As a young boy, Nick Pecora would press his face up against the glass at the rink, eyes wide with wonder as he watched the Atlanta Thrashers glide across the ice. 

Diagnosed with hearing loss at age three, Pecora, now a player for the USA National Deaf Hockey Team and a mechanical engineering sophomore at Florida Atlantic University, found a way to make the silence his strength.

“It just felt so different to have that kind of disability,” Pecora said. “I couldn’t hear anything, I couldn’t speak because I couldn’t understand what people were saying.”

Pecora has mild to moderately severe bilateral sensorineural hearing loss, preventing him from hearing sounds under 40-69 dB (decibels), a unit of measurement for sound intensity. He has been wearing hearing aids to compensate for this loss since his diagnosis.

“I can hear a little bit when I’m close, but I can’t really hear when I’m that far away,” Pecora said. 

Pecora, hailing from Suwanee, Ga., enrolled at FAU in 2023 on a Men’s Ice Hockey Athletic Scholarship. Now, he plays for the FAU Ice Hockey Club.

“It’s been a pleasure coaching Nick, I look forward to every time he steps on the ice,” said Christian Long, FAU hockey’s head coach. “I’m looking forward to him continuing to get better and represent not only FAU hockey but also the USA [deaf team] because I know he’s taking great strides with them as well.”

Pecora has been a member of the USA Deaf National Hockey Team since August 2023, having been scouted through his involvement in the American Hearing Impaired Hockey Association’s (AHIHA) Stan Mikita Hockey School. 

Since 1973, AHIHA has hosted annual week-long camps each June in Chicago for deaf and hard of hearing hockey players. Like many participants, Nick travels to Chicago each year for this program to improve his skills.

According to USA Deaf Hockey’s head coach Joe Gotfryd, players come from all around the country. 

“We have [players from] Alaska to Florida,” Gotfryd said. “And most of these players that make it up to play in the international games, we’ve probably known them since they were five or six years old.”

Pecora has been going to the Stan Mikita Hockey School every year since he was four.

“[Going to Stan Mikita] helped me a lot just to become a better player with that kind of disability,” Pecora said.

Garrett Gintoli, a teammate of Pecora’s on the USA National Deaf Hockey Team since 2013, began attending Stan Mikita at eight years old, where he first met Pecora when he was about 13.

“It’s really nice to see kids with a common disability and to just, for a week, forget about the fact that you’re different and just be…around a bunch of people who are always willing to help and they understand your differences,” said Gintoli. 

Gintoli shared his views on coping with this disability. 

“It’s not [the person who’s speaking’s] fault, it’s not your fault, it’s nobody’s fault, it’s just the way you have to live,” Gintoli said. 

Gotfryd explained the strategies that some of his hard of hearing players have developed to manage their disability, noting that hearing aids or cochlear implants are prohibited during tournaments to ensure a level playing field for all players.

“Most of the players use the glass on the ice very well,” said Gotfryd. “If I was playing, I could hear a guy coming behind me, but the deaf kids can’t, so they use the glass to look for reflections of who’s behind them.”

Gintoli can also vouch for using this trick. 

“It’s probably the coolest trick we have as deaf players,” Gintoli said. “In any sport but especially hockey, your teammates are always calling for the puck… and you can’t see anybody behind you and you’re not going to hear anybody behind you either, so you just take a quick peek at the reflection in the glass and see ‘okay I’ve got a guy to my right.’”

USA Deaf Hockey also has two sign language interpreters on the bench during games and practices to assist athletes who can’t hear at all.

“When going out on the ice, [the hearing impairment] really doesn’t affect me that much until you have to communicate with players around you, so I really learned how to pay attention with the coaches,” Pecora said.

To qualify for the deaf team, players must meet the requirement of a 55 dB loss in their better ear. 

“Putting aside his hearing impairment – because everybody has one in these tournaments…[Pecora] adapted very well, he’s a good team player and he’s a hard worker,” said Gotfryd. 

U.S. Deaf Hockey players compete in two main tournaments: the Deaflympics, held every four years and the World Deaf Ice Hockey Championship, held every two years. 

According to AHIHA’s website, the next World Deaf Ice Hockey Championship will take place in 2025. The UP was not able to confirm an exact date. In the meantime, players train with their local clubs or school teams, and the AHIHA organizes mini camps to bring the players together in preparation for upcoming tournaments. 

The Stan Mikita Hockey School launched a new tournament last April, the Jeff Sauer International Deaf Hockey Series, held in Buffalo, N.Y. Named after the late head coach who preceded Gotfryd, this tournament saw Pecora score the first goal.

“I just wanted to represent [Sauer],” Pecora said. “I wear the same number as him. He’s been [number] 21 his whole life playing hockey, so it just felt like a great moment just being the same guy with the same number being the one to score the first goal at that tournament.”

Gintoli played alongside Pecora in this tournament.

“[Pecora] works hard, he does exactly what you ask of him and he really loves the game and you can tell, so it really is a pleasure playing with him,” Gintoli said. “Sharing the USA journey with him this past spring was really cool.”

Pecora trains with FAU’s hockey club at the Florida Panthers IceDen from 6 a.m. to 7 a.m. every Tuesday and Thursday.

“I just want to improve, try to be a better hockey player, try to do what I can to just make it to the next level with my disabilities,” Pecora said. 

Beyond his hockey career, Pecora wants to use his mechanical engineering degree to design hearing aids.

Laurie Mermet is the Student Life Editor for the University Press. For information regarding this or other stories, email [email protected] or DM laurie.mmt on Instagram.