Chap­ter 15: Bat­tered por­trays the phys­i­cal and emo­tion­al strain expe­ri­enced by the Cubs foot­ball team as they approach the pin­na­cle of their season—the cham­pi­onship game of the Cal­i­for­nia Inter­scholas­tic Fed­er­a­tion, South­ern Sec­tion. Their jour­ney has already made his­to­ry as the first deaf foot­ball team in Cal­i­for­nia to reach this lev­el. The Cubs had just endured a tough, hard-hit­ting game against Aval­on, which left many of their play­ers bruised and bat­tered. For Trevin Adams, a key play­er on the team, the after­math of this phys­i­cal­ly demand­ing match was par­tic­u­lar­ly severe. Despite the rush of adren­a­line fol­low­ing their vic­to­ry, Trevin’s strug­gle with pain and exhaus­tion became evi­dent as he board­ed the fer­ry to Long Beach with his fam­i­ly. Every step he took on the gang­plank felt like a chal­lenge, with his move­ments slow and care­ful, show­ing the toll the game had tak­en on him phys­i­cal­ly.

The Aval­on game had been an intense bat­tle, and the Cubs had been on the receiv­ing end of some bru­tal tack­les. Many play­ers left the field cov­ered in turf burns, which served as painful reminders of the vio­lence that occurred dur­ing the game. Trevin, in par­tic­u­lar, had suf­fered the worst, with his body still aching and slow to recov­er in the days that fol­lowed. He moved cau­tious­ly around his home, strug­gling to find any relief from the pain. Felix Gonzalez’s strug­gles were equal­ly sig­nif­i­cant, as an aggra­vat­ed hip injury slowed his move­ments, mak­ing it dif­fi­cult for him to stay on top of his game. Mean­while, Jory Valen­cia was still fight­ing through a lin­ger­ing stom­ach ill­ness, mak­ing it hard­er for him to con­tribute as he had in ear­li­er games. With only a week left before the high­ly antic­i­pat­ed cham­pi­onship game, the play­ers were urged to rest and recov­er, leav­ing the inten­si­ty of foot­ball prac­tices behind. The Thanks­giv­ing break pro­vid­ed a per­fect oppor­tu­ni­ty for the team to regroup, heal, and regain their strength before their next mon­u­men­tal test.

Instead of push­ing the team to prac­tice, Coach­es Kei­th Adams and Kaveh Angoorani decid­ed to give the play­ers a much-need­ed break. They knew that with injuries and fatigue tak­ing their toll, focus­ing on rest would be more ben­e­fi­cial than forc­ing fur­ther phys­i­cal exer­tion. Dur­ing the break, the coach­es turned their atten­tion to their upcom­ing oppo­nent, Faith Bap­tist. This team, a pow­er­house in eight-man foot­ball, had dom­i­nat­ed the sport for years, with an impres­sive record of nine­teen cham­pi­onship appear­ances and nine title wins. Faith Baptist’s long-stand­ing suc­cess pre­sent­ed an enor­mous chal­lenge, and Kei­th and Kaveh under­stood that in order to com­pete, they need­ed to rely on more than just phys­i­cal strength. They immersed them­selves in study­ing game footage, ana­lyz­ing Faith Baptist’s tac­tics, and craft­ing a game plan that would allow the Cubs to over­come the odds and claim vic­to­ry.

The chap­ter also sheds light on the deep and mean­ing­ful part­ner­ship between Coach­es Kei­th and Kaveh. Kei­th, with his Scotch-Irish back­ground from Okla­homa, and Kaveh, an Iran­ian immi­grant who had attend­ed the old­est deaf school in Hart­ford, forged a strong bond over their shared com­mit­ment to both the sport and their play­ers. Despite their dif­fer­ent back­grounds, the two coach­es found com­mon ground in their pas­sion for coach­ing and devel­op­ing young ath­letes. Kaveh had always been ded­i­cat­ed to the Cubs, but he had decid­ed that this sea­son would be his last. His deci­sion to retire after this sea­son was not tak­en light­ly, but he knew it was time to step away after years of hard work and com­mit­ment. How­ev­er, before retir­ing, he was deter­mined to see the Cubs through to their best sea­son yet. With the cham­pi­onship on the hori­zon, both coach­es remained focused on prepar­ing their team for the ulti­mate chal­lenge, know­ing that the upcom­ing game would mark not just the cul­mi­na­tion of the sea­son, but a defin­ing moment for the Cubs’ lega­cy.