In this chap­ter titled “Bat­tered,” the Cubs foot­ball team has reached the cham­pi­onship game of the Cal­i­for­nia Inter­scholas­tic Fed­er­a­tion, South­ern Section—the first deaf foot­ball team to do so in California’s his­to­ry. Fol­low­ing a phys­i­cal­ly demand­ing game in Aval­on, Trevin Adams feels the effects of his injuries as he boards the fer­ry to Long Beach with his fam­i­ly. Though filled with adren­a­line from their vic­to­ry, he strug­gles with pain and fatigue, evi­denced by his dif­fi­cul­ty walk­ing down the gang­plank.

The match in Aval­on was notably rough, result­ing in turf burns for many play­ers. Trevin is among the most severe­ly affect­ed, shuf­fling through his home for three days, gin­ger­ly plac­ing one foot in front of the oth­er. Felix fur­ther com­pli­cates mat­ters with an aggra­vat­ed hip injury, while team­mate Jory is still bat­tling a stom­ach ill­ness. With the cham­pi­onship game only a week away and Thanks­giv­ing break approach­ing, the team dis­pers­es, focus­ing on recov­ery and fam­i­ly dis­cus­sions instead of foot­ball.

Coach­es Kei­th Adams and Kaveh Angoorani decide against on-field prac­tices dur­ing the week lead­ing up to the game. They learn that their cham­pi­onship oppo­nent, Faith Bap­tist, is a dom­i­nant force in eight-man foot­ball, hav­ing par­tic­i­pat­ed in the title match nine­teen times and claim­ing nine vic­to­ries. As Kei­th and Kaveh pre­pare a strat­e­gy by review­ing film and for­mu­lat­ing a game plan, they acknowl­edge the unprece­dent­ed chal­lenge ahead.

The coach­ing duo comes from diverse backgrounds—Keith being of Scotch-Irish her­itage from Okla­homa and Kaveh an immi­grant from Iran, who attend­ed the old­est deaf school in Hart­ford. Their mutu­al con­nec­tion lies in deaf­ness and foot­ball, cre­at­ing a strong bond. Kei­th had earnest­ly recruit­ed Kaveh to return as defen­sive coor­di­na­tor, but Kaveh has indi­cat­ed that this will be his last sea­son, ready to retire after a ful­fill­ing career in deaf edu­ca­tion. The chap­ter sets the stage for the cul­mi­na­tion of their efforts, as the Cubs pre­pare for a his­toric cham­pi­onship game.