Basketball players are always looking to take their game to the next level and Lynn’s Tori Faieta is no exception.
The 2015 Stonehill College graduate hit the international stage last week at the World Deaf Basketball Championships in Taiwan and as has been the case since her playing days at St. Mary’s, success followed. She and her teammates on the U.S. women’s deaf basketball team took home a gold medal and Faieta, who averaged a team-high 14.9 point per game, was a First Team selection for her play at center.
Faieta, who at the age of four was diagnosed with profound high-frequency hearing loss, has never let her disability slow her down on the basketball court. After leaving St. Mary’s, where she scored 1,327 career points and helped her team to a Division 3 state title her senior year, she went on to have a very successful career at Stonehill. She eclipsed the 1,000-point scoring mark there as well.
“It was one of the most unique things I’ve ever done,” Faieta said about playing on the U.S. team. “It was amazing to be around people who are similar to me, being with people who deal with the same things I deal with every day.”
Faieta said as she and her teammates got to know one another, there was a sense of connection. Faieta said there are many different types of hearing loss, but they could still share stories about their lives and how they adjusted when they played in high school.
“There are the funny little things that happen that only people who have hearing loss would understand,” she said.
Faieta didn’t grow up using sign language, but many of her teammates did and as a result, by the end of the trip, she had picked up some signing skills. Some of that came during the week she spent in training camp in California before the team headed to Taiwan.
“It was just amazing,” Faieta said about the experience. “There were people from all over the world in one place. At the hotel, there were all the flags (of the participating countries) in the lobby.”
The U.S. women defeated Lithuania, 68-54, in the championship game Sunday in Taoyuan, Chinese Taipei. Faieta led the team with 15 points and was second in rebounding with 12. The U.S. team won all seven of its games in the tournament, posting a 4-0 record in pool play. Against the Ukraine, she scored 19 points with 16 rebounds and three blocked shots.
Faieta is home for the summer while she plans her next move. She said she’s hoping to play professional basketball overseas while at the same time pursuing her master’s degree in marketing. She studied graphic arts at Stonehill.