I'm hearing-impaired...

[representing]

... and apparently it has been hurting my in my officiating these last few years.

I was told by one of my buddies, who has become good friends with a lot of coaches in this area, that coaches are trying to ask me questions a lot of times but it would seem like I'm ignoring them which pisses them off more, making me look bad.

Is anyone else hearing-impaired, whether wearing hearing-aids (like me) or not? For some reason I have no problems hearing coaches request time-outs but any other time they try to get my attention in a loud gym I can't hear them and just assume they're *****ing about something.

Any suggestions or comments about this? My buddy told me to just tell the coaches in the pre-game that I am hearing impaired so if it seems like I'm ignoring them, I'm most likely not and just can't hear them. I don't really like to tell coaches I'm hearing-impaired for the risk that they may try to say something "bad" to me in hope I wouldn't hear them. It has happened before and I would T up a coach (or yellow/red card them in soccer) and they would just be like "you heard that but can't hear me when I was trying to get your attention earlier"...