At age 4, Ali Elmasri picked up a basketball and was hooked. At home, at playgrounds, at school and at youth clubs, Elmasri could be found dribbling, shooting and working on his game. As he got older he started hitting the gym to increase his strength. His favorite player was and still is Kobe; he even got to meet the great player while attending a Lakers game as a kid. They had front row seats and after Kobe saw all the kids signing to each other he came over to say hello and have his picture taken. They were all signing because they were all, including Elmasri, born deaf.
Elmasri met his interpreter, Jo Malizia, when he was 12-years-old at a summer camp for deaf children. They have been together ever since. Now 25, Elmasri and Malizia have the kind of connection one would exp
ect from such a long partnership.
“Jo is awesome. Sometimes we don’t even need to sign, we just look at each other and she knows what I want to say. I don’t have that kind of connection with other interpreters,” Elmasri said.
After shooting hoops, rather successfully it must be added, with other kids that could hear, word of Elmasri’s talent was starting to spread across southern California, so much so that he got invited to play on a deaf team in Los Angeles.
“Playing with regular kids is fun but I would get frustrated, I couldn’t always hear a call from a teammate or the coach even though they learnt a few signs to use in the game. When I first played with the deaf team it was like a whole new world opened up. It was awesome. I could understand the calls, communicate in the huddles, with the coach, and could even socialize afterwards,” Elmasri said.
Eventually Elmasri got invited to Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., the only university of its kind in the world with programs and services specifically designed to accommodate deaf and hard-of-hearing students. It was established by an act of Congress in 1864 and President Abraham Lincoln signed its charter. Elmasri, along with only six other men from California, had been invited to try out for the USA Men’s Deaf Olympic Team that will be competing at the world championships in Taiwan in July 2015.
“Right before he left for the tryouts I told him, ‘You’d better get on the team,’ you owe me for all those nights in basketball gyms,” Malizia said. He did indeed make the team making his family, his interpreter and the very close local deaf community incredibly proud.
Turns out the deaf community is very close. They all rally together, helping each other as and when needed. In fact, deaf people are a very proud group and identify themselves often as deaf before other social distinctions than those of us in the hearing world. They even have varying levels of what some might call ‘class’ dependent on whether you were born deaf, became deaf through illness or are only partially deaf.
Such is the close-knit nature of this community, the deaf students at Cuesta College, where Elmasri attends, joined together to make Christmas ornaments to sell to help raise money for Elmasri’s trip to Taiwan. The ornaments are in the shape of the hand sign “love.”
“I’m so thankful for the support everyone has shown me. Not just here at Cuesta but all throughout the local community. I really hope I can bring a medal home to show other kids and my family, to show them dreams really do come true,” Elmasri said.
Elmasri heads back to D.C. in June to meet up with the rest of the team before headling out to Taiwan in July where they will compete against 16 other teams from all over the world. Elmasri has to raise approximately $1,500 himself to help fund his trip, so if you would like to help this young man you can, simply visit www.gofundme.com/ali22. The deaf community has a saying, “Deaf can do, never say deaf cant.” Bring home that medal!
Gareth got in all sorts of trouble last week. Whether you’ve been naughty or nice this year, send your story ideas to [email protected].
