On the first day of prac­tice for the 2021 sea­son at the Cal­i­for­nia School for the Deaf in River­side, Galvin Drake arrived with music blar­ing from his 2005 Toy­ota Cam­ry, though he felt the rhythm more than he heard it. As the assis­tant var­si­ty foot­ball coach, Galvin empha­sized the impor­tance of fit­ness and nutri­tion to the stu­dent ath­letes, espe­cial­ly after the pan­dem­ic had left many of them out of shape and over­weight due to remote learn­ing and lack of activ­i­ty. The head coach, Kei­th Adams, also felt the toll of the pan­dem­ic, arriv­ing with Gatorade to pre­pare the team for hydra­tion and recov­ery.

August heat in River­side prompt­ed the coach­es to sched­ule prac­tices for the evenings to avoid extreme tem­per­a­tures. The play­ers dubbed the first days of con­di­tion­ing “Hell Week.” Casu­al reunions among team­mates showed their eager­ness to return to the field, hav­ing been deprived of the cama­raderie and phys­i­cal­i­ty of foot­ball due to the pre­vi­ous sea­son’s can­cel­la­tion. The ini­tial team meet­ing high­light­ed a unique aspect of the Cubs: com­mu­ni­ca­tion in sign lan­guage fos­tered deep con­nec­tions, demand­ing con­stant atten­tion, and engage­ment among play­ers and coach­es alike.

Focus­ing on prac­ti­cal­i­ties like health pro­to­cols, Coach Adams informed the play­ers about the neces­si­ty of face masks and hydra­tion, empha­siz­ing indi­vid­ual respon­si­bil­i­ty. The weight room, designed for a lim­it­ed num­ber of users, illus­trat­ed anoth­er dif­fer­ence from hear­ing schools; com­mu­ni­ca­tion through thick glass took prece­dence over knock­ing on doors, rein­forc­ing a cen­tral theme in Deaf Cul­ture.

High­light­ing famil­ial ties with­in the team, Trevin Adams, Coach Adams’ son, epit­o­mized this spir­it along­side his broth­er Kaden. As prac­tice began, the team par­tic­i­pat­ed in drills, sprints, and con­di­tion­ing. Despite Phillip Cas­taneda’s efforts to show­case his speed, he strug­gled and ulti­mate­ly lost his lunch on the field, an expe­ri­ence shared by oth­ers as the stren­u­ous demands took their toll. Rec­og­niz­ing the play­ers’ readi­ness for con­di­tion­ing var­ied due to the pan­demic’s dis­rup­tions, Coach Adams cut the prac­tice short.

This sea­son marked a fresh start amid sig­nif­i­cant chal­lenges and a his­to­ry of loss­es for the foot­ball pro­gram, which had faced endur­ing strug­gles since its incep­tion. Coach Adams, hope­ful for revi­tal­iza­tion, under­stood there was much work to be done.