First-year Jessica Goldberg is one of the newest editions to Hamline’s women’s hockey team. Although she wears hearing aids off the ice to supplement her hearing loss, she decides not to play with her hearing aids on the ice.

Goldberg grew up in Minnesota and was raised in a family where hockey was very important. She started playing when she was five. In addition to playing hockey early on, she was also hit with adversity at birth as she was born with a 50 percent hearing loss in both ears, but didn’t find out until a year after starting hockey.

“They didn’t find out that I was hard of hearing until I was six,” Goldberg said.

She explained that up until that point she had trouble distinguishing sounds and certain volumes, both of which led her to easily confuse words.

“When I was little I didn’t know the difference with words. I thought funny was sunny,” she said.

At age six, when Goldberg discovered her hearing impairment, she received a pair of hearing aids; something she said opened up a completely new experience.

“When I finally put my hearing aids on, when I was six; there was a bunch of stuff [that] I couldn’t hear before that I finally heard. It was just amazing how much stuff I missed out on,” she said.

However, she decided not to wear hearing aids on the ice to avoid sweating them out, according to former women’s hockey player, sophomore Lexie Magaard.

Goldberg explained that playing hockey is different for her than what she thinks other athletes go through.

“It’s a lot different, I think, because you have to know what’s going on around you,” she said. “You have to know where all your players are.”

She said her circumstances are an advantage for her on the ice.

“It can be an advantage because you have to know the ice more,” she said. “If you just go off of what you hear you don’t know exactly know how far away they are or if they’re closer. If you look around more like I do, you know exactly where they are.”

Goldberg noted that there are two important things she can hear: her teammates calling for the puck and the officials’ whistle. However, noise coming from behind her is difficult for her to pick up.

As far as the team’s reaction to Goldberg’s condition, she explained that they weren’t aware of her hearing impairment when she joined the team. However, she said when she finally announced it the team helped accommodate her.

Goldberg said during practice her teammates would skate in front of her when they wanted to talk, to make sure they clearly communicated with her. Also, she said her teammates would ask if she heard a message the coach announced to the team during practice. If he was standing far from her, they filled her in if she wasn’t able to hear.

“They try to understand it,” Goldberg said. “It’s very nice that they don’t not talk to you because you have something wrong with your hearing. They still try to find a way to get around it, so yeah they’re real good about it.”

The team has even committed to going an extra mile to understand Goldberg’s conditions. The team is planning to run an experiment during practice where everyone on the team would wear ear plugs.

Goldberg explained the idea of the experiment came from her hockey camp for the deaf and hard of hearing, which she participated in over the past summer. At the camp her team played against a team where all the players were hearing. She said during the second period of the exhibition game the hearing team wore ear plugs.

“They were amazed with how we play like that,” she said.

In Goldberg’s first year as a Piper, she said that she’s already been enjoying herself and is excited for what’s to come.

“[I’m looking forward to] building up with the team: coming out with some wins,” Goldberg said. “Not only that; I like how the team is very connected. We’re very close; I would like that to continue in the future. It’s a great experience to have a team that actually cares about you.”