Pace’s Fairhurst Gained Confidence, Embraced Hearing Loss Through Field Hockey

This story was first published on ncaa.org.
Photos courtesy of Katelyn Fairhurst and Pace Athletics.

On a bus ride home last year from a field hockey competition, Katelyn Fairhurst did something she never would have done as a freshman a year earlier: sing "Itsy Bitsy Spider."

When the Pace team travels, they often sing karaoke. On this particular trip, her teammates sang songs from "High School Musical" and "The Greatest Showman." Fairhurst knew she needed to spice it up.

She stood up in front of her teammates, singing "Itsy Bitsy Spider" while adding hand motions and dancing. Her teammates fell out laughing. After Fairhurst encouraged them to join her, the whole team sang and danced to the song in unison. 

Fairhurst remembered this moment as one of the many fond memories she has created while playing Division II field hockey at Pace. Yet her outgoing nature has not always come through for the now-junior forward. 

When she began her freshman year at Pace, Fairhurst had recently gone through a major life change.

 In the fifth grade, doctors found tumors behind her eardrums. She would go on to have 15 surgeries. By her senior year of high school, she became completely deaf in her left ear because the doctors had to remove the inner anatomy of her ear.

 Fairhurst has a hidden disability, which means while her hearing loss is not visible, it still impacts her day-to-day life. 

"This is just for show," she said as she pointed to her ear, smiling.

As Fairhurst slowly lost her hearing, she also lost the confidence she always had possessed naturally. In middle school and high school, Fairhurst said kids in her class bullied her about her hearing loss. 

"I kind of lost who I was because I was so upset. I didn't know how to cope with it," she said.

Yet Fairhurst didn't have to go through these changes alone. Pace head coach, Kayte Biordi, made it a point to understand and empower Fairhurst.

"Me and Coach have this unbreakable bond," Fairhurst said. "She understands. I feel like sometimes people don't understand disabilities, but there's something about Coach. She just really understands it to another level, and that's why I chose to come here."

Field hockey, one of Fairhurst's most consistent sources of happiness, also helped her reckon with the loss of her hearing. 

"When I step out onto the field, I forget that I'm deaf," she said. "I'm equal with everyone else because it's not like I can't go run, it's not like I can't go play field hockey. It's kind of like I am normal."

Fairhurst said she fell in love with the sport from the moment she picked up a field hockey stick in sixth grade. Now, Fairhurst said she feels immense pride in playing collegiate field hockey at Pace. 

"I wear my Pace field hockey backpack around campus like it's the best thing in the whole world, like a gold medal," she said.

Off the field, Fairhurst studies biology. She plans to attend med school and become a surgeon.

"Growing up and having surgeries and always being in and out of the doctor's office, I formed a bond with my surgeon," she said. "I found a love for surgery and the intricacy of it and being able to help people."

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Through playing collegiate field hockey and having the support of Biordi and her teammates, Fairhurst said she has begun to figure out who she is with her hearing loss.

"I took a lot of time to myself to figure out not who I was, because I know who I am, but more so who the new version of me is," she said. "It's like I had a software update."

Part of Fairhurst's "software update" included realizing that other people needed to adjust to her hearing loss, not the other way around.

"I've always talked about it and tried to advocate for myself. I'm realizing now it's not something to advocate for, because it's a part of me and other people should be able to understand that," she said. "I think my 'aha moment' is when I tell people if I don't hear you, you have to repeat yourself. It's not on me necessarily. They can do their part and make sure I can hear."

Moments like these have led to Fairhurst feeling empowered in this new version of herself. 

"Disability is a matter of perception. I see it as a superpower. I've picked up body language skills and am able to lip read," she said. "It's not a disability, in my eyes."

Fairhurst recognizes that these sentiments took time to develop, but she said she feels more herself now than ever.

"I'm back to who I was before all of it happened. Freshman year of high school, yes, I had hearing loss, but I was comfortable with it. I was outgoing," she said. "I was very vocal about it and not caring what others had to think about it. But I do think that's back to who I'm becoming again."

Back to someone who leads her team in a song and dance to "Itsy Bitsy Spider."

If Fairhurst could tell anything to her freshman self, she would tell her to keep going and work hard, because hard work pays off. She hopes other people with hearing loss can have the courage to chase their dreams.

"If you have a disability, even if it's a hidden disability, you can still do it," she said. "I'm here. I've made it through high school. I'm a junior in college, playing a college-level sport."

She added, "I hope that anyone with disabilities, even if it's not hearing loss, would have the courage to be able to follow their dreams, no matter what it is. If I did not follow my dreams, I wouldn't be here. I wouldn't be playing at a collegiate level, which is such a privilege. It's such an honor to be here representing Pace on the field and off the field."

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