Fort Worth martial artist excels on world stage. His journey has been anything but ordinary

Garrett Scott can’t hear the applause but he knows the sound of victory well.

Scott, 41, was the first American deaf man to achieve a black belt rank in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, doing so in January of 2018. Two years ago, he became a first-degree black belt.

The Fort Worth resident has four World Deaf jiu-jitsu championships, two North American Grappling Association championship belts and over 50 medals and belts in all.

How does he do it when the noisiest arena is a large pool of silence for him?

“I feel like it requires a ton of practice and training, and me paying close attention to my opponent — trying to outmaneuver him. Most of my opponents have a coach yelling instructions to them during our match,” he said in an email exchange. “Even if I did have someone trying to help me using sign language, I would need to look over to the sidelines, and that is difficult to do in the middle of a match.

“Back in high school, we would go to wrestling tournaments where the coaches for the hearing guys would be yelling out advice. Our coaches did their best to sign to us, but that requires being able to see them. You learn to make your own decisions.”

Suffice to say he’s decided well.

Hearing loss

Scott became ill with meningitis when he was 20 months old and was hospitalized for around four weeks. He lost all of his hearing.

“I can’t hear an airplane overhead, but can feel it,” he said. “I am considered profoundly deaf.”

He never let being deaf hold him back. Growing up he competed in a variety of sports, including a church basketball league, as well as in youth baseball and soccer leagues.

Because of his father’s work the family moved around Texas when Scott was young. In the seventh grade he began attending Texas School for the Deaf in Austin, where he played baseball, football and wrestled on school teams.

“When I was playing sports prior to going to TSD, my parents would interpret for me at the practices and games. At TSD, everyone used sign language, so it was easy,” he said.

Scott is the only one in his family who is deaf. Each of his immediate family members communicate in sign language.

Scott lived in Austin for about 20 years, but now he and his family all live closer together in the DFW area.

“We get to see each other often for family gatherings. One of our favorite things to do is surf behind Dad’s boat,” he said.

Deaflympics

In June, Scott traveled to Minnesota to try out for Team USA in the Deaflympics in Tokyo in 2025.

“Judo is not my main martial art. Brazilian jiu-jitsu is a subgroup of Judo, and that is my forte’. They don’t do Brazilian jiu-jitsu at the Deaflympics,” he said. “As you can imagine, I was pretty nervous.”

He won all of his matches and became the USA 81kg (178.574 pounds) judo representative.

“Going to Deaflympics is a whole new level of competition for me. It will be so great to represent the USA in Japan in Judo, where I currently have a green belt and am working on ranking up to a brown belt by the competition time. My black belt in BJJ will help me there, as many BJJ holds transfer over to Judo.”

Scott is fundraising for the trip to Japan.

“We get no financial aid from any association or any government entity to participate on behalf of our country,” he said.

Carrie Chandler is a former U.S. No. 1 and five-time national judo champion. She is a National Team Coach for Team USA Judo. She met Scott via her good friend, Olympian Nina Cutro-Kelly, the first American to win gold at the Deaflympics.

Cutro-Kelly is the coach of next year’s Deaflympics and recommended Garrett start training at Chandler Judo Academy in Fort Worth, Chandler said.

“I’m absolutely amazed at what a hard worker Garrett is,” Chandler said. “He sets his mind to something and he can’t be deterred.

“I almost wouldn’t know he was deaf. He doesn’t let it affect his training in any way. We communicate via my notes app during practice where I speak into it and it quickly transcribes what I say.”

Cutro-Kelly has also become a friend and adviser to Scott.

“I knew from watching videos and talking to Garrett that he had what it takes to be a good judoka,” she said. I also stay in touch with his sensei, Carrie, about his plans and I know she is very happy with his dedication to judo.”