Indiana School for the Deaf football team has an undefeated season, first time in history

Renca: Indiana School for the Deaf (ISD) football team just had an undefeated season with 10-0. ISD’s athletic director Peter Leccese has informed us that this undefeated season is the first time that it has ever happened with the history of football at ISD.

[Photo credit: ISD Orioles]

[Video credit: ISD Orioles]

We reached out to ISD’s football team for an interview. In the interview, we have the athletic director/assistant coach, coach, and two senior football players, but they also want to add a special recognition for the other coach Shannon Smith who could not come to the interview. Here’s our interview.

Peter: In terms of how I’m feeling, it started back in the summer during off-season, we had the opportunity to be in a 7 man tournament where big public schools would play against smaller schools. Michael and I figured why not participate? It was our second year joining the program. Altogether it was 16 1A, 2A, and 3A small schools. We beat the other teams and won the tournament championship. We’d thought maybe we’d have a good season this year. So we started in the summer with the seniors, including Jayden and JQ, with seven or eight seniors committed to weight lifting through the entire summer off-season. And they really committed, running drills and plays. It was a great summer. Then for fall, Michael had written in the weight lifting room “10-0 how?” during the summer. And then once our fall season wrapped up, we went back into the weight lifting room and looked at that writing again with10-0. We did it! So that was an amazing feeling. It was so special, knowing how much we coaches invested and put in the hard work, and how much the guys invested back with their training, commitment, and planning. It wasn’t always easy. We had 17 players while other schools had bigger teams. Our team was smaller but they could all play, so I’m really proud that we were able to finish the season strong.

Renca: What was your goal for this year with your team? I know every year the coach always has goals for the season, what were they for you?

Michael: It takes a few spankings. The boys were all really fun and they kept their heads on straight. They were checked in with school. They played their hearts out. We knew they’d win plenty of games but to be undefeated, wow. When I wrote down “10-0 how?” on the board- it all started from there, and through all the twists and turns of the season they kept on winning. They did it. They’re a wonderful team.

Peter: Not only that, we had other factors working to our advantage this season. We had players who could play almost every position on the field like lineman, linebacker, etc. Jayden, you have a great arm, and we had three or four great wide receivers who can catch. We didn’t just have one player running everything, our wide receivers were spread out with receiving yards with 400, 400, 300, 400, all balanced. The talent was spread out so we had a great all around team, balanced skills which helped us win many games.

Jayden: I think our success came from off-season. We weigh lifted a lot. During the season, we would always be busy with other stuff and with school. But for off-seasons, we would get together and train during the summer, weigh lift together, talk about football together, get involved with 7 man matches, etc. All of that happened during off season and that is the key to success.

JQ: Our commitment too. That would be the key to success. You cannot show people that you want it without committing to it. If you want something that bad then you have to start committing to it now and not later.

Renca: What is your current feeling of being undefeated?

Jayden: Two things. First I’m amazed, it’s one of the best things that ever happened with the 10-0 win, being 8 man champs, and it is also my last one. It all feels good, but I also feel pretty down at the same time, you know? I am not going to have another chance to work with the coaches, and I love the coaches. They’ve been so good to me and helping me grow to be a better man and all that. So I’m sad too. My teammates are like my brothers and we have this brotherhood bond so I’m really going to miss that. That’s my two feelings.

JQ: Yeah. I never had this feeling with the brotherhood bond like the team I have now. Out of my four years, this was the year of brotherhood. I feel so inspired. We all were invested to this team mentally and I was blown away. Now, I have a story to tell my children that this was the best season.

Renca: Jayden and JQ, naturally I know you’re feeling great about this season but were there any challenges you can mention? What was one challenge you two had to overcome this season?

Jayden: A challenge was having 17 players, because if someone couldn’t show up or if they were sick, our practice would fall through because like its one of our wide receivers. And if a player can’t come to practice so this means we have to use our second string players to take over, change some stuff. Or maybe with the next practice that wide receiver comes back, but another player is missing. That would be the challenge with our players if they get sick or hurt because that impacts us.

JQ: I would say… Not playing with a full team was a challenge. You know, things would happen that would hurt the team. Having a full team kept the fire going, but even when the team was smaller we were still able to manage to beat other schools. That was amazing and says a lot about how good our team was.

Jayden: I’ll add too, with 17 players we were going up against teams with 40 players. Texas school for the Deaf for example has a huge team and MSSD too. They have plenty of players to switch with, but not ours- we had to keep going with who we had.

Renca: You had to persist, right.

Jayden: We all would play both sides, offense and defense and keep going with our spirit. Wow, it was tough for sure.

JQ: Some of the players were twice the size of us too.

Jayden: Oh yeah, big time.

JQ: Even though we were smaller we still managed to beat these teams. I think that’s proof that size doesn’t matter, it’s your mindset and your heart.

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Michael: I want to thank the Deaf community here at the Indiana School for the Deaf for their commitment in supporting us. ISD has been really really good for our boys. They make sure all the boys stay in school. They check in with them. Now I know they’ll all do well for themselves after graduation because of the school so I’m grateful to the school for that. And I’m grateful for their parents too, they deserve recognition for all their support as well.

Peter: I want to make a point too, me as an athletic director, to say nothing is impossible. Through all the challenges we faced, your obstacles, we always had that idea at the core of it: 10-0 how? Every problem or issue we faced, every improvement we made, it was for the “how.” We didn’t let ourselves get stuck, and that’s my advice to other schools. Always consider how, how can we solve this? How can we figure it out, improve, and work together? Always think of how and you’ll find yourself coming up with many different solutions. I feel that applied to this season for sure, we were always troubleshooting everything and digging deep to answer the question of how. So that’s what it is, nothing’s impossible.

Jayden: I think for other younger athletes or really anyone, if you have a big goal that you want to achieve, start now. Don’t wait, start now.

JQ: Personally I want to thank my mom, and really all the parents of the football team for letting us play football. I want to thank my coaches, Michael and Shannon (who is not here right now) for doing so much for us, for pushing our limits even on the days we were sick of it. In the end it was so worth it. My quote of the day is keep going up. The goal is never to go lower, you always want to be on top. Everything you do, do it to keep going up until you hit your goal.

Renca: Thank you all for your time. Both of the seniors Jayden and JQ mentioned that they are interested in playing football for Gallaudet University after they graduate. The Daily Moth wants to congratulate the ISD football team for an undefeated season.

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