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A quick glance at Northwest junior Mac McBride does not betray anything unusual.

The 215-pound wrestler looks like your typical muscular, 6-foot-3 multi-sport athlete. On Jan. 6, the first-year varsity wrestler's continued growth was on display as he pinned Walter Johnson's Mitchell Gesumaria in an efficient 46 seconds.

"That's my favorite moment in wrestling," McBride said. "When I pin a guy on the ground and it is over, it's great."

What makes McBride different cannot be seen at all; he is deaf.

But aside from being accompanied by a translator, Montgomery County Public Schools deaf and hard of hearing interpreter Lisa Barksdale, McBride is just like any other teenager. He is affectionately known by his teammates as Monster Mac.

To overcome the communication barriers, McBride uses cued speech, which is defined as a mode of communication based on the phonemes and properties of traditionally spoken languages. According to the National Cued Speech Associations' Web site, cueing allows users who are deaf or hard of hearing to access the basic, fundamental properties of spoken languages through the use of vision.

"It's somewhere between sign language and nothing," said June McBride, Mac's mother. "It shows a person a consonant-vowel blend between hand shapes and their position around the face. With lip reading it helps them distinguish words like fish and fizz. They look the same and that's where the hand cues come in."

In addition, McBride's use of hearing aids helped him learn to speak clearly. But he did not always find communication easy.

"Up until kindergarten, Mac was in an oral program," June said. "There was no sign language so he was very frustrated and had the worst behavioral problems because he just didn't understand. ... We put him in cued speech because he is so visual. Being from a hearing family, we wanted him to be able to function in the normal world and not just be immersed in a deaf culture."

Mac's visual skills have translated exceptionally well to the wrestling mat, football field and track. He has developed hand signals to converse with teammates and coaches during the heat of the action.

"Obviously he picks up things better in a room visually than anyone, so we tap into that for an advantage," said Jaguars wrestling coach Joe Vukovich, who as the former coach at Rockville, which houses the county's Deaf and Hard of Hearing program, has previous experience with athletes like McBride. "But honestly, we don't treat him any different or look at him as that ‘deaf kid.' Some kids are good visual learners and some are better with just an explanation. ...

"People think you may not want to try to communicate verbally since you're deaf. But Mac does. He comes to me every time he has a question or concern. He's always in my face. If we do have a communication obstacle, Lisa is always there to save the day."

After spending his first two years learning on junior varsity, Mac has been a pleasant surprise on the mat this season. His best accomplishment to date? A fourth-place finish at Mad Mats on Dec. 12.

"Being out there on the mat and being deaf, it's just me and the guy I'm wrestling with," Mac said. "There's nothing else to worry about; no distractions. It's just completely calm and focused."