The Boys of Riverside: A Deaf Football Team and a Quest for Glory

In September 2021, Dominic Turner transferred to CSDR after bouncing through seven schools. Although Dominic had always been a good student, he struggled at hearing schools where his classmates teased him. He joined the Cubs and helped the team secure their fifth consecutive victory. Born profoundly deaf, Dominic underwent surgery at age 5 to install a cochlear implant, a small device under the skin that allows Deaf people to hear at varying degrees. Since its invention, the device has been controversial: Deaf advocates argue that deafness is not a disability to be cured, and worry that widespread use of the device will harm Deaf culture. Dominic enjoyed listening to waves at the beach, but often turned his device off in crowds, and always during football games.

As the CSDR Cubs continued to win, news spread of their success, leading to larger crowds of alumni at the games. In November 2021, Fuller traveled to Riverside to watch the 10-0 Cubs take on Desert Christian School. He was surprised by the relative quiet at the game: no crowd conversations, no music, no shouting from the players. His article on the game went viral and interest in the school exploded. The team was interviewed for a number of television and print outlets, the players were invited to the Super Bowl, and Nike promised to outfit the team. California Governor Gavin Newsom pledged $43 million to update CSDR’s athletic facilities. Although some players dreaded the publicity, they also appreciated the public celebration of Deaf athletes.

In 1861, a French surgeon named Pierre Paul Broca performed an autopsy on a patient who had recently lost the ability to speak. He identified lesions on a portion of the brain now known as Broca’s area. Subsequent neurological work confirmed his theory that Broca’s area is responsible for language formation. In 2021, an American surgeon named Eddie Chang performed an awake craniotomy on a Deaf patient. When Chang sent an electric pulse to the Broca’s area, the patient briefly lost the ability to sign. This research confirmed the idea that the brain processes sign language in a way similar to how it processes spoken language. Along with linguistic research affirming the complexity of sign languages, this research helped to prove the validity and importance of sign language in Deaf communities.

The CSDR Cubs traveled to Catalina Island, 30 miles off the coast of Long Beach, for the Southern California championship semifinals. The team was accompanied by a group of print and television reporters. The players complained to Fuller about media fatigue, claiming to be bored of answering the same questions. On the noisy ferry ride to Catalina, one player jokingly asked reporters if they wished they were deaf. Because of the constant influx of tourists to the island, the permanent residents of Catalina form a tight-knit community. Despite the large crowd of Catalina High School fans, the Cubs managed to eke out another victory. As they left, an emotional Catalina player told the team never to doubt their abilities.

The Catalina game sent the CSDR Cubs to the Southern California Interscholastic Federation championship, marking the first time in California history that a Deaf football team had competed in the finals of any division. However, the game also left the team physically subdued. Trevin Adams had a leg injury that prevented him from walking normally for several days, while Felix Gonzales suffered a turf burn that soon became infected. As the team dispersed for Thanksgiving break, coach Keith Adams and offensive coordinator Kaveh Angoorani studied tape to prepare for the championship game against Faith Baptist, a powerhouse team.

Kaveh Angoorani was born in 1963 in Tehran, and his family learned he was deaf at six months old. His mother feared that it was her fault, and often travelled to a local shrine to pray for him. Although he was enrolled in a Deaf school in Tehran, he often faced the prejudices of the people in his community. He connected with neighborhood kids by playing goalie in pick-up soccer games, believing his deafness enabled him to concentrate. At the age of 13, Kaveh left Iran for the American School for the Deaf in Hartford, Connecticut, where he learned ASL and how to play football. After graduation, he moved to California with a cousin and sued a discriminatory employer, earning money for college. He began working at CSDR in 2002, fulfilling his mother’s dreams of his success in America.

As news spreads of CSDR’s upcoming championship game, the Southern California Deaf community rallied around the Cubs. Because the CSDR football stadium could only hold a few hundred fans, the decision was made to transfer the championship game to a public high school three miles away. The Cubs’ opponent, Faith Baptist, a strongly conservative Christian school, infused faith into all aspects of the school’s academic and athletic lives. Unlike the Cubs, Faith Baptist practiced daily throughout Thanksgiving break, including a morning practice on Thanksgiving Day. The team’s head coach, Rob Davidson, and the entire roster of players were eager to prove themselves against the growing popularity of the CSDR Cubs.

Nearly 3000 spectators attended the championship game, alongside over 50 reporters from print media and television outlets. Representatives from Tom Brady’s production company also attended, hoping to discuss a movie based on the Cubs’ season. In an interview, CSDR superintendent Nancy Hlibok Amman promised that the Cubs planned to end the season with a bang. The game was extremely physical, with both teams earning penalties for unnecessary roughness. Kaden Adams was briefly sidelined for an ankle injury but continued playing—it was later revealed that his ankle was broken, and he played through the pain. As halftime neared, the Cubs trailed Faith Baptist by one field goal.

In the final minutes of the first half, Faith Baptist scored twice more, bringing the score to 50-22. At halftime, the players began to seriously doubt that they could win. Coach Adams feared that they did not have enough time to recover after their physical game with Catalina, and that they lacked the strength and conditioning of their opponents. In the second half, several Cubs players were injured: Trevin Adams was sent out with a concussion, and Jory Valencia sustained an ankle injury. Ultimately, the Cubs did not score in the second half and lost the game 70-22. Although the players were devastated, the enthusiastic crowd remained until the end of the game and raised their hands to clap so they players could see.

The Cubs attended the 2022 Super Bowl in Inglewood, California, where they participated in the ceremonial coin toss. The NFL celebrated them as an example of diversity in football. However, the Cubs still felt the sting of the championship loss. Coach Adams encouraged the boys to use their pain to recommit to the unfinished business of winning. The team spent hours in conditioning and strength-training after school and during spring and summer vacations. Rising sophomore Alfredo Baltazar spent his summer in Mexico training in the desert heat and struggling to communicate with his family through simple signs and text messages. His mother encouraged his strength training goals.