The kids were deaf, I guess we were blind

[Back In The Saddle]

Had an intersting DH last night. B & G JV, local private school v. The Utah School for the Deaf and Blind. I was a little curious going in about how this would work.

Met with coaches/captains befor the first game and asked if they needed any special accomodations. Coach said no, but did tell us that their scorekeeper was also deaf and showed us the signs for white and blue, the colors of the two teams. We used them when reporting.

Other than that it was pretty much business as usual. Either they could hear the whistle at least a little (some wore hearing aids) or they stopped when everybody else stopped playing. We only had two situations where players kept playing after the whistle. One was with the kids from other team (the non-deaf kids).

The deaf kids did sometimes take a second or two longer to set up for things. I'd go to hand the ball to the thrower on the end line and he/she would still be "talking" to teammates, setting up a play. I felt kinda bad for one of the girls a time or two because her teammates had no way to really call out the screens for her.

We made a conscious effort not subconsciously call the game differently because of the one team's handicaps. We even called an intentional on one of the deaf girls who decided to stop the fast break by putting a shoulder into her opponent. But I will admit I was cheering for their girls a bit inside when they finally got to 10 points (It wasn't until the 4th quarter, they didn't make their first field goal until near halftime and lost by 20+ points).

The boys game was just the reverse. The deaf team had some players and controlled the game from the opening tip. It was a fun game to work. I did have to laugh at their coach though. He gave me grief on a foul where I held my whistle a bit about the call being late. Then two minutes later he's giving me the business about anticipating a foul and making calls too early. Made me wish I knew the signs for "make up your mind, will you?"