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At Gates Chili, brothers Ken and Paul Gentzke are part of the team | Democrat and Chronicle | democratandchronicle.com
As practice comes to a close at the Genesee Valley Ice Arena, Gates Chili players take a knee and form a circle at center ice around Joe Jehlen.
Two dozen sets of eyes are fixed on the coach, who is telling his players that it's exam week and they need to focus on studying hard while keeping something in their tanks for hockey.
But Ken and Paul Gentzke don't look at Jehlen.
They stare across the ice at Eileen Hayes, who is in skates and using sign language to convey Jehlen's words. Being the only deaf players on a team with a coach and teammates who can hear has provided communication challenges, but it's also helped the Gentzke brothers grow.
"We think it's great that the boys have an opportunity to be part of the deaf world and the hearing world," their father, Ken, says through Hayes, who is at Gates Chili's games or practices about three or four times a week. "There's a different type of discipline here on a varsity compared to a travel team, and we knew (Jehlen) would help them get better."
Ken, a 5-foot-8, 153-pound center, skates on the first line for the Spartans (8-11-1) and with 14 goals and 14 assists is one of the team's top scorers. He's a senior. Paul is a junior who has two assists and last weekend recorded his first varsity goal. This is their second year on Gates Chili's team.
The boys are B-average students and also play sports for the Rochester School for the Deaf, but because hockey isn't among the five sports RSD offers the Gentzke brothers can play for the Monroe County school district in which they live. Their parents, who are recently divorced, each live in the district.
Ken, 44, and his ex-wife Kim, 40, also went to RSD. They've known each other more than 20 years. Their other child, daughter Courtney, 10, plays soccer. All of the Gentzkes are hearing impaired.
The family used to live in Avon, Livingston County, but moved to Gates, in part, because the father, a good player when he was younger, wanted his sons to have the chance to play high school and not just Rochester Youth travel hockey.
Ken was a goaltender for Team USA's 1991 squad that took a silver medal in Canada in the World Winter Games for the Deaf.
"My only concern (about playing Section V hockey) was if they'd get hurt," Kim says, sounding just like every hockey Mom.
All comments for this story from the Gentkze family were relayed through Hayes, 33, who works for a company called Interpretek. The Gates Chili district pays for her services to help the boys.
A different path
Jehlen knew the Gentzkes' through his travel hockey team, and when Ken got cut from an AAA team "I didn't hesitate at all," to invite him to join Jehlen's AA squad, the coach says. "Ken's one of the hardest working players in our league, not just on our team," says Jehlen, 35, who is in his seventh year as Gates Chili's head coach. "He's fast. He's skilled and he's so strong. I took a faceoff against him and the strength of his stick on mine, not a lot of kids have that."
When the Gentzke brothers first started at Gates Chili last winter, an interpreter wasn't available yet, so the first month of practice brought some frustrating times.
"As the season went on we found ways to communicate," says Spartans junior defenseman Bryan Carville.
"I usually just wave my stick (on the ice) to try to get their attention somehow," adds senior defenseman John Wise, who also played travel hockey with Ken. "They're pretty good about knowing where you are on the ice."
Alan Ross, who coaches the combined Brighton/Honeoye Falls-Lima/East Rochester team, says he has marveled at how quickly the brothers pick things up, especially Ken.
"He's a role model, not just as a hockey player. He always gives maximum effort. He's aggressive and he has a motor that doesn't quit," Ross says. "You'd never know from watching him that he's anything but a hard-working hockey player."
Most fans don't realize the Gentzke boys are deaf. They may have kept playing a second after a whistle a few times, but Jehlen couldn't recall a time when they were penalized.
"I've been playing for 14 years, so I feel like I know how to adapt," Ken says.
Many opposing players know Gates Chili has two deaf players, Ken says, because they've been his peers in youth hockey.
"It's a pretty small hockey community in Rochester," adds Ken, whose favorite NHL player is Detroit Red Wings center Henrik Zetterberg.
Paul's favorite player is Chicago Blackhawks winger and Buffalo native Patrick Kane.
Bridging the gap
The more Hayes worked with Gentzkes at practice, the more she realized she needed shortcuts to convey certain hockey terminology Jehlen or his staff used while talking strategy and diagramming on a dry-erase board. There were still plenty of times when Jehlen needed to go over things with the boys after practice to make sure they understood what he meant.
"I can't waste 10 or 15 minutes of ice time," he says.
Hayes' brother played hockey, so she knows a lot about the sport. The Churchville-Chili graduate has been an interpreter for 12 years, but conveying hockey jargon was a new challenge.
"I'd still have to stop and ask what specific terminology meant and if the boys knew what the term meant. If they didn't, I had to do some more explaining," she says. "Then we'd come up with a sign that meant the term."
For example, there is no short way to sign "backcheck" or "forecheck" and when Hayes struggled to keep spelling out those words fast enough, they came up with a method.
"I'd just sign the letter — B-C or F-C — instead of finger-spelling it," she says.
Not alone
Rochester School for the Deaf has been around 135 years and has an enrollment of about 130 children, kindergarten through 12th grade. Athletic director Mary Cook says there are about 30 kids in the high school who are eligible for sports and most play. RSD offers boys soccer, girls volleyball, boys and girls basketball and track. "It's pretty rare," to have RSD students playing on Section V teams, Cook says, but there have been some recent success stories. A few years ago, Scott Matchett swam for Brighton. Tavish Kinkeade plays on Rush-Henrietta's boys lacrosse team. The Gentzkes also excel in soccer.
Last fall, their RSD squad went 10-2-1 and won the WNY Christian and Northern Region of Eastern School for the Deaf athletic association titles. A forward, Ken led the team with 21 goals and seven assists. He was named regional MVP, an All-American with his brother, who had 183 saves in 10 matches as a goalkeeper, and teammates Timothy Artinian of Henrietta and Alosha Cerney of Brighton.
Ken was later named the National Deaf Interscholastic Athletic Association's Player of the Year. Last spring he also was an outfielder on Gates Chili's varsity. He says his favorite sport is usually whatever one he's playing.
He'd like to play baseball and hockey in college, and is looking at RIT to major in engineering. While Gentzke is good, Jehlen admits he's not major-college material.
No deaf teams
Rochester Institute of Technology is home to the National Technical Institute for the Deaf and the Tigers' American Collegiate Hockey Association club team — not its NCAA Division I squad — has two deaf players in defender Miles Gates and goalie Joe Lingle.
They've each been to the American Hearing Impaired Hockey Association's annual camp near Chicago. So have the Gentzkes.
"Yeah, I remember them," says Karen Wonoski, one of the directors of the AHIHA, which was started in 1973 by a Chicago businessman with help from the NHL Hall of Fame and former Blackhawks star Stan Mikita.
The camp, held every June, helps foster growth in hockey in deaf community, Wonoski says. "Players come from all over the country," she says.
Wonoski says most of its high school age players are on teams in their own towns with hearing players.
"There aren't any deaf teams out there, at least none that we're aware of," she says.
Wonoski estimates that only a few deaf players from the AHIHA have been on NCAA Division I teams over the past decade. Two examples she mentioned were Tony McGaughey at Northeastern and goalie Michael Filardo at New Hampshire (both late 1990s) and goalie Jeff Mansfield at Princeton (2005-09). She thinks Ken Gentzke, who is 18, has a shot to be on USA Hockey's squad for the 2015 Deaflympics. Paul, who is 16, wants to try out, too.
It's the same tournament their dad played in back in 1991.
It'd be another challenge, but that's nothing new for the brothers. Ken says he'd encourage other deaf athletes to play on teams with hearing players.
"Don't be scared," he says. "At first it might feel a little odd, but they're going to remember an experience like this the rest of their lives and it's an incredible opportunity for you."
As practice comes to a close at the Genesee Valley Ice Arena, Gates Chili players take a knee and form a circle at center ice around Joe Jehlen.
Two dozen sets of eyes are fixed on the coach, who is telling his players that it's exam week and they need to focus on studying hard while keeping something in their tanks for hockey.
But Ken and Paul Gentzke don't look at Jehlen.
They stare across the ice at Eileen Hayes, who is in skates and using sign language to convey Jehlen's words. Being the only deaf players on a team with a coach and teammates who can hear has provided communication challenges, but it's also helped the Gentzke brothers grow.
"We think it's great that the boys have an opportunity to be part of the deaf world and the hearing world," their father, Ken, says through Hayes, who is at Gates Chili's games or practices about three or four times a week. "There's a different type of discipline here on a varsity compared to a travel team, and we knew (Jehlen) would help them get better."
Ken, a 5-foot-8, 153-pound center, skates on the first line for the Spartans (8-11-1) and with 14 goals and 14 assists is one of the team's top scorers. He's a senior. Paul is a junior who has two assists and last weekend recorded his first varsity goal. This is their second year on Gates Chili's team.
The boys are B-average students and also play sports for the Rochester School for the Deaf, but because hockey isn't among the five sports RSD offers the Gentzke brothers can play for the Monroe County school district in which they live. Their parents, who are recently divorced, each live in the district.
Ken, 44, and his ex-wife Kim, 40, also went to RSD. They've known each other more than 20 years. Their other child, daughter Courtney, 10, plays soccer. All of the Gentzkes are hearing impaired.
The family used to live in Avon, Livingston County, but moved to Gates, in part, because the father, a good player when he was younger, wanted his sons to have the chance to play high school and not just Rochester Youth travel hockey.
Ken was a goaltender for Team USA's 1991 squad that took a silver medal in Canada in the World Winter Games for the Deaf.
"My only concern (about playing Section V hockey) was if they'd get hurt," Kim says, sounding just like every hockey Mom.
All comments for this story from the Gentkze family were relayed through Hayes, 33, who works for a company called Interpretek. The Gates Chili district pays for her services to help the boys.
A different path
Jehlen knew the Gentzkes' through his travel hockey team, and when Ken got cut from an AAA team "I didn't hesitate at all," to invite him to join Jehlen's AA squad, the coach says. "Ken's one of the hardest working players in our league, not just on our team," says Jehlen, 35, who is in his seventh year as Gates Chili's head coach. "He's fast. He's skilled and he's so strong. I took a faceoff against him and the strength of his stick on mine, not a lot of kids have that."
When the Gentzke brothers first started at Gates Chili last winter, an interpreter wasn't available yet, so the first month of practice brought some frustrating times.
"As the season went on we found ways to communicate," says Spartans junior defenseman Bryan Carville.
"I usually just wave my stick (on the ice) to try to get their attention somehow," adds senior defenseman John Wise, who also played travel hockey with Ken. "They're pretty good about knowing where you are on the ice."
Alan Ross, who coaches the combined Brighton/Honeoye Falls-Lima/East Rochester team, says he has marveled at how quickly the brothers pick things up, especially Ken.
"He's a role model, not just as a hockey player. He always gives maximum effort. He's aggressive and he has a motor that doesn't quit," Ross says. "You'd never know from watching him that he's anything but a hard-working hockey player."
Most fans don't realize the Gentzke boys are deaf. They may have kept playing a second after a whistle a few times, but Jehlen couldn't recall a time when they were penalized.
"I've been playing for 14 years, so I feel like I know how to adapt," Ken says.
Many opposing players know Gates Chili has two deaf players, Ken says, because they've been his peers in youth hockey.
"It's a pretty small hockey community in Rochester," adds Ken, whose favorite NHL player is Detroit Red Wings center Henrik Zetterberg.
Paul's favorite player is Chicago Blackhawks winger and Buffalo native Patrick Kane.
Bridging the gap
The more Hayes worked with Gentzkes at practice, the more she realized she needed shortcuts to convey certain hockey terminology Jehlen or his staff used while talking strategy and diagramming on a dry-erase board. There were still plenty of times when Jehlen needed to go over things with the boys after practice to make sure they understood what he meant.
"I can't waste 10 or 15 minutes of ice time," he says.
Hayes' brother played hockey, so she knows a lot about the sport. The Churchville-Chili graduate has been an interpreter for 12 years, but conveying hockey jargon was a new challenge.
"I'd still have to stop and ask what specific terminology meant and if the boys knew what the term meant. If they didn't, I had to do some more explaining," she says. "Then we'd come up with a sign that meant the term."
For example, there is no short way to sign "backcheck" or "forecheck" and when Hayes struggled to keep spelling out those words fast enough, they came up with a method.
"I'd just sign the letter — B-C or F-C — instead of finger-spelling it," she says.
Not alone
Rochester School for the Deaf has been around 135 years and has an enrollment of about 130 children, kindergarten through 12th grade. Athletic director Mary Cook says there are about 30 kids in the high school who are eligible for sports and most play. RSD offers boys soccer, girls volleyball, boys and girls basketball and track. "It's pretty rare," to have RSD students playing on Section V teams, Cook says, but there have been some recent success stories. A few years ago, Scott Matchett swam for Brighton. Tavish Kinkeade plays on Rush-Henrietta's boys lacrosse team. The Gentzkes also excel in soccer.
Last fall, their RSD squad went 10-2-1 and won the WNY Christian and Northern Region of Eastern School for the Deaf athletic association titles. A forward, Ken led the team with 21 goals and seven assists. He was named regional MVP, an All-American with his brother, who had 183 saves in 10 matches as a goalkeeper, and teammates Timothy Artinian of Henrietta and Alosha Cerney of Brighton.
Ken was later named the National Deaf Interscholastic Athletic Association's Player of the Year. Last spring he also was an outfielder on Gates Chili's varsity. He says his favorite sport is usually whatever one he's playing.
He'd like to play baseball and hockey in college, and is looking at RIT to major in engineering. While Gentzke is good, Jehlen admits he's not major-college material.
No deaf teams
Rochester Institute of Technology is home to the National Technical Institute for the Deaf and the Tigers' American Collegiate Hockey Association club team — not its NCAA Division I squad — has two deaf players in defender Miles Gates and goalie Joe Lingle.
They've each been to the American Hearing Impaired Hockey Association's annual camp near Chicago. So have the Gentzkes.
"Yeah, I remember them," says Karen Wonoski, one of the directors of the AHIHA, which was started in 1973 by a Chicago businessman with help from the NHL Hall of Fame and former Blackhawks star Stan Mikita.
The camp, held every June, helps foster growth in hockey in deaf community, Wonoski says. "Players come from all over the country," she says.
Wonoski says most of its high school age players are on teams in their own towns with hearing players.
"There aren't any deaf teams out there, at least none that we're aware of," she says.
Wonoski estimates that only a few deaf players from the AHIHA have been on NCAA Division I teams over the past decade. Two examples she mentioned were Tony McGaughey at Northeastern and goalie Michael Filardo at New Hampshire (both late 1990s) and goalie Jeff Mansfield at Princeton (2005-09). She thinks Ken Gentzke, who is 18, has a shot to be on USA Hockey's squad for the 2015 Deaflympics. Paul, who is 16, wants to try out, too.
It's the same tournament their dad played in back in 1991.
It'd be another challenge, but that's nothing new for the brothers. Ken says he'd encourage other deaf athletes to play on teams with hearing players.
"Don't be scared," he says. "At first it might feel a little odd, but they're going to remember an experience like this the rest of their lives and it's an incredible opportunity for you."