48 pages • 1-hour read
The Boys of Riverside: A Deaf Football Team and a Quest for Glory
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Chapters 21-27Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 21 Summary: “Full Sprints”
In August 2022, the CSDR Cubs coaching staff met to discuss their plans for the new season. Because the staff was comprised of deaf coaches, they arranged their chairs in a semicircle, so everyone could see each other and sign effectively. Despite the fact that it was purposely built for CSDR, the campus was not fully accommodating for Deaf people: there were buzzers that signaled the end of classes, and speakers in the hallway for emergency announcements. Fuller notes that architects intentionally designing spaces for Deaf people include wide hallways, so that people can sign while walking, and rounded corners, so that people don’t run into each other when turning corners.
On the first day of practice, the team was energized and ready for the new season. The new rules of the Southern California Interscholastic Federation meant that they would be playing a larger number of teams, some from much bigger schools. Phillip Castaneda was excluded from practice after being caught taking younger students to a nearby cannabis dispensary. Although he was kicked off the team, he watched every game from the sidelines.
Chapter 22 Summary: “Be Hungry for It! Be Angry!”
As preseason training continued, the coaches were glad to see that the players had lost weight and added significantly to their strength training workouts. They also noticed that the team seemed more mature and focused. The coaches speculated that losing the championship made them more serious about the game. California law required student-athletes to complete a number of conditioning days before they began full-contact practice. By the time the players were in pads and ready to actually play, they were itching for contact. The coaches encouraged them to put their frustrations with last season and hunger for winning into the game.
Among the most enthusiastic players was Andrei Voinea, a senior who grew significantly in the off-season. Andrei was a burgeoning video game programmer who said his work designing games helped him visualize the football field. Born to deaf Romanian immigrants, Andrei’s confidence skyrocketed when he transferred to CSDR from a hearing school. Along with his coaches, Andrei hoped to advance to the starting lineup.
Chapter 23 Summary: “They Think We Are Nothing”
The Cubs’ first game of the season was against the wealthy Chadwick School, another strong team with hopes of winning a championship. The coaching staffs of both teams considered this matchup the hardest of the season. For the Chadwick players, the fact that the game would be filmed by documentarians following the CSDR Cubs added an extra layer of pressure. Chadwick coach Jordan Ollis encouraged his team to be understanding and patient about the fact that the players wouldn’t hear whistles and might seem to ignore the referees.
Before the game, the Cubs hyped themselves up by imagining that the rich players at Chadwick doubted their abilities and thought of them as easily beatable. The team was joined in their locker room by NFL legend Kurt Warner, who praised their spirit and encouraged them to play as a team. As the game began, cameras lined both sides of the field, and both Trevin Adams and the Chadwick quarterback had microphones in their pads. The Cubs gained the advantage almost from the start, and the Chadwick team was unable to keep up. The Cubs won the game 54-16.
Chapter 24 Summary: “Deaf Versus Deaf”
In early September, the Cubs headed to Fremont to play their biggest rivals, the California School for the Deaf, Fremont. The Fremont game was the first of three games the Cubs would play against other Deaf schools, offering the team a chance to interact with Deaf student-athletes across the nation. At the end of the season, a national Deaf sports council would decide which Deaf school deserved the title of Deaf National Champion.
In their last six meetings, Fremont had trounced CSDR in a series of blowouts. However, the team had not met since 2016; the most recent game was cancelled because, as the Fremont coach later admitted, Fremont knew CSDR might win. Before the game began, players from both teams were signing trash-talk in front of the unsuspecting hearing referees. Because their opponents were deaf, the Cubs were forced to adapt their practice of openly signing plays from the field. The game was physical and passionate. The Cubs took an early lead and ultimately won the game 54-6, earning them the privilege of taking home the prestigious “Big Game” trophy.
Chapter 25 Summary: “Playing a Deaf Legend”
The Indiana School for the Deaf, the Cubs’ next opponent, was coached by Michael Paulone, a legendary Deaf athlete. As quarterback of the Pennsylvania School for the Deaf, Paulone was selected for the Philadelphia City All-Star Football Game, an exhibition game featuring the city’s best high-school athletes. Because the team’s hearing coaches couldn’t communicate with him, he was initially relegated to fourth-string quarterback. He insisted on an interpreter, and eventually worked his way up to a starter, and was ultimately named Most Valuable Player. After high school, he joined the staff of the Philadelphia Eagles.
Despite Paulone’s legendary talent, the Cubs soundly defeated the Indiana School for the Deaf, and their next opponents, the Florida School for the Deaf. The Florida game was such a blowout (84-8), that CSDR was criticized online for unsportsmanlike conduct. Coach Keith Adams encouraged his players to ignore the criticism and to be proud of their 5-0 record, which ranked them second in the California eight-man league.
Chapter 26 Summary: “Felix”
The Cubs’ next opponent was Calvary Chapel, a school they expected to beat handily, sending them to the playoffs. In the middle of the game, star player Felix Gonzales was badly injured. Although coaches initially encouraged him to continue playing, he insisted that he needed to go to the hospital. Felix and his mother visited five hospitals before they found someone willing to take their Medicare insurance. X-Rays revealed that Felix’s tibia was shattered; doctors noted that the injury looked like it came from a car crash, not a football game.
The Cubs ultimately defeated Calvary Chapel 66-6. As they left the game, they learned the extent of Felix’s injuries. Coach Adams confirmed that he would be out for the rest of the season and encouraged the other players to appreciate the game and their teammates while they could. He insisted that they could still reach the championship game without Felix. Meanwhile, recovering at home in Los Angeles, Felix desperately missed the community of his football team and CSDR in general.
Chapter 27 Summary: “The Speech”
The victory over Calvary Chapel sent the CSDR Cubs to first place in the California eight-man league, making them the first deaf team in the state to reach the position. The team was guaranteed a spot in the playoffs, and was likely to be named the first seed if they continued winning by such large margins. Before their next game against United Christian Academy, Coach Adams was approached by the NFL documentary team asking him to refilm his pre-game speech to the team. When Adams sent the NFL a copy of his pre-game speech, they rewrote it entirely in order to add dramatic flair. The documentarians carefully blocked the shot and filmed twice before releasing the players. At halftime, they asked Adams to film again, testing the team’s patience.
The game was a blowout, and the CSDR coaching staff took out starting players in order to give second-string players more time. Cousins Gio and Luca Visco both scored touchdowns and caught interceptions. Sophomore Salvador Cruz and junior Joshua Cypert were also given game time, boosting the team’s confidence.
Chapters 21-27 Analysis
By ending Chapter 20 with the team’s devastating championship loss the prior season, Fuller sets the narrative stakes for the team’s new season with a second chance at a championship win. Structurally, this section lacks the historical and medical research elements prominent in the first two sections, focusing instead on the progression of the season and the effects of the continued media coverage of the team to maintain narrative momentum as the plot escalates toward its climax.
Fuller provides a nuanced perspective on public attention, noting that while the virality of his article and the popularity of the team’s story benefited the Cubs in some ways, the press narratives surrounding the team were not always positive or helpful. For example, NFL documentarians rewrote coach Keith Adams’ pre-game speech so that it more closely aligned with their prior expectations of Deaf athletes. In his original speech, Coach Adams told his players that the opposing teams “hate the idea of losing to a deaf team, so let’s kick their butts” (170). This passage alludes to the prejudices of other teams without naming them, energizing the players without explicitly pointing to prejudiced beliefs the opposing team might hold. Before filming, however, NFL producers rejected the speech and send Coach Adams an “entirely remade speech” that reflected their preconceived notions about Deaf athletes. In the new speech, Coach Adams encouraged his team to fight with “heart” while admitting that “[the opposing players] are bigger, they are stronger […] they think because we’re deaf we can’t compete” (170). This new speech suggested that the very fact that the CSDR players were deaf made them less imposing and aligned their deafness with physical weakness. As Fuller notes, the Cubs “had proven that they were often physically stronger” and that opposing teams actually expected “a hard-hitting performance by the Cubs” (170). The rewritten NFL speech suggested that the Cubs were subject to what former President George W. Bush called the bigotry of low expectations, a subtle but dangerous form of prejudice.
Fuller’s book aims to combat this prejudiced belief by demonstrating the concrete contributions of Deaf football players to their sport, pointing to the text’s thematic interest in the Benefits of Deafness in Football. “More than a century” before the CSDR Cubs made history in the eight-man championship, another group of Deaf athletes made “a significant contribution to the game of football” with the invention of the huddle (149). In 1894, the quarterback for Gallaudet University—the first university designed for Deaf students—developed the huddle as a way of keeping opposing teams from reading his signed instructions to his teammates: “his solution was to tell his teammates to meet before the play in a circle, backs toward any prying eyes” (149). The result was one of the most iconic formations in football, practiced at all levels of the sport. The fact that the huddle was developed by Deaf athletes at a Deaf university contradicts the prejudiced belief that Deaf athletes are less capable and have less to contribute than hearing athletes.
Fuller’s description of the Cubs’ games against other Deaf institutions in Chapters 24 and 25 also push back against the idea that Deaf athletes are less competitive in football by highlighting the thriving rivalries between Deaf football teams across the country. Fuller compares the rivalry between the California School for the Deaf, Riverside and the California School for the Deaf, Fremont to “Army versus Navy or UCLA versus USC,” explaining that the rivalry “ran deep” (146). His references to these iconic rivalries helps to contextualize the fierceness of the CSDR/CSDF rivalry while also positioning Deaf athletes as peers of hearing athletes in ability and competitive spirit. The comparison helps to elevate the status of Deaf athletes in the minds of readers who may not be familiar with the rivalry.
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