FORKS — Dustin Daniels swishes a jump shot and immediately turns toward his coach.
As the ball slices through the net Dustin doesn’t hear the snap of the mesh rope or the dense thud of the ball hitting the court.
Scott Justus twists, turns and curls his hands, explaining to Daniels and the rest of his team what he wants to see next.
Dustin slaps in a couple of layups on the next drill. He feels his palm smack the glass backboard. But he can’t hear it.
Dustin Daniels is partially deaf.
He was born with total hearing loss in his right ear and moderate loss in his left.
“The first indication that I had was when he was sitting on my lap as an infant,” his grandfather, Mike Daniels, said last week as he watched Dustin at practice.
“He kept putting his ear against my mouth. Then I got a response from his left ear but not from his right and that’s when we realized he was hearing impaired.”
‘Raw talent’
Dustin speaks a little but if you’re not used to hearing his voice he’s difficult to understand.
“He’s come a long way with (hearing) verbal commands as well as signs,” said Justus, the Spartans head coach who happens to be raising a deaf daughter.
As a junior, Dustin is in the middle of his first full year of varsity basketball.
“He’s just raw talent,” Justus said of the 6-foot-5 post. “He’s got a long way to go.”
Dustin scored his career-high for varsity play with 21 points during Tuesday’s 76-43 home win over Elma. The Spartans moved into sole possession of first place and entered Thursday 4-1 in the Southwest Washington League, 8-4 overall.
