A successful sign

Frankie Talarico is standing outside the Pennsylvania School for the Deaf dressed for a workout, wearing his blue running shorts and tank top.

The 17-year-old athlete typically spends his Wednesday afternoons running around the school gymnasium preparing for his weekend distance races. But last week, his hands were getting an extreme workout as he told about his recent success in the 1,600 and 3,200 meter races – via sign language.

At an April 28 track meet, the sophomore finished first in the 1,600 meters.

"I was really happy about that," Talarico said, as PSD athletic director Prinnie Eberle translated. "It was a really tough run. I was really surprised I came in first."

This weekend, Talarico, who was born deaf, will have a chance to win more medals at the Eastern Schools for the Deaf Athletic Association tournament in Buffalo, N.Y. PSD will compete against schools from New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, Maryland and West Virginia.

"I want to come home next weekend with a medal in the 1,600," said Talarico, of the 2100 block of South Carlisle Street.

Through the use of sign language, assistant track coach Precious Barnes offered encouragement to the young athlete.

"I think if you work hard enough, you can definitely win a medal," Barnes said. "I have confidence in you, but you’ve got to work harder."

Barnes noted that instilling confidence is the toughest part of coaching hearing-impaired athletes. Unlike at Catholic and Public League track meets, PSD coaches can’t shout instructions during the races. Occasionally, they’ll relay messages using sign language, but once the race starts, athletes are pretty much on their own.

The Pennsylvania School for the Deaf was founded in 1820 and is the third-largest school for the deaf in the United States. The school provides deaf athletes a chance to gain confidence in their abilities by competing against kids with similar challenges.

"The key is that it’s not just available to them, but it’s available to them in this type of school where they have the opportunity to compete," Eberle said. "In a public high school, they would probably never make the team."

TALARICO ALWAYS HAS found ways to fit in, even with the neighborhood kids at Guerin Recreation Center, 16th and Jackson streets, where he started playing soccer at age 7. His mom, Kay Talarico, attends practices and games, using sign language to help her son interpret what others were saying.

"He was fine and had no problem fitting in," Kay Talarico said. "They were really accommodating to him."

Writing has helped Frankie communicate off the field with non-hearing-impaired friends. Talarico said he enjoys going out for pizza with his pals and that he spends a lot of time with his 13-year-old cousin Nicholas Carrizo, who has learned sign language to communicate with him.

When PSD students travel to the Willow Grove Residence Inn for their work program, where they help with the laundry, Talarico is the one usually showing the other kids what to do.

"He has a wonderful personality," Eberle said. "He learns fast and gets the other kids to work hard."

The same could be said about Talarico’s athletic abilities. He’s adapted to the point where he is extremely comfortable competing in soccer, basketball and track.

"I don’t think about sports being hard, it’s the only way I know," he said.

He just has to travel a lot farther than most high-school sophomores to play, since neighborhood schools don’t have any programs geared toward hearing-impaired children. He attended Norwood-based Archbishop Ryan for Hearing Impaired Children for elementary and middle school, and enrolled for high school at the Pennsylvania School for the Deaf, on Old School House Lane. He leaves the house at 6:30 a.m. every day and doesn’t return home until 6:30 p.m. His team practices or has a game every weekday.

The coach has made adjustments to help communicate with the athletes.

In basketball, for instance, Barnes, who also coaches that sport, waves a yellow towel on the sidelines to get the team’s attention.

"I’ll sign real fast for them to understand what there are doing," Barnes said.

But Talarico is making his biggest mark in track.

When he came out for the team earlier this year, head coach Ed Arrivello 3d, who also is deaf, said Talarico ran the 200 meters as if it were nothing.

"He wasn’t breathing hard," the coach said.

"So he ran the 1,600 and really took off," Arrivello added. "He then said he wanted to run more."

So Talarico started running the 3,200 meters. At a meet earlier this season with three other schools for the hearing-impaired, the sophomore won both the 1,600 and 3,200. Of course, he’ll be gunning for victory in both races again this weekend at the ESDAA championship in Buffalo. He just needs the right size shoes.

PSD ordered the athlete a new pair of size 6-1/2 sneakers, which were a size-and-a-half too small.

"They looked like they were baby shoes," Eberle said.