 100 as a senior.

"He never complained," Barkesdale said. "I saw him take charges that would send a hearing aid flying one way and the other going in an opposite direction. He never used it as a crutch. He was an inspiration to all of us."

Once Bradley got to South Carolina, Coach Eddie Fogler enlisted the aid of team trainer Jeff Parsons and Karen Pettis, the school's director of disability services.

The school checked with the NCAA and learned it could supply special hearing aids for Bradley under the heading of providing for an athlete's physical well-being.

He was fitted with digital programmable hearing aids that are omni-directional. Sounds can be heard from every direction.

Bradley formerly wore uni-directional aids, limiting the range of sounds and direction.

The new devices increase his hearing to about 85 percent.

In high school, Bradley's coach used hand signals to communicate on the court. With the new aids, he won't need the special signals.

"The first day he got them, it was like a new world," Parsons said. "He heard the birds chirping for the first time. When we were at a stoplight he heard the buzzer signaling it was time to walk. It was amazing. He went to a concert with teammates that night and complained the music was too loud."

The school has taken other steps to make Bradley's matriculation easier. His dorm suite has been designed so that lights blink during fire alarms, as they do for the doorbell and telephone. An alarm is placed under his pillow to awaken him. For classes, he has note takers.

"He's the best listener I've ever coached," Fogler said. "I don't know that he's missed a class, meeting or anything over the year and a half he's been here."

Bradley is becoming more of a force on the basketball court. Following an injury that kept South Carolina's starting point guard Aaron Lucas out of the lineup for four games, he led the team in scoring in three.

His initial start came in a 69-68 win against Mississippi State. He was in the opening lineup last Saturday against Alabama, an 82-61 Gamecock victory.

He has connected on 36 of 84 (42.9 percent) three-point attempts and is 14 of 17 (82.4 percent) from the free-throw line.

Bradley's biggest fans are the boys in Beaufort.

"J.B. is really cool," said 15-year-old Jeremy Cox, who is deaf and speaks through his teacher Julie Wittschen. "I remember him saying how important it is to wear your hearing aids and follow you goals."

"It was great to know there is someone out there that's the same as you," said Christopher Thompson, 16.

Bradley was recently named to the United States Deaf Olympic Team, which will compete in Rome this summer.

Cox will follow anything having to do with his idol. "I love reading about him in the newspapers. No. 10 is the best."