Arlington Bowie defensive back Kaleb Phifer pictured, Monday, Aug. 24, 2026, in Arlington. Phifer is legally deaf and has cochlear implants to help him hear.
Elías Valverde II/The Dallas Morning News
Talking to Arlington Bowie senior Kaleb Phifer, you wouldn’t presume anything out of the ordinary.
He’s a tall, athletic, soft-spoken high schooler, not unlike other teens. The most notable difference is the near-constant presence of a woman at his side.
Haltom running back Vudrico Roberson (5), left, is unable to elude the pursuit of Arlington Bowie defensive back Kaleb Phifer (17) during a second quarter rush. The two teams played their Class 5A Division1 football game at Choctaw Stadium in Arlington on October 23, 2025.
Steve Hamm/Special Contributor
Phifer is legally deaf. He has cochlear implants to help him hear, but whenever someone speaks to him, on the Bowie sideline or in the classroom, Arlington ISD translator Tori Talor is there just in case.
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“She’s probably one of the best coaches on staff,” Bowie head coach Joseph Sam said of Talor. “There’ve been times where we come off the field and our safeties coach wants to say something, and she’ll tap him on the shoulder and say, ‘No, I got it.’ Next thing you know, she’s getting into him probably harder than the safety coach is.”
When Phifer was born, doctors discovered he couldn’t hear out of his left ear. He wore hearing aids and had routine check-ups to see if his hearing would improve. It didn’t.
His parents were told their son’s hearing would progressively worsen until he lost it altogether. He received his first implant in 2015 and the second in 2017.
But nothing he faced up until that point had presented a big enough barrier to stop him from playing football. He started playing flag around the age of 5, and when he got to middle school, he wanted to play tackle. His father, Thomas, said the initial approach made him nervous, but Kaleb “was determined to play.”
Middle school is also when he connected with Talor, who followed him to Bowie, which opens the season against Prosper Rock Hill on Thursday. She works with Phifer at least six days a week, including practices and games.
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Bowie defender Kaleb Phifer (17) reaches for a deflected pass intended for South Grand Prairie receiver Cash Clark (3) during the second quarter at Maverick Stadium in Arlington, November 6, 2025. The pass fell incomplete.
Tom Fox/Staff Photographer
Phifer first played football without his processors, the external part of his implant that allowed him to hear, meaning he was completely deaf. He uses them on the field now, but like a lot of modern high school teams, Bowie uses signs to call defensive plays. If Phifer misses one, he can’t always hear a teammate yell the play back. He’s on an island.
“The challenges for me on defense are if I don’t know the play, I struggle a lot,” Phifer said.
That’s where Talor comes in. If Phifer misses the play, he looks to his interpreter, who’s also signaling him. She learned the Bowie playbook to communicate with the 6-2 safety during play and on the sideline.
Sam admits communicating with Phifer and learning how to best approach coaching him was a learning curve for everyone his freshman year, but Talor helped clear the hurdles, allowing Phifer to prosper.
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“It’s good just having her as a resource to educate us,” Sam said. “We are definitely glad he’s on our team because he’s a really good athlete, too.”
Phifer blossomed as a junior on varsity last season, recording 70 tackles and an interception to help Bowie go 8-3 and win its second consecutive district title. He’s the team’s returning leading tackler heading into his senior season.
Related: After back-to-back district titles, Arlington Bowie wants to prove it’s here to stay in 6A
“I said, ‘You are one of a few,’” Talor recalled telling Phifer when they met. “Your job right now, regardless of if you make it to college or pros, you need to set examples for people who are like you to see that they can do this.
“Deaf people can do everything but hear. They can still do whatever they want in life. They might have to take a different approach to it, but they can still do it.”
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Football is not the only sport in which Phifer has excelled. He’s a two-time regional qualifier in the 110m hurdles and played freshman and JV basketball.
Arlington Bowie defensive back Kaleb Phifer pictured, Monday, Aug. 24, 2026, in Arlington. Phifer is legally deaf and has cochlear implants to help him hear.
Elías Valverde II/The Dallas Morning News
“A lot of people, they don’t know that he’s hearing impaired,” said his mother, Shermica Smith. “It feels good to just see him out there and be able to accomplish things just as well as a hearing kid. I love it.
“He’s actually opening up doors for other kids just like him.”
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Phifer’s received attention from colleges, including offers from UTSA and HBCU programs Grambling State, Prairie View and Howard. Smith jokes that she gets more excited about the offers than her son, who’d rather keep a low profile. But don’t mistake his reluctance to absorb the spotlight as indifference. Phifer still views his success as surreal.
“I thought I wasn’t going to be able to get offers because of how I am,” Phifer said. “I doubted myself, and then until [Talor] helped me have confidence. She talked me through it and I just kept at it.”