Many athletes will claim that they don’t hear a thing when they are on the playing field.

They don’t hear the fans, the hecklers, or the heavy run of the encroaching linebacker.

Athletes call this finding the zone. Plenty of the great ones find this zone every Saturday to help lead their teams to victory.

There is one particular school in Mississippi that is no different, except they will never hear the shotgun-pop of a hard hit, the shrill whistle of a referee, or the crowd’s enthusiasm with a great play and there is plenty of crowd enthusiasm as this school is undefeated with a 10-game winning streak, while looking for its second championship in just as many years with one of the best athletes in the state.

This school may never hear the praise for their dominating performances on the football field, but the Mississippi School of the Deaf will gladly knock their opponents into the grass and score nearly 50 points a game as one of the most dominating eight-man football teams in the country.

Just ask one of their best players, Vicksburg native Ro’Derrick Brown, who, when asked about one of his favorite memories of the season, said through his interpreter and teacher Lynn Cox, “Beating the public school (Open Door Christian in Tuscaloosa, Ala., a hearing school) because it was no problem.”

Brown cut to the truth quicker than he cuts to the hole.

Which is quick, considering that in four games he has rushed for 939 yards, 17 rushing touchdowns, 13 two point conversions, a punt return for a TD, a kick return for a touchdown, an interception return for a score and 35 tackles on defense.

And he is only a freshman.

“He’s a great kid, very intelligent kid. Just a specimen to look at as far as an athlete. He’s only a freshman and has three years left to play,” Bulldogs coach Joe Thrasher said. “Ro’Derrick could be one of the best players ever to come out of this school.

“He makes my job a lot easier.”

But what makes the Bulldogs such a dominating team is that Brown is not just a solo act in one of the greatest shows not on turf.

“I always stress family with these guys. They go to battle together and they have a lot of deaf pride. They play for a school and they play for a state. We travel an SEC schedule,” Thrasher said, referring to the school’s schedule featuring Georgia, Louisiana, Tennessee and North Carolina. “These kids have a reputation wherever they go.

“But it is a team effort. Ro’Derrick wouldn’t be what he is without these other guys.”

Brown’s supporting cast includes players like junior quarterback Brandon Miner, who has had college coaches visit practice just to watch him play, or fullback Paul Biggs, whose uncle was enshrined in the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame for his play in the NFL, and Brown’s 15-year-old nephew Cortland Clay, who Thrasher says is a “great athlete and a incredible football player.” Clay had 14 tackles in MSD’s 72-20 win over the Georgia School for the Deaf on Saturday.

“I hate to brag on my kids, but Ro’Derrick and Paul are probably two of the best linebackers in the state, and I’ll put my money on it,” Thrasher said.

By winning three championships in eight years, the Bulldogs have left little doubt that they can play the game of football. They have rings comparable to those worn by Super Bowl champions for the 2001 title they won last year.

But many football followers would think it impossible to play without being able to hear the game around them. It is a wonder that the Bulldogs can even do something as elementary as the quarterback-center exchange.

“Done by touch,” said Arness Georgetown, coach of two Bulldog championships in ’93 and ’95, before the program was shut down due to a lack of players. He returned last year as dean of students and an assistant coach. “And the thing about deaf players compared to hearing players is their peripheral vision. They have good peripheral vision.

“When that football is snapped, then they go.”

Anyone that has been to a football game may take for granted that the sound of a referee’s whistle can often orchestrate a football game.

“It’s a funny thing because sometimes we get where referees are blowing the whistles and the kids are still hitting. But for the most part that comes down to control, because they look up,” Georgetown said. “Again, vision.”

Players receive the play call from the sidelines in much the same way. Though, just like any other competing football team, deaf schools have to be careful that their opponents don’t intercept their plays. After all, the football huddle was originated at Gallavdet, the University of the Deaf in Washington D.C.

“And the thing about that, when we’re playing against other deaf schools, we have our coaches between towers because we don’t want people to catch our signals,” Georgetown said. “When we’re playing against a hearing school we don’t need the towers because they don’t know what we’re saying anyway.”

And neither did the Bulldog coaches when they first started coaching the team.

Georgetown became familiar with the school because his fraternity at Jackson State required their members to do community service. When he became the Bulldog coach he “didn’t know one sign,” but learned on road trips by sitting in the back of the bus and learning from his players.

Thrasher was an Fellowship of Christian Athletes counselor and for three straight camps his groups were primarily composed of deaf children. But when he took over the coaching reins, he didn’t know sign language.

“I just started learning, I was motivated,” Thrasher said. “They’ll tell you, Coach teaches me football, we teach him sign language.’

“These kids are my life, I love them, they’re my family.”

And quite a football family they have become.

The Bulldogs have become so dominant that two games canceled due to weather have yet to be rescheduled. Whether this is from intimidation or travel distance, the Bulldogs couldn’t fathom.

“I don’t know, but we will play East North Carolina,” Clay said, referring to the team’s last game of the year. “It’s going to be hard. We heard that team was going to be hard, but we’re ready.”

In the school’s rivalry game on Saturday, the Mississippians had no trouble with their Georgia counterparts. Brown’s statistics from that game were staggering: 222 rushing yards five touchdowns (61, 45, 19, 14 and 3), 3 two-point conversions and a 48-yard interception return.

Clay said Wednesday of the Georgia school, “They beat us last year, but this year is our turn.”

They then turn their attention to their Homecoming game against Arkansas before closing the season against EN Carolina. But regardless who they play, Brown will speak for the team when he says that the end result is all that matters.

“National championship.”