Vitaliy Borodulin is standing on the board at the Auburn Pool when his coach spots something wrong.

Brandon Schreib yells and waves his arms. Although the Auburn Mountainview diver finally sees the gestures, the yelling falls on deaf ears. Literally.

Borodulin, 17, has lived in a silent world since meningitis struck him at four months old.

“I was born hearing, but when I was young, I got sick,” Borodulin said through his sign language interpreter, Bekii Malcolm. “They gave me some medicine that was really hard on my body. It was supposed to help me survive being sick, but it made me deaf.”

At the pool, Borodulin’s eyes lock onto his coach, who begins to pantomime the motions of a dive.

“I had to correct him before he did a dive because he was going to do the wrong one,” Schreib said after the meet. “I went through the whole motion of the dive. I don’t know sign language, so that’s how I communicate it.”

Borodulin has a good meet. He notches a personal-best score and grabs second place. Not bad, considering this is his first season  diving.

“And I think he’s going to make it to districts,” Schreib added. “To qualify for districts, you need to learn 11 dives in five different categories. He’s got them all. He just needs the points.”

Borodulin’s life began in 1995 in the Ukrainian city of Novya Kakhovka. He attended public school in Ukraine until he was 9.

“It was kind of the same setup there as here. Deaf and hearing people were together,” he said of the education system. “I had an interpreter there also.”

Seeking a better life, Borodulin’s parents, Irina and Vladimir, immigrated to the United States, arriving in Washington state in 2004.

“They were having a hard time finding jobs there,” Borodulin said. “There were some problems with terrorism there, and they were worried about it. The school that I went to in Ukraine, right after we moved here to the States, was bombed or shot up. I just remember there was a terrorist attack there. I felt really lucky to be here.”

At first, Borodulin struggled to communicate. Although he was fluent in sign language, his fluency was in his native language.

“It’s a completely different,” he said. “It was hard for me when I got here. People didn’t understand me at first, but then I started picking up pieces of American Sign Language.”

Initially enrolled in another school district, Vitaliy didn’t feel comfortable interacting and communicating with his classmates until last year when he began attending Auburn Mountainview.

The Auburn School District assigned a pair of interpreters – Malcolm and Candace Lindquist – to work with Borodulin. He quickly blossomed, socially and academically.

When Borodulin turned out for the Lions’ football team, the last puzzle piece fell into place, said his mother.

“It was good. I was so excited. I’m so proud of him,” she said. “He changed his behavior. He changed his life. Now he is a much better student. When he started sports, it got much better. I just want to thank the school and district because they have really helped my son.”

John Tomasi, an assistant football coach and counselor at Auburn Mountainview, noticed a change in Borodulin.

“He came in and the kids and coaches accepted him,” Tomasi said. “We just tried to figure out how best to communicate with him. … (In the past) he had been pushed off to the side because he was ‘the deaf kid.’ Here, we let him participate and compete.

“He was fully engaged the entire year. He was involved in everything we did,” Tomasi continued. “I think it was an enjoyable experience for him. Over the course of the year, he improved a lot.”

Football brought out the best in Borodulin.

“I learned more skills and more people’s names,” he said. “I got more friends and learned a lot more about football, too, which was cool. I actually taught some of the boys some signs also.”

Saj deOliveira encouraged Borodulin to turn out for diving. He enjoys being with his friend.

“I just wanted to hang out with him because he’s fun,” deOliveira said. “He’s a joker, which gets the coach mad at him sometimes.”

According to Malcolm, Borodulin’s involvement in sports has let him take the final step to fully integrate into life at Auburn Mountainview.

“I can’t talk enough about how impressed I am with the kids, teachers and coaches in the school, and how they just accept it and run with it,” Malcolm said. “It’s just comfortable. I about cried the first meet we had when I looked up and all the boys were clapping in sign language. It was just thoughtful.”

Borodulin may turn out for baseball or track this spring.

He enjoys “math and technical things” and hopes one day to go to college and learn how to design computer games.

Until then, he’ll enjoy spending time with his teammates and hanging out with friends, just like any other American teen.

“I feel like I’m part of the group now,” he said.