This post was provided by News Now Warsaw
By Dan Spalding
News Now Warsaw
WARSAW — Life has changed dramatically for Warsaw Girls Basketball Coach Lenny Krebs since he arrived in Warsaw eight years ago from Goshen.
Not only has he built upon on a strong winning tradition, but he also embraced a chance to overcome a profound hearing loss, which he’s had since birth.
Krebs had relied heavily on lip reading and hearing aids until shortly after he arrived in Warsaw when an anonymous donor offered to cover the cost of receiving a cochlear implant, which can cost well above $100,000.
“Incredible story of how God just works in mysterious ways,” Krebs said Monday during Media Day as he and the team prepared to head to the 4A state championship game Saturday.
He said he was ready to take the steps five years ago, but surgery was delayed early on during the pandemic.
After the surgery was complete, Krebs said he had to transition from being an excellent lip reader to learning how to listen.
Some of that was as basic as having his son say words so he could learn to distinguish, for example, between “bird” and “barn.”
The timing turned out to be perfect.
“The masks that people were wearing turned out to be a blessing because it forced me to use my hearing and not look at your lips,” Krebs said.
Along the way, with greatly improved hearing, Krebs came to realize everything he was missing such as the sound of music in a grocery store or the fact running water from a faucet makes noise.
“Those are things I never really heard, so every day was a blessing of what am I going to hear today,” Krebs said.
He soon began calling his wife just for the sake of conversing on the phone, which had always been a challenge since he relied so heavily on lip reading.
“My wife — I’ll call her. She’ll say ‘What do you want?’ … I don’t want anything. I just want to talk because I missed a lifetime of this.”
The implant includes Bluetooth, which allows him to connect to his phone.
“It doesn’t look like I have AirPods in, but I have a permanent AirPod … I can turn music on and nobody knows I’m listening to music,” he said.
Krebs admits his lack of hearing made it more difficult for some of his players in the past, who may have been less willing to engage because of the communication gap.
The cochlear implant has changed that.
“Coaching is all communicating. And so it made me a better communicator, therefore it made me a better coach,” he said.
The black implant is mounted above his left ear and he said he is considering having a second one installed on the right side.
Krebs spent more than 20 minutes talking with News Now Warsaw about the transition while standing in the Middle of the Tiger Den court and was more than happy to do so.
“This whole implant — it’s my story. It’s who I am. When somebody asks me, ‘Who is Lenny Krebs?’ it’s what I start with.”
“To me, this is the journey God gave me and I’m going to use it in any way I can to bring glory to Him.”
The post Warsaw Coach Krebs says cochlear implant improved coaching, life appeared first on News Now Warsaw.
