For Jalen Harris, a Northern Secondary student and a top young baseball prospect in Canada, being born deaf has been his advantage. “It helped me a lot because, as a kid, I would just watch, I would just look at things,” said Harris. “I don’t want to hear, I just want to see things and focus on the ball.”

The 17-year-old, a student in Northern’s deaf and hard of hearing program, said he can hear partially, thanks to a cochlear implant he received as a toddler, but that he still sometimes has trouble distinguishing sounds.

Harris grew up playing baseball and said he loved the sport from day one. He joined a regional baseball team at age 14 and has been serious about the sport ever since. Currently he wears number 42 — the number of Hall of Fame baseball player Jackie Robinson.

“He made history, he was the first black man that actually played in the major leagues,” said Harris. The gifted student has just made the 30-man roster for the junior Canadian national team, but said he also has been talking to reps from the major leagues and American colleges about his plans after graduation.