Deafness cannot stop Columbia OL Walcker

The Daily Pennsylvanian

Columbia offensive lineman Nathan Walcker isn't distinguishable from any of his other fellow freshmen on the sidelines during a Lions football game.

Which is how it's supposed to be.

Walcker is legally deaf, but has overcome the disability and participates in his team's practices without any kind of hearing aid.

"In the classroom and while living my everyday life, I wear my hearing aids just like anyone would wear a pair of glasses," he said in an e-mail. "On the field I don't wear them because ever since I was a young kid just starting out in football, I never felt the need to."

Walcker said that he contracted meningitis at "a very early age" and is now officially classified as "being moderately to severely hearing impaired."

He taught himself to read lips, and is able to use visual cues as much as anything else in order to work on plays in practice.

"Our freshman quarterback Chris Allison told me a few weeks ago that in the huddle, he looks directly at two people -- me and the center," he said. "I really appreciate that."

The seniors have been equally outgoing.

"They have done a great job of not only welcoming not only me, but all of the new guys on the squad this year to the team," Walcker said.

Perhaps the biggest surprise, then, is that there haven't been any surprises for Walcker so far this season.

"Working and communicating with the other players has been a breeze from the get-go," he said. "They help me out in the huddle if I fail to hear a play or during drills if I am doing something wrong."

Then again, Walcker himself admits that things could easily have not gone this smoothly.

Although the Prior Lake, Minn., native won All-Classic Suburban Conference honors and graduated at the top of his class at St. Thomas Academy, he was not sure he would find similar success in New York.

"At first I was skeptical as to how they would accept me and how I would fit in," he said. "But I figured out right away that at Columbia, the team is like a family. I feel very lucky to be a part of it and to have the opportunity to live out my dream."

That sense of community has gone a long way towards making the inevitable freshman-year missteps easier for everyone to handle.

"When I make a mistake I acknowledge it and move on," he said. "I have never let my hearing impairment be a source of negativity on the team."

And he insists that it be that way.

"I would never want any sort of special treatment," he said. "I'm just one of the guys."

As such, he has no complaints about doing the little things that most freshmen on football teams have to do.

"My role on the team is that of any other freshman," he said. "I run scout team, go through drills and try my best to get better everyday."

Nonetheless, Columbia coach Bob Shoop has considerable admiration for what Walcker has been able to do on the gridiron.

Shoop described Walcker as "an incredible human being" in the Lions' media guide. Shoop also lauded the 6-foot-4, 258-pound Walcker's "great size" and accomplishments in high school, which included 57 pancake blocks in his final two seasons with the Cadets.

If Walcker can come close to matching those accomplishments with Columbia, the Ivy League will be seeing quite a bit of him in the years to come.

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