Winning Sounds Like This: A Season with the Women's Basketball Team at Gallaudet, the World's Only University for the Deaf

Gallaudet women have to overcome a double stereotype -- being not only female, but also deaf. There was a time when opposing teams would openly ridicule deaf basketball players. One player was devastated as a high school student when a coach from a Christian academy openly laughed at her speech. She made the team but never forgot the experience.

However, the players want to be taken seriously as athletes. They do not want or need pity or condescension. To Coffey's credit, the book focuses on basketball, not deafness. We learn how players and teams compensate for a silent world. They can hear someone dribbling behind them. Referees are briefed: players can't hear the whistle so they may not stop playing immediately. And players on "hearing" teams need ASL translators who understand basketball terms.

Yet ultimately the story is about the game: coming together as a team and working to win. Like any sports book, there are stories of triumphs as well as tears. We come to care about the players as they, like all college athletes, balance basketball and books.

Perhaps the most difficult story takes place after the book was written. Ronda Jo Miller, an All-American center, cannot reach her goal of playing on a WNBA team. In stories posted on the internet, we can learn that she earned admiration of players and coaches during the tryout camp. She eventually played professionally in Denmark, with a "hearing" team, and has played in Kansas City with an expansion league, the WNBL.

What happens to the other athletes? Playing on a winning team can change lives and I found myself hoping they will continue to feel like winners, long after the season has ended.


Page turning, inspirational read for all who love sports   May 6, 2002
 1 out of 1 found this review helpful

Wayne Coffey not only knows sports but he knows how to write tight, action packed chapters. This story moves. Interpersed with backgrounds on the team members, the history of deaf culture, the story tracks the team through an incredible season. I am not an avid basketball fan nor did I have any particular interest in deaf culture, but this book captured my interest from the first page and held it throughout.

A rare find.


Great Book!   April 25, 2002
 1 out of 1 found this review helpful

Beautifully written that, at turns, is funny, touching, fascinating and absorbing. I read it at a single sitting.
Such wonderful character studies of the players, their families and the world of Gallaudet. If you like basketball, if you like visiting other cultures or if you just like stories that bring people to life, you'll love this book. Highly recommended.


Inspirational and Compelling   April 3, 2002
 2 out of 2 found this review helpful

This book is so good I couldnt stop reading it! It's an inspirational story about human nature, what it takes to be the best and something I knew nothing about previously...deaf culture. It's a well written, must read for anyone who has ever worked hard for something...hearing or deaf.