Your Next Read: "The Boys of Riverside"

Inspiring new book chronicles the triumphs of an all-deaf high school football team while highlighting deafness in America.

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Photo: PenguinRandomHouse

We’re a taking a slight detour from the usual blood and guts of youth sports today to spotlight an uplifting youth sports-ish book (with an author conversation that follows!) that has my highest recommendation. I say “ish” because, sure “The Boys of Riverside” has kids and sports but its true message transcends both.

If you’re like me you might think a book fully titled “The Boys of Riverside: A Deaf Football Team And A Quest For Glory,” written by New York Times reporter Thomas Fuller, sounds like a sappy Disney movie waiting to happen. Coincidentally, the recently released tale does have several projects in the works within the entertainment industry, including a movie based on Riverside Cubs’ head coach Keith Adams. But the nucleus of “The Boys of Riverside” is not just about a team of deaf kids, compelling as they are, it’s an indoctrination into a world that too few of us know. A deaf world that encompasses 3.6%, or 11 million, Americans according to the National Deaf Center.

Fuller admits he “hadn’t thought much” about deafness before receiving a transformative email in November of 2021 from the California Department of Education. The email mentioned how the Riverside Cubs, an all-deaf high school football team representing the California School for the Deaf, were amid an undefeated season.

Curiosity piqued, Fuller dropped everything and headed to Riverside in Southern California where he embedded with the Cubs for the remainder of the season. With the help of college-aged ASL interpreter Malika Angoorani, the daughter of Cubs’ defensive coordinator, Kaveh Angoorani, Fuller delved deep into Deaf Cutlture. He learned about the nuances and regionalism of ASL. How just like many hearing teams, there were two distinct sets of slang between Head Coach Keith Adams and his players.

Once Fuller’s New York Times feature titled “Deaf Football Team Takes California by Storm” went viral, the more expansive “The Boys of Riverside” was born. The book is a testament to a leader in Coach Adams who Fuller describes as “a bull of a man who lives and breathes and football” who has his own fascinating upbringing as a deaf football player trying to integrate with a hearing team. It details a gorgeous coalescing of the various players who made up this special team including Adamses’ quarterback sons, a homeless running back who slept in a Target parking lot across the highway, and a star wideout with a deaf brother who plays professional basketball in Europe, among many others. “The Boys of Riverside” provides gripping accounts of the game action amid the Cubs’ championship quest. (I’ll let you find out the result from the book). Perhaps the biggest takeaway was Fuller’s ability to shine a light on deafness as its own category, one far from a disability. In fact, the Riverside Cubs make it very clear that an all-deaf football team has an inherent edge.

“The Boys of Riverside: A Deaf Football Team And A Quest For Glory” is out now.

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In conversation with author Thomas Fuller:

Melissa Jacobs: What are some of the specific ways in which the Riverside Cubs or any all-deaf team has an advantage in football?

Thomas Fuller: Because they are signing they can call plays faster from the sidelines. They’re hearing with their eyes. They are seeing the field much more comprehensively. They have better peripheral vision, science tells us. They never go offsides. They’re never bothered by the 12th man

MJ: What most struck about you about ASL (American Sign Language)?

TF: It was my research into ASL that helped me understand the grammar, the structure of it, the sophistication of it, that it’s a language just like English, Spanish, Chinese or Japanese. That was part of my discovery that made me say, ‘hey, let’s look at ‘disability’ with more nuance because in this case the conclusion I came to is that I’m not sure deafness is a disability on the football field.

What is deafness? I think it’s a language barrie like if you played a team that spoke Japanese. All deaf players and all deaf coaches, which is what the Cubs are, is a fluent situation. I kept wondering which part of this was a disability. If you look up the definition of the word, it means less able. In this case, it’s an advantage.

MJ: What is the single biggest advantage from an x’s and o’s standpoint?

TF: I would say playcalling. My son is on a high school football team that is very storied and athletic. But between each player the quarterback runs to the sideline, confers with the coach or offensive coordinator, and runs back to a huddle. It takes like a full minute. The Cubs just walk up to their positions on the line or in the backfield. They look over to their coach. The coach signs them the play. They all nod and two seconds later comes the snap. The fluidity, the efficiency, and speed of ASL gives them an edge.

MJ: In “The Boys of Riverside” you report on a plethora of games, against mostly hearing teams. One of the games against Faith Baptist was a spectacle with a marching band, prayer circles, and lots of noise. How did the fact that stadium noise didn’t rattle the Cubs impact opposing teams?

TF: I think it threw them off. It was unusual. It was arriving in a place that doesn’t have the routines you’re used to. So maybe it distracts you a bit. I do want to say the opposing coaches and players were very gracious. But yeah, it was disorienting and that too was an advantage for the Cubs.

MJ: At risk of hinting at outcomes, four players from the Riverside Cubs were invited to participate in the 2022 Super Bowl coin toss in Los Angeles. You write that an NFL PR person said the invite was part of the league’s theme of defying stereotypes. What do you think are the stereotypes of deaf culture.

TF: Well, I really focused on integrating with the team so I’m really sure. But there was one dad who I casually mentioned the book to and the topic of a deaf football team and his reaction was, ‘Oh, their plays must be very simple.’ It was such a weird thing to say. But maybe among a lot of hearing people there’s an unconscious lumping together of disabilities.

As I point out in the book there’s the Arizona School for the Deaf and the Blind. Why would deaf people be in the same school as blind people? That doesn’t make any sense. What I wanted to do in the book was write about deafness. I’m not an expert in disabilities at all. I wanted to write very specifically about deafness on the football field Here’s this sport that everyone loves, now look at this twist. And let’s ask ourselves if the hearing word has things to learn from the deaf world. My answer wold be yes.

MJ: What was your favorite discovery while writing “The Boys of Riverside?”

TF: It was probably that the football huddle was invented by deaf players in the 1890’s at Gallaudet University. When two deaf teams faced off, the Gallaudet quarterback decided something needed to be done because the opponent could read their plays. So he told the players to form a circle with their backs turned to the defense. I just love the irony that the deaf world gave football the huddle, and the edge for the Riverside Cubs was not needing to have one.