Seventeen-year old Joseph Pfaff will be the first Hoosier wrestler to participate in the Deaflympics. He is the son of Darrell and Beatrice Pfaff, and his entire family is Deaf.

His older brother, Daniel, is a 21-year-old student at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C.

Beatrice Pfaff says that her younger son comes by his love for wrestling in a natural way. His father coached wrestling at the Indiana School for the Deaf until two years ago when the wrestling program was stopped. Pam Lewis, secretary to the principal at the Indiana school, explained that because only Joseph and another student showed interest in wrestling, the program was stopped at the high school level two years ago.

Daniel Pfaff also grew up on the wrestling mat. Encouraged by his older brother’s athletic abilities in wrestling, Joseph started wrestling when he was 6 years old, Beatrice says. Two years later, he was involved with AAU wrestling. Since then, Joseph has excelled not just in wrestling but in many other sports. Thumbing through an Indiana School for the Deaf yearbook, Beatrice proudly pointed at photographs of Daniel, in wrestling competitions, and Joseph, smiling as a member of the track team, the basketball team and the wrestling team.

After qualifying to compete in the 20th Deaflympics, set in Melbourne, Australia, from Jan. 5 to 16, Joseph and his family made a difficult decision to relocate for his senior year from Indiana School for the Deaf to Maryland School for the Deaf. Darrell Pfaff also relocated to Maryland and now works as a teacher’s aide at Maryland School for the Deaf. Joseph now participates in the highly developed wrestling training program at the Maryland School for the Deaf. “The coach there will be going to the Deaflympics, too,” Beatrice explained.

“It was hard for me, as a mother,” Beatrice said. “Joseph can play all sports, anything. And he a real leader.” His mother explained that at Maryland School for the Deaf, he is not only training for the Deaflympics, he is also playing football. “His favorite thing is challenge,” she added. “He loves a challenge.”

Beatrice Pfaff has taught classes for more than 20 years at the Indiana School for the Deaf. She has also taught American Sign Language at Vincennes University and Ball State University. In her spare time, she has been selling writing letters as fund-raising efforts to help Joseph raise at least two thousand more dollars to get to Australia. She said that both of her sons have a wonderful competitive spirit that carries them far past the obstacles of deafness. “I just gave them my strong will,” she explained.

Through Internet contact, Joseph Pfaff wrote that he practices for the Olympic wrestling competition three times weekly. “It feels so great to be going to the Deaflympics in Australia as a deaf teen in America,” he said. it’s a big honor for me to attend at my age. Wrestling is inside me. I love it.”