• Peter Burtnett
• The Daily Nonpareil
• Sep 25, 2024
• Updated Sep 29, 2024

It’s not much different than a hearing match. A little quieter, perhaps.

A stomp of the foot, a clap of the hands, a motion up or down.

Words may not be spoken by the Bobcats bench or players on the court, but just as much is being communicated.

When the ball is served, there aren’t calls of “service!,” “ball!” or “short!” Instead, there are signals.

In between points and sets, during timeouts and game action, the Iowa School for the Deaf players move into the frontcourt, where they can see coach Katrina Landolt’s signs.Iowa School for the Deaf head volleyball coach Katrina Landolt signs to her team during a timeout in a match against Heartland Christian on Tuesday.

“We just move to the front of the court where they could see and then I just sign them,” Landolt said after a 3-0 loss to Heartland Christian on Tuesday. “And also they have their communication with each other through sign language. And some can hear, some may be hard of hearing, so they can hear somebody else, or so we’ve got the ball, we communicate through sign and things like that, and really it’s more of a visual thing for us than voicing.”

When the ball is in play, players often tap their feet, which can be felt by other players and signals, “Oh, it’s time to look up,” Landolt said.

Landolt was proud of the teams effort Tuesday, in spite of the sweep defeat to Heartland.

“We’re really proud of them, because they were moving a lot more than we’ve been seeing in a while,” she said. “So they were showing that they were trying to get the ball. They were putting in the effort. We just have to work on those little things like blocking, getting in the right position.”

From the perspective of assistant coach and interpreter Mallory Lawrence, the Bobcats also have their own shorthand — such as reaching high or low — to indicate short serves, deep serves and other things like that.

“Can’t give away cheap secrets,” Lawrence joked. “But, they’ve learned to read each other, and we have our motions for calling it instead of yelling out and things like that.”

Their home matches often feature a national anthem played with drums and lights.

Heartland athletic director Larry Gray, who has held a working relationship and scheduled matches with ISD for years, said matches often require more pauses to communicate and reminds his players to not keep hustling through.

Gray has observed how the Bobcats communicate “extremely well.”

“Players keep their eye on coaches,” Gray said. “They look at coaches (and) communicate extremely well.”

St. Albert’s Angie Lantz, in her 21st season coaching the Saintes, spent almost eight years as a recreation coordinator at ISD from 2002 to 2009.

She also noticed what the Bobcats did well and even implemented a lesson she learned into the Saintes practices to prepare for moments when hearing each other is a challenge.

“Players were stomping, clapping,” Lantz said. “You need to be visual when senses are impaired… We have a ‘nobody can talk’ part of our practices.”

Heartland head coach Saundra Brennan admitted she wasn’t paying much attention to the communication on the opposite sideline in Tuesday’s match, but did note that it was easy for her team to stop communicating.

“It’s easy for us to stop communicating, too, when it’s quiet, and so we tried to make sure that we kept communicating with each other, kept being loud and talking, but it’s a good thing,” Brennan said.

Winning sets 25-12, 25-9 and 25-7, Brennan said her team was talking a lot and working together.

Heartland Christian volleyball players (from left) Corrine Anderson, Brylee Fleming (6), Brooklyn Fichter (5) and Kayci Brennan (3) celebrate a point during the team’s sweep Tuesday.

“I think it’s good to be able to get some of the people that don’t get to play a lot some playing time in. That will help us, hopefully down the road,” she said. “But, I mean, it’s a good win.”

Going forward, she hopes to see more consistency.

“We miss a lot of serves, we make a lot of mental mistakes,” Brennan said. “But going into the second part of the season playing some of the teams that we’ve played closely, I’d like to see them play more consistently and do the little things to win some of those games.”

The Eagles (6-12) host Boys Town at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday.

ISD has just one match remaining, home against Griswold JV on Monday, Oct. 7 at 6 p.m.

“Looking forward to having some better serve receive, hoping that they’ll be a little bit more confident themselves,” Landolt said.