L AKE STEVENS – Sometimes it’s extremely difficult for a teenager to fit in.
Josiah Cheslik knows.
In the fall of 2003, Cheslik tried cross country for the first time. As a freshman member of the Lake Stevens High School junior varsity boys team, Cheslik quickly felt isolated from the others.
It wasn’t really anyone’s fault. Teammates didn’t shun Cheslik, and he never intentionally avoided interacting with them. But a barrier still remained.
Cheslik, now a senior on the Lake Stevens varsity team, was born “profoundly” deaf. The disability poses obvious daily challenges and complicates his participation in cross country. Social-life frustrations, not the running-related ones, nearly drove him to quit the sport.
“The (biggest) thing that I struggled with is with my teammates, actually, because it’s hard to communicate with them,” Cheslik said on Tuesday through Theresa Laschober, one of two sign language interpreters who assist Cheslik.
“Especially my freshman and my sophomore years, I had no idea who these people were.”
But during the past two seasons, many of Cheslik’s teammates learned how to sign, at least enough to learn the alphabet and communicate on a basic level. It’s made a world of difference for Cheslik, who will help Lake Stevens aim for a high finish Saturday at the state boys and girls cross country championships at Sun Willows Golf Course in Pasco.
The Vikings, ranked No. 5 in the Washington State Cross Country Coaches’ Poll (Class 4A), will compete in the last of 11 races on the 3.1-mile course. They placed fourth last year.
“For this team, I never really thought before I joined that we would be this good,” said Cheslik, who placed 18th at districts last weekend, third-best on the team, to help Lake Stevens win its second straight district title and its third ever.
The team’s other top runners are Joey Bywater (a 3,200-meter state track champion), Kyle VanSanten, Kyle Larson and Stephen Marti.
Cheslik is a track standout who helped the Vikings place third in the state in the 1,600 relay last spring. Hard work over the summer helped him make big strides this fall in cross country, including a major breakthrough last month at the Richland Invitational, Lake Stevens coaches said.
But Cheslik said a factor beyond his control – his teammates learning how to sign – has been just as crucial.
“I really appreciate it. It’s wonderful that they decided to do that,” said Cheslik, who has a deaf grandmother and a grandfather who is hard of hearing, but no immediate family members who are deaf.
Cheslik said he stuck with cross country because his teammates learned to sign. If they hadn’t, “maybe I wouldn’t be running that well either because I wouldn’t really feel that encouragement (from teammates),” he said.
Last year Larson, now team captain, decided to learn how to sign the alphabet. Others like Marti, who Cheslik taught to sign on team bus trips, also picked it up. Before that, “I don’t think (Cheslik) felt (like a big part) of the team,” Larson said. “But this has helped.”
Cheslik said being deaf doesn’t affect his running much, but Lake Stevens assistant coach Stuart Chaffee said it poses a challenge in some cases. When you hear a runner gaining on you late in a race, it boosts you into a higher gear, Chaffee said.
“(Josiah) doesn’t know a runner’s about to pass him until he sees him,” Chaffee said. Other runners have the advantage of hearing that.”
Even so, Cheslik seems to sense what’s around him.
“He’s a really aware runner,” Marti said. “I’ll be coming up on him (in practice) and he obviously can’t hear me … but he feels you.”
“Yes, he has a (disability),” Lake Stevens co-head coach Cliff Chaffee said, “but he’s got some advantages too.”
Among them: a group of greatly appreciated teammates.
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