If you can't hear the referees’ whistles, the cheerleaders on the sidelines, or fans screaming in the stands, you must not be at a football game, right? Not the case at the Louisiana School for the Deaf, where the entire roster is either fully or partially deaf.

"We have 19 kids on our football team, which is pretty average size, and that's including a couple eighth graders.” LSD head football coach Darren Gremillion said.

”We do bring up an eighth grader if we think they have potential. We have about six kids that once the ball is kicked off they don't get off the field, except at halftime and when the final gun sounds.”

The gift of hearing is something that most other high school football players take for granted. While most would view being deaf as a disadvantage, these players and coaches view it as just another aspect of the game.

"If you lose one of your senses, another one becomes more acute,” Darren Gremillion said. “I think they rely a lot on their sight. The offense team has to watch the ball. The defensive team has to watch the ball. Everything is on ball movement.”

“It’s tough when you are trying to run a defensive scheme,” LSD assistant football coach Susan Gremillion said. “You're trying to get all the kids to look at our defensive coordinator, and at the same time I am right underneath his armpit almost so that I can get my signs across and correct things for my position.”

For all the differences outsiders may think about, these young men still experience all the same excitement as every other prep football player in the state.

"Even though they cant hear they see the people in the bleachers.” Darren Gremillion said. “They see their arms being waved, they hear the vibrations of the fans stomping their feet. It really energizes our kids."

"These kids are just like any other kids,” LSD assistant football coach Noel Haynes said. “They sweat, they suffer, they have pains and Aches, and they enjoy the game of football.”