Football is a richly audible experience: the crashing of helmets, the crunch of a tackle, teammates shouting from the sidelines and the roaring approval of the crowd. Friday night games at the Riverside campus are not totally silent, but they are not boisterous either. The generators that power the lights hum and the crowd reacts with scattered claps. But there is no public address system, no play-by-play commentator to call out player’s names after a touchdown pass or run-stuffing tackle…

The American flag flies near the field, but there is no national anthem before the game. A sign-language interpreter hired by the school serves as an intermediary between the Cubs’ coaching staff and the game officials. Before the game on Friday, the interpreter reminded the officials to wave their hands when they blew whistles to stop a play.

For the coaching staff, the success of the team has undermined the longstanding stereotype that deafness is something to overcome in football.

Mr. Adams, who coached the team for two seasons starting in 2005 and began his second stint four years ago, attributes the turnaround to rigorous conditioning and an especially talented cohort of players, some of whom have played together for years at lower levels.