Broussard, LAAD to play in SW Deaf tournament

Love of the game
Coteau resident Chantel Broussard, deaf since birth, coaches and plays on the Lafayette Athletic Association for the Deaf co-ed softball team that will compete in a regional tournament in El Paso, Texas, next month.

Posted: Sunday, June 19, 2011 6:00 am | Updated: 11:32 pm, Sat Jun 18, 2011.
BY CHRIS LANDRY, The Daily Iberian

Chantel Broussard has loved softball and baseball since she was a little girl playing T-ball at the Air Base in New Iberia.

The game is really no different for Broussard and her Lafayette Athletic Association of the Deaf softball teammates than it is for teams whose players can hear — except, of course, most of the players on the LAAD co-ed team can’t hear the cheers of the fans, Broussard said through interpreter Katie Romero Botts on Friday.

Broussard and her team are preparing for the South West Softball Association of the Deaf Tournament scheduled for July 7-9 in El Paso, Texas, and for the subsequent National Softball Association of the Deaf tournament in Dallas from Aug. 1-13. After three years as a player on the LAAD women’s team, she became a player-coach this year for the co-ed team that was formed because there were not enough players to form individual men’s and women’s teams for the tournaments.

Deaf players can see fans clapping, Broussard said through the interpreter, but can’t hear them. So fans of deaf teams, often deaf themselves or relatives of deaf players, raise both hands above their heads and wave them to cheer. Other than that, the game is basically the same.

“The teams are all deaf and they sign,” said Broussard. Umpires are usually deaf too, though there are some hearing umps for the games, who themselves know sign language.

Broussard, 35, is able to read lips and had no communication problems when playing in Little League games at the Air Base as a child, she said. She couldn’t play in high school because Louisiana School for the Deaf in Baton Rouge, her alma mater, didn’t have a softball team.

As an adult she’s played in family tournaments alongside daughter Alicia, 14, in Coteau, where she lives with fiance Toby Landry and their kids. She was told about the LAAD women’s team by friends.

“Everyone asked me if I wanted to play,” said Broussard.

The answer was a definite “Yes.”

“I love it,” she said. “I love softball.”

LAAD teams have fared well at the South West tournament in her four years with the squads, finishing fifth two years ago when the tournament was in Oklahoma, and winning the sportsmanship award the same year; then placing fourth in the tournament in Mississippi the following year. Next year’s regional tournament will be in Bossier City, with nationals in Las Vegas, something Broussard eagerly looks forward to.

She’s also looking forward to playing softball with her daughter in a couple of years when Alicia becomes eligible to play for the LAAD team at age 16. Alicia, like her mother, was born deaf, and will enroll at the Louisiana School for the Deaf in the fall. She attended Iberia Middle School this year.

“She also loves baseball,” said Broussard, adding that she wants her daughter to follow in her footsteps. “She’s been playing for a long time.”

Broussard said that next year, LAAD will again split its teams up into men’s and women’s groups, and also will field a co-ed team. This year, a lot of the players had new jobs and couldn’t play, so the teams were combined.

“I said I wanted to be the coach because everyone else works, and they do fundraising and so on, so I wanted to help out,” said Broussard.

The team must pay a $125 team fee, plus each player pays a $20 fee, for the South West tourney. The team fee for nationals is $200, said Broussard, so the team is looking for funds to help pay for the cost of both the fees and for hotels, food and other expenses. Checks can be made out to LAAD, with deadline for donations on July 1.

LAAD is a non-profit organization. Broussard can be reached by phone, through a relay service, at 337-376-0227.

Because players are from a wide area — Lafayette, Abbeville, Lake Charles, Monroe — the team practices only every two weeks. There are 20 members, including 17 players and three who serve as water girls, scorebook keepers, base coaches, and whatever else is needed.

Broussard said she’s enjoyed past tournaments, especially getting to meet other players. Each trip is like a mini-vacation lasting three to four days, though softball is the main focus.

She’s also done some bowling with the LAAD, but that’s not her first love as far as sports goes.

“I’ve done some bowling,” said Broussard. “I’ve played basketball but not for a few years. I just like softball better than bowling,” adding with a smile, “When I get older maybe I’ll bowl.”
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