Emily Stabilito is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Scottsdale Christian Academy for AZPreps365.com.

Thhhck! 

A softball whistles through the air and snaps into the pocket of a well-worn glove. Tight-laced cleats round home, pounding like thunder as they scatter the dirt beneath them.

Thud-thump, thud-thump. 

Standing at first base is Kennedy Trillo. Without cochlear implants, the game would be silent to her. 

Kennedy is deaf. That alone would have made playing a sport impressive. But she wanted to be good at it – college-good. She trains almost every day of the week, rising before dawn for conditioning, leaving practices after dark, and doing homework anywhere in between. 

A senior at Scottsdale Christian Academy, her prowess has earned her a softball offer from Western New Mexico University.

“I got my first cochlear implant when I was 4,” Kennedy said. 

By age 11, her hearing in the left ear suddenly dropped out, and she soon had a second implant. 

“Kennedy is completely deaf, but the implants give her hearing. If she took them off, she wouldn’t hear anything – it’s literally a flat line,” Kennedy’s mother Gina said. 

Cochlear implants directly stimulate the auditory nerve to allow anyone with severe hearing loss to regain some hearing. For Kennedy, they’re game-changers – though not always perfect. There are moments on the field when she misses a call, the wind carries away her coach’s voice, or obstructions like fences and netting prevent her from accurately reading lips.

“There are times on the field where I don’t hear people or my coaches,” she said. 

“They’re very understanding and patient. They’ll repeat themselves, or teammates will help tell me what they said if I can’t hear from the outfield.” 

Trillo for AZ Storm. (Photo courtesy of Tyler Ray @icrphotoghraphy)

 

Kennedy plays for both SCA and her club team, Arizona Storm, in the outfield and at first base. Last season, her second baseman went a step further.

“She’d put up numbers behind her back so the whole outfield could see the signs,” Kennedy said. “It was really useful.” 

Those small systems – a flash of fingers, a repeated call – keep her in the game.

Kennedy’s sports path was heavily influenced by her athletic family.

“I grew up on the baseball field watching my brother play all the time,” she said. “I just fell in love with the game.”

Her father, a former Wisconsin-Oshkosh soccer player, inspired her to pick up a second sport – soccer.

“We were watching the World Cup one day,” she said. “I thought, wait, this looks kind of fun. I want to do that. He taught me how.”

By sophomore year, she was playing soccer at a competitive level, too, starting in goal for SCA. Adding netminder to her athletic arsenal was a natural transition, her mom said. 

“She’s used to tracking a ball and putting it in her hands.”

Trillo in goal for SCA. (Photo courtesy of Scottsdale Christian Academy)Now, the Western New Mexico University commit is preparing for her next chapter in both academics and athletics.

“Knowing I get the opportunity to keep playing – that I’ll be able to play at New Mexico – keeps me going,” she said. “It’s a privilege.”

When talking to Kennedy, it’s immediately apparent that she is very humble. 

“We’ve never wanted Kennedy to use her disability as a crutch,” Gina said. “We always said, ‘We all have to swim in the deep end, and so do you. Figure it out.’”

So she did. 

“It’s forced her to have a higher softball IQ,” Maravilla continued. “She has to anticipate what she can’t hear – know where the runners are, where the play is going.”

Trillo runs in a game with AZ Storm. (Photo courtesy of Tyler Ray @icrphotoghraphy)

 

Her mom calls it a heightened game IQ. Kennedy calls it learning to catch up.

“It’s gonna suck sometimes, but you just have to know that you can catch up,” she said. "Don’t let it hold you back. Keep pushing. Be the best you can be.

"You can be as good as everybody else."

Her week runs like clockwork.

“She gets up three days a week at 4:30 a.m. to do conditioning with a football coach,” Maravilla said. “Then class, batting lessons, goalie lessons, and soccer practice in Laveen with her club team.

“She’s literally studying anywhere she can.”

Reggie McGill, Kennedy’s longtime conditioning coach at Extreme Speed, has trained her since she was 8. Kennedy started training with him after watching her brother work out there. 

“She’s in a league of her own now,” McGill said. 

“Her running, her footwork, her lifting – it’s all improved. This year especially, she’s come in with a purposeful mindset and has been completely zoned in.”

According to him, Kennedy is a prime example of what happens when you stay consistent. Her batting coach, BJ Johnson, agrees. 

“A lot of people would find what we do in our practice boring,” he said. “There are only so many ways to hit the ball. But Kennedy’s consistency is what makes her different. She doesn’t need excitement to stay locked in – she just keeps showing up.”

It’s a quiet kind of toughness – the kind that looks ordinary until you realize the will and sacrifice it takes.

That toughness showed during last season’s state soccer finals.

“I played the whole game on a broken thumb. I was just pushing everything instead of catching,” Kennedy said.

Her mom shakes her head at that one.

“She has such a high pain tolerance,” Gina said. “We thought it was a sprain – turned out to be a fracture.”

Trillo poses in uniform with a soccer ball. (Photo courtesy of Scottsdale Christian Academy)

Maddi Coons, Kennedy’s softball coach at SCA, characterizes her as a leader with a quiet confidence. 

“She’s serious about softball – one of our top players,” Coons said. “Even when she was hurt, she still showed up to every practice. That set a standard for everyone else.”

Coons said Trillo leads more by example than by words, but her presence is felt across the team. 

“We only had one pitcher this year,” Coons said, “and Kennedy said, ‘Oh, I’ll try to pitch.’ She was more than happy to go out there and help the team.”

“I can do all of the same things that you’re doing,” she said.

“It just might take me a little more time to understand it… I might not hear it at the same time, but I’ll catch up.”

It’s a simple statement, but it holds her story’s weight: a life built not around what she can’t hear, but what she refuses to miss.

“Kennedy is both tenacious and considerate,” her mother says. “She knows what it is to struggle, and that’s made her more tender toward others.

“It’s been a beautiful balance – what could’ve been her crutch has molded her into a beautiful human being.”