Deaf Hersey football player doesn't miss a step on the field

At a recent practice, Hersey High School football coaches put their team through the paces. Forced indoors by the heavy rain, they stressed speed, alertness and spreading out the defense.

Throughout the drills, starting senior safety Anthony Maginity remained focused - on his interpreter.

Maginity is deaf, and he attends Hersey's regional deaf education program, though he lives in Crystal Lake.

What began with flag football back in the primary grades now has taken him to be the leading defensive player on his high school team, thanks in large part, he says, to his staff interpreter, Racheal Griffin, who has been by his side since freshman year. "She helps out a lot, I wouldn't have been able to play football without her," Maginity said through Griffin during a break in practice.

Head Coach Mark Gunther, agrees, adding that Griffin puts in as many hours as the coaches and players. Over the summer she attended the 24-day camp with Maginity, as well as two overnight sessions of team camps held at Illinois Wesleyan University.

During the off season, she comes in before school to interpret for Maginity while he works with coaches on strength and conditioning, and she stands on the sidelines with him during the games.

"She's assisted me to be at the same level as everyone else," Maginity adds.

His teammates have learned to gracefully make their way around Griffin, while acknowledging Maginity's key role on the team.

"He led the team in interceptions last year, as a junior," says Kevin Siwik, the team's backup quarterback. "He's smart, and very quick."

Siwik says that Maginity reads lips as well as he reads defenses, so he communicates with teammates when Griffin is not around. However, when she is, she interprets for them, locker room language and all.

Griffin must enjoy being part of it. Just to keep up with the team, Griffin has pumped some iron herself, and learned the Hersey playbook, she says. She grew up in the Elgin area, where she played competitive softball through high school. Consequently, she knew from the start the kind of time commitment interpreting for a rising student athlete would involve.

"In order for me to be available for him, I have to be as committed as he is," Griffin says of the time sacrifices and being away from her two children at home.

At Hersey's opener this season against St. Viator High School, fans in the stands noticed the team's unusual style of play calling - the players line up at the scrimmage line, and stand up in unison and look to the sideline, then check their wristbands before taking their stance to play. Fans assumed it had to do with the player who was deaf.

Turns out, it didn't, Gunther says, since Maginity plays on defense.

He explains their "check with me" style of play calling, which involves signaling plays in from the press box, after their play caller observes the opponent's defensive scheme.

"We use our wrist bands to decipher what has been signaled down from the press box," Gunther says.

Maginity wears a wristband with plays on it, too, but mostly he takes his signaling from Griffin, who communicates in American Sign Language.

"It's been a big challenge to overcome my disability to play football," Maginity says. "But Racheal's helped me overcome my it, and play at the high school level."

Gunther agrees, adding that Griffin signs for Maginity during football practice every day, after interpreting a full load of classes at Hersey.

"It's a major commitment on her part," Gunther says. "She's pretty rare."