The Boys of Riverside: A Deaf Football Team and a Quest for Glory

New York Times reporter Fuller debuts with a stirring account of how the football team from the California School for the Deaf, Riverside rocketed to a state championship in 2022. The start of the 2021 season looked inauspicious for the Riverside Cubs, who were out of shape from the pandemic and fresh off eight consecutive losing seasons. The Cubs surprised even themselves by winning their first game in a 68–0 blowout against a hearing school. The victory was no fluke; the Cubs went undefeated before losing the championship game 74–22 against Los Angeles’s Faith Baptist Contenders. The loss steeled the Cubs’ determination, and they racked up another undefeated run during their 2022 season, culminating in a rousing 80–26 championship victory against Faith Baptist that Fuller recounts in breathless detail. The heart of the uplifting story lies in Fuller’s moving portraits of the student athletes. For instance, he describes how a running back attended school while living out of his father’s car and how a wide receiver almost quit the game after playing on a Pop Warner team where he was berated by his coach for not following instructions he couldn’t hear. As far as underdog stories go, this one is a surefire crowd-pleaser. Agent: Jane Dystel, Dystel, Goderich & Bourret. (Aug.)