Gallaudet University's Lady Bison come with the same hoopla as any other college basketball team: Cheerleaders rustle fistfuls of pom-poms; wild male fans in nothing but face paint and brightly colored Speedos rile up the crowd; and frustrated coaches lob high-pitched advice from the bench.
It's not until the team huddles that you notice anything different about the Lady Bison. All the Gallaudet players are deaf or hard of hearing. The university, located in Washington, D.C., is the premier school for deaf students. Its women's basketball team competes against mainstream — hearing — teams, and this year, it's making a surprise run up the national rankings.
How Do You Play Basketball If You Can't Hear?
Playing basketball would seem to require at least some hearing — for whistles, buzzers or the sounds of the ball. But the players say it's not as important as you might think.
"We've been playing around 23 games," guard Stephanie Weiss says, "so I feel like we know each other. We're sisters for life — like, we know how to communicate with each other."
Rookie guard Britny Latham says she looks for visual clues. "I watch to see if anyone stops or throws their hands up," she says. "I just watch, or I can feel the beat on the ground."
Obviously, it works; Latham is a breakout star in a standout season on a team that's nationally ranked — and a favorite for an NCAA tournament bid.
