BRAD COHEN
Does Not Know When to Say Out
Brad Cohen, now a graduate of California School for the Deaf at Riverside, was featured in the September/October 1996 issue of Jewish Deaf Community Center newsletter.
He was just coming off the baseball tryouts at the Deaf Sports Festival where he made the team in the development group, and was ready to get into his football licks at Riverside.
How did his senior season pan out? Not quite the way he had hoped it would be but it wasn’t exactly a dull moment for him -yes, a season of ups and downs but not unexciting.
In football, Brad had the misfortune of playing for one of the worst Riverside teams in memory – he played his heart out as defensive back and as combination running back/wide receiver as his team eked out just one win, a 8-6 victory in overtime and losing 46-12 to the much-hated Fremont team. As Brad didn’t like the way the coach was directing the team he did not hesitate to speak his mind – for this he paid the ultimate price, a seat on the bench for one game before being restored in good graces. The season left his body badly aching and bruised.
Brad was planning to go out for basketball, fully aware he would not play much because of an infusion of talented transfer students that would ultimately qualify the school for the state playoffs. He was faced with a choice – to play basketball and to sit on the bench or to go for wrestling, a sport he never participated before and to get all the mat time he could get his hands on. Still he was leaning towards basketball when at the eleventh hour, the best judgement got the better of him, effecting a switch to wrestling.
He didn’t do so badly for a novice wrestler in his final and only season of competition – after losing the first match Brad learned fast and won the majority of his matches, enroute to a satisfactory 17-7 season. He pinned 12 of his opponents. Included among the wins was a league championship and a spot in the state championships. His wrestling weight fluctuated between 119 lbs and 125 lbs, rather undernourished for a boy that normally weighs 135 lbs! He had to “starve” himself to go down in weight as better and more experienced wrestlers were occupying his normal weight divisions.. What about the hated Fremont opponent? Well it took him just a minute to pin the hapless Fremont foe.
Wrestling was fun but as with football, Brad was pretty much beat up – swollen elbow, sore shoulder and twisted foot – all of which didn’t stand him in good stead when he came out for baseball.
Baseball was his best sport, as he is a two-time Silent News Deaf Baseball All-American at second base. And his team was coming off a winning season in 1996 in which they were named as the Deaf Baseball Team of the Year by the Silent News.
And yet in baseball he got the shock of his life. Expecting to play second base again, his natural position, he became the team catcher for lack of someone else capable of handling the pitchers. Normally catchers are big and burly, and be rugged enough to withstand home plate collisions, but not Brad, all 135-lbs of him.
Poor Brad had to catch every single inning in each game. And he is not a pitcher, either but when Riverside ran out of pitchers in the Big Doubleheader against Fremont, Brad had to take a turn on the mound! Riverside, with a good pitcher, won the first game 9-7, but the second game, without a real pitcher, was a disaster, losing 25-4. The team, out of pitchers, had Brad pitch the mop up innings. Facing eight Fremont batters, he struck out five!
Now that his athletic days at Riverside is over, Brad has been accepted at NTID (National Technology Institute of the Deaf in Rochester,N.Y.). The feeling is that Brad will continue sports after Riverside.
