Riley Zache is a freshman catcher and infielder for the Oklahoma Sooners and played her high school softball at Saint Joseph High School in South Bend, Ind.

She was a three-time All-State player and was named the Johnny Bench Award winner in 2024 after winning a state championship in 2022.

Last week, she made an important post on social meeting sharing with the world how she’s had hearing loss and got hearing aids as a remedy… and how it’s been a huge positive addition to her life including on the softball field.

The response from the public has been tremendous, with players and parents seeing Riley as a role model and thanking her for sharing her story. The athlete was even invited by the Oklahoma School for the Deaf to come to the school and talk to their students.

Here’s the post along with some addition information she provided about the experience…

The Text of Riley’s Post (to be copied and shared!):

While growing up, my parents had suspected I had hearing loss, this was because I would slur my words, had to have people constantly repeat themselves, and much more. My teachers never suspected anything was wrong because I had all A’s and never seemed to struggle in my studies.

I developed ways to cope, through repeating what someone had said to me to make sure I heard them right, learning to read lips, and self-teaching in school.

It wasn’t until the fall of last year when I realized that there was something wrong with my hearing. I struggled to hear my roommates in the dorm, struggled to hear my coaches during practice.

I finally decided to get my hearing checked over Christmas break and come to find out I had Bilateral Sensorial Hearing Loss in both ears.

At first this news devastated me, I couldn’t understand how this was never diagnosed growing up, and I thought people would treat/view me differently once they found out about my hearing loss.

Even more, I never saw a softball player wearing hearing aids when growing up, so I thought that I had just handicapped myself from playing the sport I love to play.

While it took time for me to come to terms with the news of my hearing loss, and accepting that I would be wearing hearing aids for the rest of my life, I realized that if I was able to the things I’ve done without hearing aids, imagine what more I can do with them and how much easier everything will be with them.

Hearing aids were an adjustment at first, but now I can fully hear the world as I am supposed to.

At times it can be overwhelming, especially playing in front of big crowds or going to class in big lecture halls and there are still many steps to taking in adjusting to my hearing aids.

New challenges were presented to me when getting hearing aids and having to push through the challenges while pushing through the challenges of my freshman year playing collegiate softball tested me and would create doubt.

But, at the end of the day the work I put in is all still there and now I can thrive through being able to hear. There were many doubts and tears, but this is the journey God placed before me, and I choose to keep pushing forward.

— Riley Zache

*****

More From Riley… Our Line Drive Softball Q&A

We reached out to Riley to get more insights into how her message has been received… here’s what she had to say:

Line Drive Softball: First, how has the response been to your post?
Riley Zache: Overall, the response to my post has been really good! I’ve had a lot of girls and parents reach out to me telling me their stories and how happy they are that the next generation of players have someone being vocal and open about their hearing loss because now they have a role model (which is pretty cool) and someone who looks like them on the field (which is also really cool)!

A lot of the girls who have reached out have been telling me parts of their stories, some of the struggles they have faced and that I have related with them. They’re just asking me for advice.

I just would love to show them all to follow their dreams and that nothing is impossible if you set your heart to it.

There are challenges all throughout life, but that doesn’t mean these challenges handicap you but just give you an opportunity to work harder to be the best you can be.

I would love to show this to these girls and families through my own actions, through my story, and through any of the advice I can give them.

LDS: You say you were afraid you “handicapped yourself from playing the sport you loved.” That would have to be very scary… what was your lowest moment in all that time of uncertainty?
RZ: My lowest moment was probably during the period my body was going through the realignment period (basically my body had to realign itself to be balanced after getting my hearing balanced) because hitting became hard, defense became hard, even walking and running I kept tripping and falling.

This was towards the start of our season in the spring so I was getting frustrated with not performing how I wanted to and knew I could, so it just resulted in me losing a lot of self-confidence and having doubt in God’s plan for me.

LDS: What prompted you to speak out and do the Facebook post?
RZ: Something was just telling me that I needed to put my story of my struggles, vulnerabilities, and something I still struggle to come to terms with out in the world.

I knew there were young girls out there thinking and feeling the same things I do, and I knew that if I put everything in the open for those girls and families to see I would be helping them and showing them to not stop pursuing their dreams because it is possible, just a little harder some days.

LDS: You mentioned there were “New Challenges” you had to face with the hearing aids… what were some of those?
RZ: I went my whole life hearing everything kinda muted or almost like cotton was stuffed in my ears (how I try to describe it to my family).

It was softball season by the time I got my hearing aids, so I heard the crowd even louder, people chewing gum, uniforms moving against each other, even the furnace at the field and the wing causing the flagpole to make a lot of noise.

I knew everything would be louder, but I didn’t expect myself to be missing as much as I was.

LDS: Is it exciting that you be able to help others find joy in life by helping them deal with hearing issues as you have?
RZ: It’s bringing me so much joy knowing that I’m helping others deal with their hearing loss.

Hearing loss is something not often talked about I feel like, and when you do find out you have hearing loss, whether people know it or not, they start to treat you differently.

So being able to speak out and help others, then having them reach out to me and tell me just that, makes so beyond happy!

— Brentt Eads/Line Drive Softball