Pro­logue begins with an email from the Cal­i­for­nia Depart­ment of Edu­ca­tion, mark­ing a piv­otal moment for the Cal­i­for­nia School for the Deaf in River­side. The email cel­e­brat­ed the foot­ball team’s unprece­dent­ed play­off appear­ance, a mile­stone in a sev­en-decade his­to­ry where they had nev­er before reached a cham­pi­onship. The com­mu­ni­ca­tion from the depart­ment high­light­ed the team’s grow­ing recog­ni­tion, but it also under­scored the need for facil­i­ty upgrades, a request moti­vat­ed by the team’s new­found promi­nence. The author, who serves as the San Fran­cis­co bureau chief for The New York Times, typ­i­cal­ly cov­ers com­plex and heavy top­ics such as wild­fires, mass shoot­ings, and home­less­ness. How­ev­er, the sto­ry of the River­side Cubs foot­ball team unex­pect­ed­ly cap­tured his atten­tion, spark­ing his curios­i­ty about how a school for the deaf, often over­looked in the sports world, could have such an inspir­ing and com­pelling sto­ry to tell.

The author, despite being sev­en hours away from his home, felt com­pelled to trav­el to River­side and per­son­al­ly meet the play­ers just before their crit­i­cal play­off game. Upon arriv­ing, he was imme­di­ate­ly impressed by the team’s excep­tion­al com­mu­ni­ca­tion skills, which allowed them to func­tion seam­less­ly despite being a deaf team. He con­trast­ed this expe­ri­ence with his pre­vi­ous report­ing endeav­ors, which had focused on chal­leng­ing and often heart­break­ing sto­ries. The Cubs, com­pet­ing in California’s eight-man foot­ball divi­sion, were a part of a small­er league designed for schools unable to field full eleven-play­er teams. This divi­sion, how­ev­er, did not detract from the tal­ent on dis­play, as play­ers like Josh Allen and Rashaan Salaam had come out of it, show­ing that small­er divi­sions could pro­duce top-tier ath­letes. The author real­ized that the Cubs’ jour­ney was about more than just foot­ball; it was about prov­ing that small­er schools and unique teams could achieve great­ness when giv­en the oppor­tu­ni­ty.

As the author spent more time with the team, he learned that the Cubs were not only skilled ath­letes but also indi­vid­u­als who came from diverse back­grounds, each with their own per­son­al strug­gles. Many play­ers had over­come sig­nif­i­cant chal­lenges in their lives, and one of the most remark­able was Phillip Cas­tane­da, a tal­ent­ed run­ning back who had expe­ri­enced home­less­ness but remained ded­i­cat­ed to the sport. Phillip’s sto­ry of per­se­ver­ance was just one exam­ple of the strength and deter­mi­na­tion shared by the entire team. For years, the Cubs had been seen as an easy tar­get by their com­peti­tors, who viewed them as under­dogs due to their small size and the stig­ma sur­round­ing their deaf­ness. How­ev­er, with­in the team itself, there was a sense of broth­er­hood and shared pur­pose that unit­ed them. This uni­ty became the foun­da­tion of their suc­cess, as they worked togeth­er to prove the world wrong and show that deaf­ness was not a lim­i­ta­tion in sports, but rather an asset that shaped their approach to the game.

Rec­og­niz­ing the pro­found sig­nif­i­cance of the Cubs’ jour­ney, the author chose to step away tem­porar­i­ly from his demand­ing role as bureau chief to fol­low the team through the rest of their sea­son. This allowed him to immerse him­self deeply in the team’s world and learn first­hand about the intri­ca­cies of Deaf Cul­ture, includ­ing the role of sign lan­guage in their dai­ly lives. Dur­ing a time of social unrest and glob­al uncer­tain­ty due to the ongo­ing pan­dem­ic, the Cubs’ sto­ry became a sym­bol of hope and resilience, tran­scend­ing the sports world. It high­light­ed how, despite fac­ing sig­nif­i­cant chal­lenges, they were deter­mined to suc­ceed and to show the world that their deaf­ness was not a bar­ri­er, but a unique strength. Their dreams of a cham­pi­onship were not just about football—it was about demon­strat­ing to the world that any­one, regard­less of their cir­cum­stances, could achieve great­ness with ded­i­ca­tion, uni­ty, and the will­ing­ness to push through adver­si­ty. The Cubs’ remark­able sto­ry res­onat­ed far beyond the foot­ball field, offer­ing a mes­sage of per­se­ver­ance, self-belief, and the pow­er of com­mu­ni­ty.