Gallaudet’s Emotional Ride Nears End

Craig Stouffer, The Examiner
November 4, 2006

WASHINGTON – Gallaudet linebackers and brothers Josh and Calvin Doudt
still aren’t in total agreement about their support of protests that
culminated in this week’s firing of school president Jane Fernandes.

“Half-and-half for me,” said Josh, a freshman.

“He’s stupid,” said his sophomore older brother Calvin, jokingly.

But both agree on their love of football, and through teammate J.J.
Damas as interpreter, used the same word to describe the end of the
Bison season: “Sad.”

On Sunday, Gallaudet (6-1) goes on the road to face the Bridgewater
junior varsity in its final game in 2006, a season that in many ways
was more exhausting off the field than on it.

“It’s not something I’ve ever been through or ever want to go
through again,” said Bison head coach Ed Hottle, who did as much as
he could to stay neutral politically while still coming to work every
day and helping his team to succeed in its second year as a club
program before it moves to Division III next fall.

“He just supported our decisions, our actions. He wanted us to do the
right thing,” said Calvin Doudt, a team captain and one of the
team’s biggest supporters of the student protests.

Josh Doudt said more than half the team participated in the protests at
some point. Some players helped to block the campus gates and shut down
the school on Oct. 11.

The weekend before the players did their best to push aside what was
happening back on campus, but lost their first game in two seasons,
18-15, on the road at Becker.

The following weekend, with the campus shut down, a home game against
Williamson Trade was postponed and eventually canceled, the only game
the Bison missed this season. The players feared the season might be
over, but Hottle said there was never a plan to cancel the season.

A few players were pulled out of school by their parents, but the team
missed only a couple days of practice and coaches helped Gallaudet move
its homecoming game to the Maryland School for the Deaf in Frederick.

“That showed that they really cared about us,” said Calvin Doudt,
who said he’d prefer all football and no school. “As soon as the
season is over, I’m just glad I don’t miss any more games.”

The Bison have won their last two games without giving up an offensive
touchdown.

“Regardless of their political opinions,” said Hottle during
practice this week, “they seemed to be able to put it away while they
were out here.”

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