Chap­ter 2: Hell Week begins with a unique scene on the first day of prac­tice for the 2021 foot­ball sea­son at the Cal­i­for­nia School for the Deaf in River­side. Galvin Drake, the assis­tant var­si­ty foot­ball coach, arrived with music blast­ing from his 2005 Toy­ota Cam­ry, though his expe­ri­ence of the rhythm was more felt than heard. This moment exem­pli­fied the chal­lenges faced by the team as they began their prepa­ra­tion, par­tic­u­lar­ly after the pan­dem­ic had left many ath­letes out of shape due to remote learn­ing and lim­it­ed phys­i­cal activ­i­ty. Empha­siz­ing the impor­tance of fit­ness and nutri­tion, Coach Drake focused on bring­ing the play­ers back into top phys­i­cal con­di­tion, with the added chal­lenge of over­com­ing the pan­demic’s toll on their health. Mean­while, the head coach, Kei­th Adams, arrived pre­pared with Gatorade, aim­ing to keep the team hydrat­ed and pro­mote recov­ery after the gru­el­ing prac­tices.

River­side’s sum­mer heat pre­sent­ed its own chal­lenge, prompt­ing the coach­ing staff to sched­ule prac­tices dur­ing the cool­er evening hours to avoid the extreme tem­per­a­tures of the day. The play­ers referred to these first days of intense con­di­tion­ing as “Hell Week,” as they adjust­ed to the phys­i­cal demands and recon­nect­ed with their team­mates. The eager­ness to return to the field after a sea­son lost to can­cel­la­tion was evi­dent in the casu­al reunions and the excite­ment of get­ting back to the phys­i­cal­i­ty of the game. The team’s dynam­ic was unique­ly shaped by the use of sign lan­guage for com­mu­ni­ca­tion, which played a sig­nif­i­cant role in fos­ter­ing deep con­nec­tions among team­mates. This required con­stant engage­ment from both play­ers and coach­es, cre­at­ing a bond built on shared under­stand­ing, patience, and clear com­mu­ni­ca­tion, rein­forc­ing the strength of their team spir­it.

Coach Adams empha­sized the impor­tance of prac­ti­cal health pro­to­cols dur­ing their first meet­ing, inform­ing the play­ers about the neces­si­ty of wear­ing face masks and main­tain­ing hydra­tion. The team also faced unique chal­lenges relat­ed to their train­ing envi­ron­ment, such as the weight room, which could only accom­mo­date a lim­it­ed num­ber of users at a time. Unlike in hear­ing schools, com­mu­ni­ca­tion in these spaces was con­duct­ed through thick glass, high­light­ing the dis­tinct ways the Cubs man­aged their inter­ac­tions and rein­forc­ing Deaf culture’s focus on visu­al com­mu­ni­ca­tion. This approach also rein­forced a cen­tral theme of the team’s sea­son: respon­si­bil­i­ty and mutu­al sup­port, as every­one had to stay aware of each oth­er’s needs and progress. The nuances of Deaf cul­ture and com­mu­ni­ca­tion shaped the team’s dynam­ics, giv­ing them a unique advan­tage in fos­ter­ing under­stand­ing and coop­er­a­tion, even dur­ing phys­i­cal­ly demand­ing prac­tices.

As the sea­son began, famil­ial ties were a sig­nif­i­cant part of the Cubs’ team cul­ture. Trevin Adams, Coach Adams’ son, exem­pli­fied this sense of fam­i­ly spir­it along­side his broth­er Kaden, both con­tribut­ing to the team’s close-knit atmos­phere. The prac­tice ses­sions kicked off with rig­or­ous drills, sprints, and con­di­tion­ing exer­cis­es that test­ed the play­ers’ sta­mi­na and per­se­ver­ance. Despite his deter­mi­na­tion, new play­er Phillip Cas­tane­da strug­gled with the phys­i­cal demands of the ses­sion, even los­ing his lunch on the field—an expe­ri­ence that was not unique to him. The intense nature of the work­outs affect­ed many play­ers, as the long break due to the pan­dem­ic had left their bod­ies unac­cus­tomed to the inten­si­ty of reg­u­lar prac­tices. Rec­og­niz­ing that each play­er’s readi­ness var­ied, Coach Adams made the deci­sion to short­en the prac­tice to avoid fur­ther strain on the ath­letes, demon­strat­ing his focus on their well-being and ensur­ing they could build up their fit­ness over time.

This sea­son marked a fresh start for the Cubs, who had faced a his­to­ry of strug­gles and loss­es since the foot­ball program’s incep­tion. Coach Adams, how­ev­er, remained hope­ful and moti­vat­ed for revi­tal­iza­tion, ful­ly aware that there was much work to be done to rebuild and strength­en the team. The chal­lenges they faced, from adjust­ing to the phys­i­cal demands of the game to over­com­ing the lin­ger­ing effects of the pan­dem­ic, high­light­ed the resilience and deter­mi­na­tion of both the play­ers and coach­ing staff. As they faced their tough­est oppo­nents yet, the Cubs’ jour­ney was just begin­ning, and the team’s bond, built on a foun­da­tion of trust and com­mu­ni­ca­tion, would be cru­cial in over­com­ing the hur­dles ahead. With hard work, per­se­ver­ance, and uni­ty, Coach Adams believed the Cubs could rewrite their his­to­ry and move toward suc­cess in the upcom­ing sea­son.