YOU CAN DO IT
COACH INSPIRES HIS CHARGES
DEAN Barton-Smith has never let the fact he is deaf stop him achieving what he has wanted to do in life.
The 52-year-old is a former decathlete who represented Australia at the 1992 Olympic Games, has completed a masters of marketing, has been chief executive at five organisations and has released his autobiography.
Barton-Smith has also played a vital role in Cricket Australia’s national deaf squad and attended the 2018 Deaf Cricket World Cup in India in a mentoring role.
He is in Geelong for the National Cricket Inclusion Championships as Victorian head coach and is proving a valuable asset to the coaching and support staff (all hearing), ensuring the method of communication is tailored to the broad diversity of hearing levels of each player.
He said there was something special about the deaf community that made fun the priority for those who were playing and coaching.
“This championship always has good people and great competition, so we have been looking forward to it,” BartonSmith said.
“It is important to be able to play against different hard-ofhearing cricketers and being on the same level knows we are having a fair go. We have great support and resources around us and there are always healthy rivalries.
“We catch up with everyone after the game so it is a really nice community feel as well, which makes a nice difference. Often we play with hearing types and it is not the same, so that is what makes these championships pretty special and unique.”
Barton-Smith was the sole deaf student in a school with 1300 pupils and said he often found it hard to study as there were no interpreters in his classes.
His life changed after a trip overseas for Deaflympics, however, and he said it was important for young people in the deaf community to know they could achieve ambitions.
“I went to the Deaflympics when I was 17 and that was a real game changer for me and a turning point in my life,” he said.
“I was surrounded by people who were teachers, physiotherapists, doctors, lawyers and doing all sorts of things, which, in Australia, I was told was not possible.
“So that changed my mindset and I realised how important it is for young people to have that exposure and to know they are not in alone and that there are ways they can achieve what they want to achieve.”
Never short of a word of advice or encouragement for his players and fellow coaches, Barton-Smith said the idea of writing an autobiography was all about inspiring young people in the deaf community to aim high and not set limitations on themselves because they couldn’t hear.
“Since I made the Olympics in 1992 a lot of people have asked me to speak at different things but I thought there was more to my story to share than the one hour I had to talk,” he said.
“People have said I had to write the story to share my journey and the challenges, and all of the pros and cons, so I talk about when I was at school, my employment and my sporting quests.
“I think it is really important that young deaf and hardof-hearing youth get to understand that the journey is not always smooth but there are ways that you can still achieve things.
“That was probably the main driver behind the book and I am really humbled by the responses people have had to it.”