coach-doesn’t-let-hearing-impairment-stop-him

Coach doesn’t let hearing impairment stop him

Lifestyle

ENFIELD, CT (WFSB) – Without any tackle football this Fall, many quarterbacks have been looking for a place to work on their technique and skills.

They are coming from all over New England.

Mostly high school and some junior high kids, with the idea of becoming a better passer, runner, an overall quarterback.

“He’s really helped me a lot with my footwork and throwing mechanics tremendously. Since the fifth grade, I’ve improved amazingly,” Southington quarterback Matt Lafferty tells us.

Craig Brayden runs the camp.

He expanded his coaching efforts after beginning to tutor his son, a Bloomfield star, Daron.

This all started when Daron was 5 years old.

Yes, Craig has been doing this a long time.

He’s developed a pattern, a routine that helps him get through the obstacles that he might face.

Oh yeah, did I forget to mention Craig is deaf?

“A good friend of mine told me you should be a QB coach, because I trained my son. I never really thought about it, but the more I thought about it, I decided to give it a try,” Craig Bryden explained.

And trying is all Craig ever asks of his students, because that’s all Craig has ever done.

He’s spent years learning the skills and responsibility a quarterback must have.

“When I was training my son, I took him everywhere. I took him to Texas, Florida, North carolina,” continued Craig.

So that was one part of the equation.

The other part, being able to share his knowledge with his players and to kids that didn’t have much, if any, experience communicating with some who is deaf.

“When they first meet me, they are nervous, because they aren’t sure if they can communicate with me, but I told them don’t worry. The more you communicate with me, you’ll be fine. I read their lips and I do a lot of body instruction and show them what to do with my body, like a sample,” stated Craig.

“He’s a visual teacher. You have to watch his body movements to learn from him. That’s his thing. There is no one else in the country that does what he does. Watching video and watching film, correlating it to our work out makes us better every time we come out,” said Daron.

Nowadays, Craig gets requests from all over.

He’s helped kids get scholarships at Divsion One and Two colleges.

The pandemic has actually given Craig more students than usual and for him, it provides more opportunity to make a difference, to show kids it takes more than physical skills to become a player.

He leads by example and with..

“I’d say his character for sure. With his situation of being deaf, with that boundary, with that difficulty he has to deal with every day. Everyone has their own problems, but it’s how you attack the day and make things better. He’s definitely taught me a lot,” one player says.

“Every time kids come here, I tried to give them info about life. Don’t worry about the negative in the world and just enjoy being with the family, because all the quarterbacks know each other,” added Craig.

And the family that Craig coaches will continue to work and churn out quarterbacks that will make people proud.