LI Deaf Athlete Heads To World Cup; Wants To Be 'A Face' To Inspire

OYSTER BAY, NY — A deaf athlete from Long Island is heading to the World Deaf Championships with the U.S. Deaf Soccer Women's National Team, and she wants to give back to the Long Island schools and community that inspired and pushed her.

Erin Cembrale, of Oyster Bay, is a finalist in the Oticon 2022 Focus on People Awards. She told Patch if she wins, she wants to give the prize money to Mill Neck Manor School for the Deaf and to children in need of hearing aids.

Cembrale attended Mill Neck Manor School, and she credits the school with allowing her to achieve academic success.

"I'm not supposed to be talking right now," she told Patch.

Cembrale said a combination of early speech therapy and intervention and being mainstreamed with hearing students helped her. Now considered an inspiration to the deaf community, she said she "feels good."

She also credits her sister and her mother, a single mom, with encouraging her to push through obstacles. But she didn't see a role model who looked exactly like her, with hearing loss.

"I never had anyone like that to look up to growing up," she explained.

"I want to be a face to kids to show we are the same as anyone else," she added. "We can still play a sport we love, play for our country."

Cembrale won gold with the USA at the Deaflympics in Brazil in May. Next year, the team heads to Korea for the Deaf World Cup. After that, she said, she wants to play mainstream professional soccer in Europe and eventually pursue a nursing degree.

If she wins the Oticon Awards, she plans to choose Mill Neck Manor School to receive part of the prize money and the money she gets, she also wants to donate: to children in need of free hearing aids.