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1) The Deaf Women's Basketball Team Battled to the End During the intense training period, apart from having to go through the strict training, the players of the Deaf Women's Basketball Team were sometimes faced with struggles with themselves. After all, they were not professionals. In the highly intensive training for the 2009 Deaflympics, they suffered sport injuries in addition to the need to spare time from their work or study. This was really an exhaustive process! No wonder some of the players chose to quit in the later stages one after another like the domino effect. For the players that stuck to the end of this long and hard training, the support and encouragement from the renowned professional coaching staff and their families were indispensable.
In the book "Rookies, Fly Faster", there was a section about a player of the Deaf Women's Basketball Team, Pei Chou. When she made a mistake on the court and cried so hard that she almost broke down, her mother came to her with a carefully prepared healing tonic soup and listened to her complaints, which gave her the courage to go on. The friendship and encouragement between the members of the Deaf Women's Basketball Team were also vital. For example, Pei Chou and Hsuan-hsuan were athletes for both the "beach volleyball" and "basketball" categories in the 2009 Deaflympics. When Pei Chou was severely injured, Hsuan-hsuan was sad and her eyes were swollen from crying. At that time, Pei Chou grabbed her hand and comforted her, saying: "Please work even harder for me!" Chia-mi Kuo, a player competing in three events (discus throw, orienteering and basketball) in the Deaflympics joined the basketball team at the last phase. But given her great strength and sturdy build, she quickly became a major player in the Deaf Women's Basketball Team. In the beginning, however, she did not integrate well into the team. As a result, Wei-ling Hsu, another player that was made the point guard, had to cooperate fully with her. Although one of them was suffering from slight hearing loss and communicated with others mainly orally while the other was heavily hearing-impaired and used mainly sign language, they managed to develop an unspoken understanding with one another via basketball.
The players who stayed told the people who quit: "Congratulations for leaving hell. But those who stay will rise to heaven." Ms. Teng, the coach, also encouraged them: "Those people quit the team because they could not make it through like you. So you must prove to them with your actions." In the last game of the Deaflympics, they beat the Hong Kong team with high scores and achieved the first victory for the Team since establishment. Since then, they have become better and better at the games. The "assembled vehicle" in the past has transformed itself into an "armored tank". In the 2014 DIBF Asia Pacific Cup held in South Korea, the Chinese Taipei Deaf Women's Basketball Team won the championship after defeating the Japanese and South Korean teams. In the 2015 World Deaf Basketball Championships in Taoyuan, they also ranked first in the Asian region.
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2) Charity Bazaar for the New Book Although the Deaflympics in Taipei was over, there is still one team that has not been discharged. Instead, it is more unified than ever. It is the Ling Yang Team of the Deaf Women's Basketball. With the 2009 Deaflympics in Taipei as the background and utilizing on everything small and substantial since the development of the team, including those intensive training and the Games, these girls wrote a book titled "Rookies, Fly Faster" together. In this book, they expressed their gratification and respect to the coaches, described the difficulties they encountered in communications with the coaches, as well as how mutual trust and consideration were built between them afterwards and made them a stronger team. This book is a record of joys and sorrows of the training, and how the Deaflympics has transformed the players in the process. The book is written to encourage the players who join them afterwards, and to enhance understanding of the Team for people in the society so that hearing-impaired persons in general could be better accepted.
In order to publish the book at their own expenses without the help of parents and relatives, these girls, amateur but full of ideals, launched a charity bazaar. They hoped that through this event, the hearing-impaired persons, as well as the Ling Yang Team of the Deaf Women's Basketball could get more support from the society. In the charity sales, they attracted children and adults to play games for NT$30 each time. The prizes of these games were unused items from their homes. This event, therefore, not only helped with the publicity, but also served as an act of resource recycling. In this event, the most difficult part was to get the children to feel how’s it like to be deaf, and teach them to read lips, so that children could experience the feeling of communicating with the deaf and learn through the game. In addition, the DVDs of "Power in 2009", a documentary film by Ms. Wen-ching Lin telling the story of the Deaf Women's Basketball Team, were also a part of the charity sales. The revenue from the charity sales was donated to the Chinese Taipei Sports Association of the Deaf so that more people with hearing loss could have the opportunity to demonstrate themselves in life!
From simply attracted by the title of a player in the national team, to being clear of their goals, to walking out from their small world into the crowd and communicate with others, these girls may not be beautiful in appearance and even somewhat slurred in speech and find communication difficult. Deep in their heart, though, they are all pure and aggressive, working hard to achieve their dream as a team. These players have changed a lot in the process: some of them begin to try things they would never have dared to; some of them begin to come to terms with their deficiencies; some of them even go so far as to search for younger players, hoping to win a better title in the next game. Their pursuit of dream is still on going. The process might be difficult and painful, but this is how they can keep hopes alive. Reference: |
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