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Nov. 9, 2007
Young hockey stars
Deaf parents help build communication skills.
KELLEY KORBIN
It's a pretty extraordinary thing to be a hearing child of deaf parents, but that's not all that's special about Ocean Wiesblatt. He also speaks four languages and is a top-ranked hockey player who has been compared by scouts to National Hockey League (NHL) greats – pretty impressive for a kid who's only eight years old. And, he has big dreams.
"I want to play for the NHL and I want to become very, very famous and have a good life.... I want to have a big, big house for all of my family and I want people to see me and be amazed by my hockey," Ocean told the Independent in an interview from his Kelowna home via a video-display Sign Language interpreter. The Wiesblatt home uses this machine instead of a telephone.
Ocean's parents, Kimberly White and Art Wiesblatt, have both been deaf from birth, but their four sons, Ocean, Orca, Ozzy and Oasiz, are all hearing.
They are also incredibly athletic - especially evident in the skills of the oldest two. Ocean, 8, and Orca, 7, are both top players on their respective Kelowna Heat teams.
"Ocean is a top-three prospect (class of 1999) in British Columbia hockey and Orca is ranked best player (class of 2000) in the Okanagan. You probably think that they are just young hockey players but they are extraordinary players," said their father, also through a Sign Language interpreter.
Ocean was discovered when he was five years old, skating around the local rink. The president of the Okanagan Hockey School noticed and told Wiesblatt that his son had promise and offered to send Ocean to a hockey summer camp, all expenses paid. Ocean never looked back and has since won numerous MVP (most valuable player) awards.
"Every time Ocean plays, his team continually wins. He's a very special, talented, gifted child," said his father. And his skill has caught the eye of local businesses and coaches. Wiesblatt said that Ocean is sponsored by numerous companies including Ford and ReMax.
Kim Gellert, skills trainer for the Kelowna junior hockey team, the Rockets, and scout for the NHL's Buffalo Sabres, characterized Ocean as a "very skilled player with a very good hockey sense, one of the more skilled players we've had." He wasn't willing to draft Ocean just yet, however.
"You can never tell at this age," he said. "It's a very difficult route to take and only a very small percentage of kids make it to the NHL. But, if he's that focused already, he's on the right path, as long as he's not being pushed." Gellert also offered some advice for Ocean: "Have the dream, but don't leave anything else out. Schooling is number one."
Ocean and his school-aged brothers are focusing on their homework and attending a French immersion elementary in Kelowna, but as much as they enjoy school there is no doubt that for now hockey is their first love.
Wiesblatt boasts that Ocean is incredibly fast on the ice and credits his son's talent to his dedication to the sport. "There's a lot of potential there. He's got a lot of commitment and he practises really hard. Sometimes there will be 100, 150 or 200 pucks out there and he'll just go after every one of them."
As for Orca, Wiesblatt said his forte is his agility. "Orca's able to steal the show. I feel bad for the other parents, but he just gets out there and he's all over the ice and the other kids just can't keep up. Like Ocean, he's beyond the
age range of the other boys he's playing with. He's at a whole different level."
Having so much talent at such a young age can sometimes be challenging for everyone involved: teammates, coaches and parents. So, while both boys speak English, French, American Sign Language and Language Sign Quebec, Wiesblatt said they need to work on their communication skills on the ice and be reminded that they are part of a team.
He said he's working with them, "trying to help them focus on making a team effort and trusting teammates and communicating with them."
Of course, there's also a communication barrier between the boys' deaf parents and their coaches, but Wiesblatt said they generally work that out using pen and paper or e-mail communication.
In fact, he said, he has more difficulty trying to find a place for his family in the Jewish community than in the hockey world. He explained that they have no deaf Jewish friends in Kelowna and he lamented what he termed a lack of Jewish education for deaf people and a need for rabbis who sign or know or understand deaf culture. "There's a lack of deaf awareness in the Jewish community," he said. "More often than not, people are more forgetful of the handicapped, not that they ignore them, but it's not something at the forefront."
Kelley Korbin is a Vancouver freelance writer.
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