School for the Deaf football team is one victory away from making history in Texas
One Texas high school is hoping to secure itself in the football history books on Friday — but first, they need to mark a crosstown rival off the board.
The Texas School for the Deaf meets Austin’s Veritas Academy in the TAPPS Division 1, 6-Man football championship game in Hewitt.
And they’ll try to execute that dream with the help of the drum they use to call the cadence, which is how they can tell the snap count, KXAN said.
“It’s become kind of a legend at TSD and in the deaf community and I don’t know if the neighbors would agree but it is really characteristic of our deaf football team,” TSD Superintendent Claire Bugen told KXAN. “It’s a beautiful way to feel the vibrations. A lot of people all can feel those vibrations and that’s what the drum does, it calls the play through vibration.”
The TSD Rangers were featured on the “Today” show ahead of the big game.
“For me, I’m just happy, I think it’s a great experience for us,” said one player to “Today.” We’ve worked for it and we’ve arrived.”
This historic match-up almost didn’t happen due to the COVID-19 pandemic so the school found a way around it by moving down in class from 11-man football to 6-man in the Texas Association for Private and Parochial Schools, KXAN reported.
“It’s just amazing because I seriously considered suspending the whole football program this year,” Burgen told “Today.”
In 6-Man football, the field is smaller and the scores tend to be higher. Much higher.
“Every player on the field is eligible to catch a pass,” the Austin American-Statesman reports. “The quarterback can’t run with the football. If one team takes a 45-point lead in the second half, game over.”
Veritas, which won state titles in 2015, ‘16 and ‘18, is 9-0 this season and averages 62 points per game. One of those victories came against TSD, 58-25, in September, according to the American-Statesman.
TSD is 6-3 in its first 6-man season.
“Everything was new, the rules were new, the fields is new. It’s no longer 100 yards, we’re changing down to 80 yards so that changes our whole game,” Rangers head coach John Moore said to NBC.
The game promises to be a thrilling one with a plethora of scoring, and Moore and his players are ready.
“To win a state championship would be huge,” Moore told the American-Statesman. “To win during a season like this, where every single football program in the country has been affected by COVID-19, would be outstanding. Knowing our boys put in the extra work on the field and off-the-field to stay safe really makes my staff and I proud.”
This story was originally published December 11, 2020 at 3:54 PM with the headline "School for the Deaf football team is one victory away from making history in Texas."