Utahn's hearing disability no handicap

Despite being born partially deaf, Matt Huff's life has been full of talk, music and fast-flying water polo balls heading straight for his head.

According to Huff, "difficulties are nothing more than obstacles that we need to overcome."

"There is really nothing that we can't do," said Huff, of Kearns, Utah.

Huff plays the piano and saxophone and has taken private lessons for the flute. He served a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And in September, he'll compete on the United States Deaf Water Polo Team at the 21st Summer Deaflympics in Taipei, Taiwan.

As the team's goalie, he'll have the responsibility to lead a team of players who experience varying degrees of hearing loss.

"There are some who are completely deaf and can only sign," Huff said. "Others can speak and sign. They come from various backgrounds."

Huff has enjoyed playing sports throughout his life. He swam competitively and played hockey, soccer, church basketball and volleyball, and ultimate Frisbee. But his passion has always been water polo.

He took a two-year break from the sport to serve a Mormon mission in Phoenix and Tucson, Ariz., spending a year in each area. He served a deaf mission, and it was there he really came to accept his "deaf heritage."

"It was on my mission where I truly learned to sign," Huff said. Prior to that, he could only sign a few words.

At the Deaflympics, Huff will use hand signals, splashes and touches to communicate with his team. Unlike regular water polo matches, there won't be any whistles or buzzers. Instead, the referees will use hand signals to make calls. The players are responsible to watch for them, though they're easy to spot, Huff said.

"The refs are much more animated," he said.

Being a part of this team "feels unique," he said. It's a feeling he's gotten used to throughout his life.

After beginning speech therapy when he was 18 months old, Huff attended Utah Schools for the Deaf and Blind through the sixth grade. He went on to attend Thomas Jefferson Junior High and Kearns High.

Leaving the school for the deaf and blind was difficult, but Huff learned to cope.

"The social environment was very different because at the school for the deaf there were people like me that I could relate to, but at Thomas Jefferson there was nobody like me, so I was kind of isolated there," he said. "But I learned to live with that."

Huff was almost entirely on his own when it came to learning class material. His teachers often wore microphones when they taught and Huff would follow on an FM transition system. But it was not very helpful, he said.

"The only way I could succeed was to read the books and ask the teachers questions after class," he said. "I had to work a lot harder to keep up."