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 againstWilliamson 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.”
