Column: ‘Let him play.' How one deaf, autistic basketball player changed Cerritos College

'Put him in, coach!' With barely a minute remaining in a blowout of Porterville College in mid-December, Cerritos College basketball coach Russ May...

March 15, 2023
3:06 AM

'Put him in, coach!' With barely a minute remaining in a blowout of Porterville College in mid-December, Cerritos College basketball coach Russ May was faced with a heart-tugging dilemma. 'C'mon coach, let him play!' Sitting at the end of his bench was Kade West, a 20-year-old who is deaf and autistic. His hands were folded in prayer. He was silently pleading to play in his first game. West had been hanging around the fringes of the junior college team for more than a year, trying to impress, hoping to belong, shooting countless shots each day at a rickety basket in the alley behind his house, showing up for every practice at the Cerritos gym and playing until it had emptied.

Bill Plaschke