Gallaudet's 1999–2000 team came close to an NCAA Division III championship with the combined talent of its dedicated ballplayers and their coach, Kitty Baldridge, then a 25-year veteran. Coffey, a sportswriter for the New York Daily News, explores a college sports culture that operates on separate sensory terms: students and parents roar in the stands with their hands; players sign the set plays and swear at referees. Through this courtside sociology of deaf athletes, Coffey slowly burrows into Gallaudet college basketball until deafness is less alien than the big egos of Division I and the salaries of the NBA. He builds a pyramid of court action, game bus rides, personality profiles and sidebars on Gallaudet (in Washington, D.C.) school history. Coffey is capable of deft finger rolls of prose as he describes such players as Ronda Jo Miller and Moroccan point guard Touria Ouahid. A great story in a good storyteller's hands, this volume is a refreshing read for the basketball fan. Coaches everywhere would do well to visit this account of women's play whenever they need a reminder of the passion that keeps players late in the gym. (Mar.)
