Kai’s path

This is not your normal path to becoming a high school football player in the state of Alabama.

This is not your normal path to a life in the United States.

But this is Kai Christenberry’s path.

His path is unique, but as far as his Oak Mountain High teammates and coaches are concerned, as unusual as it is, he’s just one of the Eagles.

Kai has been playing football for only three years, just since he came to the United States from his homeland of China. That’s a lot of catching up to do for a 16-year-old junior who has never heard any of the football terminology most Alabama kids grow up knowing as second nature. 

In fact, Kai has never heard anything at all. He is deaf.

The junior defensive back might not hear the banter and ribbing that comes as naturally to high school football practices as wind sprints, but he feels it. And he feels the camaraderie of team.

“I feel like they’re all my brothers,” Christenberry said of his teammates through his interpreter, Chris McGaha. “It’s sort of like a family.”

Family is a big deal. 

At 13 years old, Kai was in an orphanage in China. As unthinkable as it may seem, Chinese families sometimes reject their deaf children and send them to orphanages. But at age 14, these children are turned out of the orphanages. They either find a trade or end up on the street.

Kai was lucky, or maybe it was something other than luck. He was adopted by Bill and Kim Christenberry through Lifeline Children’s Services. 

“That was God’s plan,” Kai signed.

It was a blessing for all concerned.

Eagles coach Cris Bell said that although Christenberry still has a lot to learn as a football player, he teaches his Eagles teammates something every day.

“It probably means more to our guys when they see here’s a kid, he’s in China, he’s unwanted, he’s in an orphanage and now he gets an opportunity,” Bell said. “And look what he’s done with the opportunity. He never makes excuses, there’s no alibiing. He never says, ‘I didn’t make the play because I didn’t get the call.’

“I think that’s the biggest thing. He leads by example. He’s always in a great mood.” 

McGaha has been Christenberry’s interpreter from the time he joined the team, and in all sports, since Christenberry runs track and plans to try out for soccer.

McGaha, who played football at Presbyterian College and has previously coached hearing and non-hearing players, serves as a full member of the coaching staff so that he can relate to Kai the things he needs to know. Other than that exception, McGaha said, “They treat Kai just like any other player on the team … that’s a big thing because a lot of times in situations like this, the coaches are not sure how to be, how to talk.”

As if to emphasize the point, as Kai is being asked if he reacts to the ball being snapped or by watching a coach, someone walking by teases him that he can’t react “because he’s watching his girlfriend in the stands all the time.”

When McGaha relates this to Kai, he sheepishly but emphatically signs “No!”

Bell reiterates that Kai isn’t on the team just because he’s a feel-good story.

“He’s not out there just to be out there. He’s a contributor to the program and has been since he was a freshman. He’s driven to perfection,” Bell said. “He’s come a long, long way, to the point where he’s playing on Mondays [in junior varsity games], and he’s getting to the point where we’re going to have confidence playing him on Fridays. That says more about him as a football player, handicap aside... He’s had a bunch of hurdles to jump and he’s done it with such class and dignity, and we’re fortunate to have him.”

This past summer, some of the players approached McGaha about having a sign language class to learn how to be able to communicate with him better. Coaches came, too, McGaha said.

 “And that’s what it’s all about,” Bell said. “Growing as a team and building relationships.”

Relationships are something Kai Christenberry is beginning to know a lot about.