Athletes With Dyslexia Clear Hurdles on the Field and Off : High schools: Learning disorder can’t keep students from excelling in sports.

Thomas Clayton didn’t know he had dyslexia until he was a freshman at Tustin High School. He had done poorly in the classroom all his life but says he felt he just wasn’t very smart.

Through junior high, Clayton could barely read or write. The English language was confusing. The words just didn’t make sense.

To compensate, Clayton turned to basketball. On the court, everything came together. There, he gave the lessons instead of struggling with them.

“After failing in the classroom, it felt good to take it out on someone on the court,” Clayton said. “It gave me the feeling that I could be successful at something.”

Clayton, a senior, has learned to deal with his dyslexia. He has found success in the classroom through special instruction and hard work. He will graduate this spring and is trying to decide which college to attend.

It was a struggle to get to this point, but basketball kept Clayton going through the bad times.

According to teachers, an increasing number of students with learning disorders are involved in sports and many are successful. It gives students such as Clayton an incentive to work harder in the classroom and boosts their confidence.

“Kids with learning disorders will look for an area where they can get praise,” said Tim Devaney, Sunny Hills football coach and a teacher in the special education department. “Athletics gives kids an area outside the classroom where they can be successful. It helps build them up.”

Teachers say a learning disorder is anything that prevents a student from functioning normally in the classroom. The most common of these disorders is dyslexia, which affects 15%-20% of the population according to a recent survey by the Orton Dyslexic Society, an international nonprofit organization that serves dyslexics and their families. The disorder affects each person differently.

But experts say dyslexia does not hinder a person’s athletic ability. They note that Bruce Jenner, a gold medal winner in the 1976 Olympics, has dyslexia.

“It’s just a learning inconvenience,” said Bruce King, who works with dyslexic students at Tustin. “They are not lazy or retarded. They just learn differently. Almost all of them are more creative and excel in areas like athletics.”

Prentice Perkins, a Corona del Mar senior volleyball player who is dyslexic, said many kids she knows who have learning disorders also are involved in athletics.

“It goes both ways,” she said. “But some of the ones who aren’t involved in something outside of class seem to be headed down the wrong track. They just don’t seem to care.”

Greg Hoffman, basketball coach at Western, has been teaching kids with learning disorders since 1981. This year, he is working with 10 students, six of whom are involved in athletics.

Among them is freshman Neil Hensley, who learned he had dyslexia when he was in the fifth grade. Because he transposed letters and words, reading was difficult. He was placed in a class where he received specialized instruction.

Hensley said the classes made him feel different from the other kids, and the only time he felt like one of the gang was during recess.

“I would struggle through class, so when bell rang, I’d run to the basketball courts,” Hensley said. “We’d play five-on-five games all the time. When I played, I felt like I didn’t have dyslexia. I was just like everyone else.”

Basketball continues to be a major part of Hensley’s life. He played in youth leagues and junior high, and has developed into a good player.

So good, in fact, that he is on the varsity despite being a freshman.

The work ethic he developed on the court also has carried over into the classroom. At the end of the first quarter, Hensley had a 3.17 grade-point average. He attributes this to things he has learned on the court.

“Any extracurricular activity helps,” Hoffman said. “I work with several kids who are motivated to play ball. It’s like holding the carrot at the end of a stick. They excel in the classroom so they can remain eligible to play. A lot of times a coach has more influence over a kid than a teacher.”

Clayton was just such a case.

A 6-foot-4 forward, he was a standout on the freshman team. But as a sophomore, he was academically ineligible for six games.

He thought about quitting school and went to see Tom McCluskey, Tustin’s basketball coach.

“I was really down and was thinking about giving up,” Clayton said. “Coach said to me, ‘Ask yourself what you want to be and what you want to do.’ I went home and thought about it and decided to get back on track.

“Without basketball, honestly, I would be dead right now. I would have left school and probably got involved with gangs.”

King, who is also an assistant baseball coach at Tustin, said many kids with learning disorders look for acceptance through activities such as athletics.

“You’ll find that most of these kids have low self-esteem,” he said. “No one wants to be seen as different.”

Clayton said the reason he got into basketball was to fit in with the crowd, something most young kids seek. He said playing sports helped.

Clayton tried to hide his reading deficiencies from his teachers and, especially, from his friends. When reading was required during class, Clayton would find a way to be excused.

“I was scared what my friends might say if they found out I couldn’t read,” he said. “I did everything I could to keep it from them. When we would go out to eat, I would hold the menu and listen to what the other guys were ordering. Then I would ask for something that some one else had ordered. I got some bad meals sometimes.”

Perkins said one of the reasons she worked hard in volleyball was because she wanted to be accepted. She learned in the sixth grade that she had dyslexia and joined a club team the same year.

“When I was younger, other kids would really give me a hard time,” Perkins said. “I remember one time a good friend of mine said I was stupid. That really hurt. I think that’s why I worked so hard in volleyball. I wanted people to know me because of athletics.”

Perkins has succeeded. She was a three-year starter for the Sea Kings and is being recruited by several universities.

For Perkins, success in the classroom and success in athletics are linked. One feeds off the other.

“When I learned I was dyslexic, I said to myself, ‘OK, so I’m going to have to work harder in class,’ ” she said. “I think that carried over into sports, too. I just worked hard at everything.”