Riverside deaf school football players’ trip to Super Bowl LVI an ‘indescribable’ moment

The Los Angeles Rams weren’t the only winners at Super Bowl LVI in Inglewood on Sunday.

“I had goosebumps, being at the Super Bowl, and knowing I am among the representatives of the deaf community, knowing that I was showing that deaf people in the world are capable of accomplishing great things,” Trevin Adams, 17, a junior at California School for the Deaf, Riverside, signed in a video on Monday after the game. “Wow, the feeling during that moment is just indescribable.”

Adams, along with his three co-captains of the school’s varsity football team, were invited to witness the coin toss prior to Sunday’s game between the Rams and the Cincinnati Bengals. The invitation followed a historic season for the Cubs, when the school’s football team played CIF Southern Section championship game for the first time in its 68-year history.

And if the Cubs fell short, falling 74-22 in the Division 2 final against San Fernando Valley’s Faith Baptist, the team’s story had reached fans across the country, leading to invitations to SoFi Stadium as guests of the Los Angeles Chargers in November, an appearance on Kelly Clarkson’s television show (which included receiving $25,000 to upgrade the school’s stadium) and, finally, an invite for Adams and co-captains Christian Jimenez, Jory Valencia and Enos Zornoza to watch the coin toss before the game on Sunday.

“Wow, look at all those fans in the bleachers!” Valencia said in a video of Sunday’s event.

“This is unreal!” Jimenez agreed.

All but two graduating seniors are expected to play for the Cubs again next year. Adams said Monday that the team has unfinished business.

“I’ve played football since I was 7 years old,” he said. “My dream has not been attained yet, which is to be fully undefeated with a final championship title.”

This year, the Cubs almost made it, finishing the season 12-1 after losing to Faith Baptist.

Still, Adams was conscious of what it meant for he and his teammates to be at the Super Bowl.

“Our deaf community is very small,” he said. “To be able to represent that has been truly inspiring.”

According to a 2006 study published by the National Institutes of Health, there are about 1 million deaf people living in the United States.

“That game is something I will always remember for the rest of my life,” Adams concluded. “I am a 49ers fan, but because I am from Southern California, it was good for the Rams to have won this year.”

Source: Orange County Register