By Alex Byington
Killeen Daily Herald

The Harker Heights gym was vibrating with excitement. The home team had just forced overtime with a last-second tip-in at the end of regulation in a pivotal District 12-5A basketball game two weeks ago against A&M Consolidated.

But, as the referee tossed the ball in the air to begin the first overtime period, Jarron Tillis only heard a muffled buzz.

Born with aural atresia – which is the absence of an external ear canal – the 18-year-old senior has no opening where his ear hole should be, greatly reducing his ability to distinguish noise taking place around him without the use of a hearing aid.

"To me, I'm just like a regular person, I'm just more visual than everybody else – I see more than what I hear," Tillis said. "... It's like if you take two earplugs and stick them in real tight."

Only able to hear at nearly 80-percent capacity, his disability makes it especially difficult to hear when there's a gym full of screaming fans and a pair of extremely animated coaches hollering plays from the bench.

Trying to get Tillis' attention to alter the pre-designed formation, Heights head coach Celneque Bobbitt and assistant Roger Gonzales began to rhythmically stomp their feet on the court, sending vibrations across the floor.

"We were going the wrong way at the start of overtime, ... and we didn't realize it but he couldn't hear anything we were saying – his head's turned (the other way)," Bobbitt said. "... As soon as we stomped, he looked over his right shoulder and we yell 'Five' and (signal) the five for 'Five-out' and right from there, he felt it – he was in the zone that game too."

Scoring 12 points in his first action in district play, including nine in the big second-half rally, Tillis' play proved instrumental as Heights edged Consolidated 68-64 in a double-overtime thriller on Jan. 26. At the time, the victory put the Knights right back into the district race with a 4-4 record. But with a 1-3 record since, the team had fallen out of contention, ending a three-year playoff run.

But while his team has struggled with injuries and personnel issues this season, Tillis has never allowed his hearing disability to hamper him.

"I've never, ever seen him use his handicap or condition for an excuse," said Bobbitt, who also counts himself as a friend of the family having known Tillis' parents – father Justin and mother Vonda – since they were teenagers. "... I've never seen a person adapt so well. It's a delight because it's not a handicap or condition to him."

Like most born with aural atresia, Tillis has a malformation of the both external ears, but the inner ear canal and auditory nerve both function normally.

"When he was born and I first saw him, I saw his ears were closed and I looked at doctor and said, 'What's going on?'" his father, Justin, recalled. "They really couldn't tell me anything but as we talked to the ear, nose and throat doctors, they said it was rare, but he could hear us."

Although he uses a bone conduction hearing aid (BCHA) that amplifies the noise around him during everyday activities such as school, Tillis goes without the completely external headband during games and practice as to not damage the nearly $5,000 device.

"Basically, what I do is keep full focus on my coaches and my teammates, everything else will just fall into place when I play," Tillis said.

The BCHA collects sound and sends a signal an oscillator that vibrates against the skull, where the inner ear can interpret them as sound.

"It's basically an amplifier," Tillis explained. "If I take it off, I can hear you but I can't hear as well if you're standing (a couple of feet away), I have to scoot up and say, 'Excuse me.'"

As a child, while first adjusting to the BCHA, Tillis learned to get by with the use of sign language.

"When he first put it on and he heard that first noise, he kind of looked strange at first, but after that, it was just normal – he just put it on and ran with it," his father recalled.

But as the years have passed, Tillis developed different techniques to understand others – such as lip-reading.

Though there are times when his ability to hear – with or without his headband – fluctuates.

"When they tell me something, it's like I don't understand part of it," Tillis said. "If my mom tells me to do something, I'll be like, 'Yes, ma'am,' and do it, but then she'll be like, 'do it this way.'"

While it can't necessarily be considered selective, Tillis admitted there are plenty of times when he's used his disability as such.

"I do it a lot. I can remember back when I was 12, my mom told me to do something and I was ignoring her, but I tried to play it off like I didn't hear her," he laughed. "But my mom's smart, she knows me better than that."

There have been other times, especially growing up, when Tillis was forced to deal with the childish teasing and elementary cruelty. But none of it bothered him.

"It's just like him taking a shower, it just rolls off his back," Bobbitt said. "I've never seen him get ruffled, he's a very strong individual."

And it's with a confidence and personal understanding of his limitations that's allowed Tillis to stand out in a crowd, even if he can't always hear what's going on.

"It's either you love me or hate me," Tillis said. "I'm still going to be me no matter what."

Contact Alex Byington at alexb@kdhnews.com or at (254) 501-7566. Follow him on Twitter at KDHsports.

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