Norway's Connor Ortman was named the recipient of the Gil Heard Courageous Athlete Award. He was also selected to the All-UP Class ABC First Team. (Adam Niemi/Iron Mountain Daily News, File)

NORWAY — Sometimes the noise in the gym is overbearing with the crowd yelling, student sections clapping rhythmically and the band playing at full volume.

But when Connor Ortman’s earpiece falls out, there is no volume for him. Despite being on the basketball court in the middle of all the noise, he hears total silence.

The noise comes back as he pushes his cochlear implant back in while running back down the basketball court on defense.

Ortman, Norway’s dominant junior guard, was named this year’s recipient of the Gil Heard Courageous Athlete Award.

Through his play on the court, Ortman has made one thing loud and clear: his hearing impairment hasn’t hindered his athletic ability. He was selected to the All-UP Class ABC First Team during Wednesday’s UP Sportswriters and Sportscasters meeting.

Born completely deaf in both ears and diagnosed with a hearing impairment at 2-years old, Ortman’s cochlear implant gives him the gift of hearing. The implant doesn’t completely solve his impairment. The challenge to communicate has made him an expert lip-reader, even in the middle of close, chaotic basketball games.

“The most challenging thing about it is that it always comes off every now and then, just going for rebounds or taking a shot, all that,” Ortman said of the cochlear implant. “Thanks to my parents — my parents have been there ever since I found out I was deaf. We decided I should wear a headband and see if it would help. Thanks to Coach (Ben) Leiker, Coach (Jeff) Gallino and all the other coaches I’ve had and to my teammates I’ve had, I just couldn’t do it without them.”

Ortman’s played basketball since second grade and has had pretty much the same teammates since then, including his best friend Josh Plante.

“Me and JP have been best friends since Kindergarten. Sometimes I can hear coach Leiker in the game and sometimes it’s so loud he’ll have JP tell me what to do,” Ortman said. “Having someone like JP who understands what I have to go through and what I’ve had to deal with, it’s nice for JP to have to do that for me, and for Coach Leiker.”

Leiker, Norway’s varsity basketball coach, said despite the hearing impairment, Ortman is the team leader.

“He’s never lived without it so I don’t think he knows any different. He had a great season this year,” Leiker said. “We really needed him to score. He rebounded well. He led us in both rebounding and scoring and field goal percentage. He can play outside and inside.”

Connor doesn’t take the credit for his success and ability to overcome his hearing impairment. When told he was selected to the All-UP Class ABC First Team after the Knights finished the season 18-3 as Mid-Peninsula Conference co-champions, Connor said, “It was a great team effort. I’m proud of the team and what we accomplished this year.”

Ortman’s mother Amy said the implant was placed about nine months after Connor’s diagnosis at two-and-a-half years old. The surgery lasted five hours, in which doctors drilled into his head, installing a half-dollar sized magnetic disc and placing wires with electrodes connected to his auditory nerve. He stayed in the hospital overnight and was cleared to go home the following day.

“It’s amazing they don’t keep them longer, drilling into their skull,” Amy said. “After they do the surgery they have to wait about a month for everything to heal up before they turn it on.”

When Connor heard sound for the first time, at about three years old, the world became his playground.

“It was quite a … just like all the YouTube videos, their eyes get large,” Amy said of Connor’s first moment hearing sound. “I do remember him running around the house, flushing toilets and turning on faucets. They never knew that the rain made noise or that the leaves blowing in the wind made noise. It was a while of auditory discoveries after that.”

Given Connor’s dominant presence on the floor and his ability to score points, he draws a lot of defense. The contact going up for a shot or a rebound often dislodges the earpiece, forcing him to quickly reinsert it either after a basket as he runs back on defense, or until the next whistle. Every time the earpiece comes out, Connor is completely deaf and the traditionally verbal game of basketball – with point guards calling plays, coaches yelling assignments and players calling screens – the game becomes entirely a game of visual cues for Connor until the earpiece is back in.

“The two magnets have to be in contact for the mechanism to be transmitting and working,” Amy said. “When you see it fall off and he’s trying to put it on, he’s hearing nothing when he’s scrambling to get it back on.”

Connor’s father, Steve, said the implant brings obvious challenges for Connor on the basketball floor, and wonders how much more dominant Connor could be if he had no hearing impairment.

“As dad, I’ve always wondered ‘what if’ because he does do so well with that,” Steve said. “Can you imagine what it would be like if he didn’t have that, and could hear with both ears? He could hear who’s behind him, and calls, switch defenders. That’s all verbal, that’s all noise that he has to do visually. What do you say? It’s amazing. I could never do it.”

Steve said Connor’s abilities on the floor are helped greatly by being able to communicate seamlessly with his teammates that have been around him his whole life.

“Coach could yell as loud as he wants but he won’t hear him. All that ambient noise comes in at once,” Steve said. “Because he reads lips so well and Josh has been playing with him since he was in second grade, he can come over and communicate almost non-verbally because they know each other so well. Micah Wilson and Josh Boulden, those guys do the same thing. It’s just nice to have those guys around that.”

Connor has a strong bond with his 11-year-old brother Alex, because they both have the same hearing impairment. Alex, whom Steve said is a “pretty good athlete,” wears the same cochlear implant.

“I just hope everything goes well for him. I know he can do a lot of great things,” Connor said. “I’m just proud to be a big brother for him and be a role model for him.”