He relies on other senses — his vision and his feel for the game — to make up for his lack of hearing.

"We say the same thing other people do: We don't know how he does it sometimes," said his mother, Karen Wonoski. "He just does it. It's what he was born to do."

Now in his second season with the St. Mary's varsity team, Wonoski has played a major role for a team that is considered among the best in Division 2 Massachusetts high school hockey. He has helped the Spartans to a record of 12 wins, two losses and two ties, scoring five goals and five assists heading into this afternoon's game at Malden Catholic.

"We have never treated Michael differently, and he doesn't look for special treatment. He's simply a very talented player," said Mark Lee, St. Mary's head coach. "He's one of our most dynamic players. His hearing loss has never, ever been an issue."

Nor has it been for Wonoski, who is living out his dream playing for the Spartans.

"I just love playing hockey and will do whatever it takes," Mike Wonoski said after a recent practice at The Connery Rink in Lynn. "It doesn't bother me. I just go out and play my game."

Reading the signs

Wonoski's mother said she knew he was deaf when he was 6 months old, though he wasn't diagnosed as hearing-impaired until 15 months. At that point, doctors told his parents their only child would never speak.

Less than two years later, he was talking to his parents.

Wonoski also learned to lip-read and went to public schools in Beverly — at Cove Elementary and Briscoe Middle School — where he attended class with hearing children.

With a family legacy at St. Mary's — his uncles Paul and Bucky played hockey there and his mother is also a graduate — Wonoski wanted to attend the Lynn parochial school as well. He and his parents visited there when he was in the seventh grade to make sure it would be feasible.

"They were very receptive of Michael coming," his mother said. "He had always shown an interest in going there, and when we found out it would work, Michael took the test and got in."

Wonoski sits in the front row of his classes so he can read his teacher's lips. He gets extra help when he needs it and regularly sees a speech therapist at the school.

But for the most part Wonoski has made the adjustment on his own.

"He has no problem answering questions or talking about things in class," said assistant hockey coach Seamus Gregory, who teaches U.S. history at the school. "He's very participatory."

It's the same in the locker room, where Wonoski laughs and jokes with teammates, shovels down M&M's as part of his pre-game ritual and even joins the sing-along to pre- and post-game music.

But on the ice, Wonoski plays a more nuanced game.

Since his days as a 6-year-old Mite in Beverly Youth Hockey, he has learned to look for subtle signs that most other players never see. He watches other players' body language — as they turn their skates or begin to slow down — to know when the referee has blown his whistle to stop play. During a line change — when another group of forwards comes off the bench to replace Wonoski and his two linemates — a teammate usually skates alongside him and motions toward the bench.

Inside the locker room, Wonoski's stall is in the center of the room so that he can always read the lips of Lee or any of the assistant coaches.

Wonoski's coaches usually inform the referees prior to a game that Wonoski is deaf, just in case he misses a whistle, but otherwise don't make a big deal about it.

"No one out there knows I'm deaf, and that's fine," Wonoski said. "I just want to be another player out there."

'God-given talent'

However, "just another player" wouldn't have made the St. Mary's varsity as a freshman last winter. Though he started out as a forward on the team's third line, this season he has been elevated to one of the team's top two scoring lines.

"You know that when Mike's on the ice, you're going to get the best from him all the time," said St. Mary's goaltender Greg Nickerson, who also hails from Beverly. "He's always ready to play and very focused."

Wonoski says he's worked to improve, skating faster and being more aggressive in his pursuit of the puck.

His coach says that adds to what was already an innate ability to do many things well on the ice.

"Michael has God-given talent. It's that simple," Lee said. "He's got the hands, vision and smarts to exceed. He skates well, and physically he's a very strong kid. He's pretty ripped.

"He's got a big future in this game, both with us and beyond. With his ability and work ethic, Michael is going on to bigger and better things."

Wonoski has been a longtime participant in the American Hearing Impaired Hockey Association (AHIHA), based in Chicago. The AHIHA, formed in 1973 by former Chicago Blackhawks star and Hockey Hall of Famer Stan Mikita and businessman Irv Tiahnybik, recently received a federal grant to recruit new deaf and hard-of-hearing athletes and increase support from the general public.

Wonoski spends part of each summer in Chicago, playing in the organization.

"Going out there gave Michael the chance to play with people who were exactly like him," Karen Wonoski said. "They couldn't hear, but they loved to play."

There's also a chance that Wonoski could be chosen for the United States Deaflympic Hockey Team, which will compete in the 2007 Deaflympic Games in Salt Lake City, Utah.

"That would be awesome," he said.

Wonoski was chosen from an AHIHA team to go to USA Hockey's training facility in Ann Arbor, Mich., last August. There he played with other potential Deaflympic athletes, winning various awards for his play.

"It would be phenomenal for him to be picked," Karen Wonoski said. "He's been with the program for a while now, and I guess they wouldn't have him there if they didn't like what he was doing. I take that as a good sign."

For now, though, Wonoski is concentrating on St. Mary's season. The Spartans have a handful of games left in the regular season before the Division 2 North state playoffs begin next month. He and his teammates would love nothing better than to go deep into the state tournament.

"This is where I've always wanted to be," Wonoski said. "I'm playing hockey and getting better at it every day. It's everything I've wanted."

By Phil Stacey
http://www.ecnnews.com/cgi-bin/05/snstory.pl?-sec-Sports+1k589g0+fn-wonoski.0211-20060211-