Miss-Delectable
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Devils Lake Journal - Sports
All of Matthew Sayler’s hard work is paying off.
The North Dakota School for the Deaf senior has been chosen as one of 10 players from the West to participate in a USA All-America Deaf basketball game in Florida in April.
There will be 10 players from the East chosen as well and they will converge on Orlando, Fla. the week of April 10. Plans are to arrive in Orlando April 10, have a day of practice and play the game April 12.
All of the players must be deaf and be at 55 decibels or less, according to Julius Sayler, Matt’s coach and father.
“It’s a huge honor,’’ he says. “I was contacted to see if Matt was interested, and, of course, we were.’’
Julius was a standout at NDSD in the mid-1970’s, and graduated in 1980. He has been coaching basketball at the school for the past 15 years and has spent a lot of time with his son polishing his skills.
He’s now in the process of filling out forms with statistics on his son’s achievements since his freshman year which will be supplied to the tournament folks in Florida.
Matt spent a couple of years mainstreaming in the basketball program at Devils Lake High School, but finally opted to return to NDSD, where he enjoyed a superb senior season. He averaged 26.6 points a game playing for his dad and had the best year of his high school career.
A lot of his points were three-pointers, a weapon his dad never really had when he played.
“We shoot around a lot and do drills almost the whole year,’’ Julius said of his work with his son. “He did well at Devils Lake High School, but we felt he wasn’t getting much interest over there, so he came back to NDSD.’’
“It all turned out well.’’
All of Matthew Sayler’s hard work is paying off.
The North Dakota School for the Deaf senior has been chosen as one of 10 players from the West to participate in a USA All-America Deaf basketball game in Florida in April.
There will be 10 players from the East chosen as well and they will converge on Orlando, Fla. the week of April 10. Plans are to arrive in Orlando April 10, have a day of practice and play the game April 12.
All of the players must be deaf and be at 55 decibels or less, according to Julius Sayler, Matt’s coach and father.
“It’s a huge honor,’’ he says. “I was contacted to see if Matt was interested, and, of course, we were.’’
Julius was a standout at NDSD in the mid-1970’s, and graduated in 1980. He has been coaching basketball at the school for the past 15 years and has spent a lot of time with his son polishing his skills.
He’s now in the process of filling out forms with statistics on his son’s achievements since his freshman year which will be supplied to the tournament folks in Florida.
Matt spent a couple of years mainstreaming in the basketball program at Devils Lake High School, but finally opted to return to NDSD, where he enjoyed a superb senior season. He averaged 26.6 points a game playing for his dad and had the best year of his high school career.
A lot of his points were three-pointers, a weapon his dad never really had when he played.
“We shoot around a lot and do drills almost the whole year,’’ Julius said of his work with his son. “He did well at Devils Lake High School, but we felt he wasn’t getting much interest over there, so he came back to NDSD.’’
“It all turned out well.’’