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"For region’s deaf athletes, March Madness is on" : News-Record.com : Greensboro, North Carolina
Seconds after the game began at the Greensboro Sportsplex, Odell Armwood ended up with the ball on his team's first possession.
He saw an opening, shot the ball from way out and — swish — his team had a three-point lead.
It was a basketball game like any other, except for one thing: Armwood and every other player on the court Friday morning was either deaf or hard of hearing.
"After I graduated from high school, they let me play on this team," the 23-year-old Greensboro resident said through an interpreter. "I have a lot of fun and enthusiasm. After you get out of school, it's like what are you going to do? This is something to do."
Armwood would finish the game scoring 22 points for his Piedmont Association of the Deaf, or PAD, team in the first round of the two-day tournament that attracted a total of 17 teams from six states.
The event, hosted by the Southeast Athletic Association of the Deaf, ended Saturday evening.
The tournament is a slightly different twist on March Madness, but no less intense or meaningful for its participants than the ACC version.
The annual tournament for deaf teams goes back all the way to 1947 and has been held in cities such as Atlanta, Baltimore, Miami, Nashville and Washington.
Winning squads, in both men's and women's divisions, advance to the USA Deaf Basketball Tournament next month in Orlando, Fla.
Bringing the regional tourney to Greensboro for the second time in four years has the added benefit of raising local awareness of the deaf community, which has declined since the closing of the Central N.C. School for the Deaf in 2001, said Joey Brafford of the local organization of the deaf.
"The community is a little deteriorated," Brafford said through an interpreter. "There's less knowledge, less awareness of deaf people and deaf people's needs."
"We can do the same things as everybody else. We can do anything. We're just like hearing people," said Brafford, who coaches the PAD women's team and is assistant coach for the men.
In fact, the games are played with exactly the same speed and dexterity as teams that have no hearing loss, beyond whatever is caused by crowd noise.
Player-to-player signaling is perhaps a bit more expressive and demonstrative among deaf players. But basketball is a game with a lot of signaling even by teams with full hearing capacity.
Many in the audience also spoke in ASL, American Sign Language, their hands moving swiftly and emphatically to encourage a team or to make a point in conversation.
The referee's white towel was among the few things that would tell an unknowing Joe Fan that he was at a tournament with a story line that's just a bit different.
Refs waved their towels if they made a call, but it appeared some of the players had not seen.
"If they don't see, we wave the flag," said referee Gary Holmes. "Once they see that, they stop."
Referee Richard Davis said he was impressed by the quality of the games and the basketball knowledge displayed by individual players.
"They're great athletes and great players but, more than that, they're great people," Davis said.
Interpreters were on hand throughout the event from UNCG's deaf education, interpreter training program. They wore shirts of solid, dark coloring so that their hand messages could be readily discerned.
Some sat at court-side tables to help ease communication between referees who didn't know sign language and scorekeepers who were deaf or hard of hearing.
"Sometimes, I have to run out on the court and interpret between the referee and the players," said Kristin Swindle, a senior in the UNCG program. "I'm really on my toes, but it's a lot of fun."
The men's division had 14 teams competing in the tournament, the women had three. Unlike the men's division, which held its 62nd annual tourney, the women's division only got started 18 years ago.
But that didn't translate into any less intensity in the contests. A Friday game between Brafford's PAD team and the Talladega (Ala.) Club of the Deaf was hotly contested until the final seconds, when PAD power forward Amelia England sank a couple of foul shots to sew up the win.
Winning is nice, but it's only part of the story of this tournament, said PAD forward Rosie Gregory of Hickory.
"It's having all the deaf community here together," she said through an interpreter. "I have a deaf family."
Seconds after the game began at the Greensboro Sportsplex, Odell Armwood ended up with the ball on his team's first possession.
He saw an opening, shot the ball from way out and — swish — his team had a three-point lead.
It was a basketball game like any other, except for one thing: Armwood and every other player on the court Friday morning was either deaf or hard of hearing.
"After I graduated from high school, they let me play on this team," the 23-year-old Greensboro resident said through an interpreter. "I have a lot of fun and enthusiasm. After you get out of school, it's like what are you going to do? This is something to do."
Armwood would finish the game scoring 22 points for his Piedmont Association of the Deaf, or PAD, team in the first round of the two-day tournament that attracted a total of 17 teams from six states.
The event, hosted by the Southeast Athletic Association of the Deaf, ended Saturday evening.
The tournament is a slightly different twist on March Madness, but no less intense or meaningful for its participants than the ACC version.
The annual tournament for deaf teams goes back all the way to 1947 and has been held in cities such as Atlanta, Baltimore, Miami, Nashville and Washington.
Winning squads, in both men's and women's divisions, advance to the USA Deaf Basketball Tournament next month in Orlando, Fla.
Bringing the regional tourney to Greensboro for the second time in four years has the added benefit of raising local awareness of the deaf community, which has declined since the closing of the Central N.C. School for the Deaf in 2001, said Joey Brafford of the local organization of the deaf.
"The community is a little deteriorated," Brafford said through an interpreter. "There's less knowledge, less awareness of deaf people and deaf people's needs."
"We can do the same things as everybody else. We can do anything. We're just like hearing people," said Brafford, who coaches the PAD women's team and is assistant coach for the men.
In fact, the games are played with exactly the same speed and dexterity as teams that have no hearing loss, beyond whatever is caused by crowd noise.
Player-to-player signaling is perhaps a bit more expressive and demonstrative among deaf players. But basketball is a game with a lot of signaling even by teams with full hearing capacity.
Many in the audience also spoke in ASL, American Sign Language, their hands moving swiftly and emphatically to encourage a team or to make a point in conversation.
The referee's white towel was among the few things that would tell an unknowing Joe Fan that he was at a tournament with a story line that's just a bit different.
Refs waved their towels if they made a call, but it appeared some of the players had not seen.
"If they don't see, we wave the flag," said referee Gary Holmes. "Once they see that, they stop."
Referee Richard Davis said he was impressed by the quality of the games and the basketball knowledge displayed by individual players.
"They're great athletes and great players but, more than that, they're great people," Davis said.
Interpreters were on hand throughout the event from UNCG's deaf education, interpreter training program. They wore shirts of solid, dark coloring so that their hand messages could be readily discerned.
Some sat at court-side tables to help ease communication between referees who didn't know sign language and scorekeepers who were deaf or hard of hearing.
"Sometimes, I have to run out on the court and interpret between the referee and the players," said Kristin Swindle, a senior in the UNCG program. "I'm really on my toes, but it's a lot of fun."
The men's division had 14 teams competing in the tournament, the women had three. Unlike the men's division, which held its 62nd annual tourney, the women's division only got started 18 years ago.
But that didn't translate into any less intensity in the contests. A Friday game between Brafford's PAD team and the Talladega (Ala.) Club of the Deaf was hotly contested until the final seconds, when PAD power forward Amelia England sank a couple of foul shots to sew up the win.
Winning is nice, but it's only part of the story of this tournament, said PAD forward Rosie Gregory of Hickory.
"It's having all the deaf community here together," she said through an interpreter. "I have a deaf family."