January 6, 2004 > CSDF Basketball Review

by Zac West & Dae Jun Kim

California School for the Deaf Fremont's basketball teams will settle for nothing less then success this season.These athletes have a passion for hoops and the drive of champions. The boy's team of Adrian DeHoyos, Arthur Chan, Tim Miller, Christopher Ivory, Chase Whitten, Sean Norris, Isaac West, Richard Rouse, Darryl Washington, Douglas Longmire, Nick Hickman, and Michael Lizarraga will be led by Head Coach Gil Lentz and Student Coach David Harvey along with Student Assistant, Oskar Schugg.

The girls varsity team with Lacie Baldwin, Erica Wilkins, Leala Holcomb, Laura Waterhouse, Amanda Sortwell, Quiara Alexander, Tenaya Herbold, Blair Rasmus, and Amanda Mosher is led by Jeanne Dike and Barbara Hyde.

CSDF Basketball teams were invited to two tournaments this season, Redwood Christian Tournament and Clerc Classic. The Clerc Classic was, hosted by Indiana School for the Deaf. In the Redwood Christian Tournament, CSDF played well and placed third. The Redwood Tournament is made of hearing teams, so we were proud to defeat our first team by 30 points. We entered the semi-finals and lost to Redwood Christian School.

The Clerc Classic is a national basketball tournament between several Deaf schools from all around the nation held in Indianapolis Indiana, a very cold place this time of year. The tournament was founded by Mike Weinstock, an athletic director in Model Secondary School for the Deaf (located in the District of Columbia). The Clerc Classic is named after Laurent Clerc, a man who became deaf at a young age as a result of a fever. He established the first American school for the Deaf in in Hartford, Connecticut in 1816.
This tournament started in 2000. Seven deaf schools were invited by Indiana. The following schools participated: Fremont, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Model (District of Colombia), Ohio, and Riverside. All eight schools played three games and Fremont was the first to play against Indiana.

At Half Time, we were down by 10 points and an aggressive Indiana team in the second half kept us from closing the gap. We lost 52 to 61. Our Second game was against Ohio and although we "gave" them 17 points, we emerged victorious and won by 69. The girl's team did an excellent job but placed 7th in the competition. One problem we faced was "jet lag" since Indiana is 3 hours ahead of California time. The final results: Indiana Champions, Illinois 2nd place and Maryland 3rd place, Model school 4th place, Mississippi 5th, CSDF 6th, Riverside 7th and Ohio 8th.

The Western States Baskeball Classics (WSBC) is an event coming to California School for the Deaf Fremont, January 29-31, 2004. Fremont boys and girls basketball teams and cheerleader competition will be a part of this invitational. Eight deaf schools from the west coast will participate. This year's participants will be Fremont, Riverside, Idaho, New Mexico, Oregon, Phoenix, Washington and Arizona. The event will be at Fremont's CSD. Everyone's welcome to attend and cheer for Fremont deaf school!