By George Breazeale
American-Statesman Staff
Texas School for the Deaf, which won 10 consecutive games before losing in the Texas Association of Private Schools 1986 state semifinals, has won its third national championship for deaf high schools, Coach Walt Camenisch announced Wednesday.
The Rangers, 10-0 in regular season, also placed two players on the All-America deaf school first team. Mark Valimont, a 165-pound junior offensive guard, and Roger Navejar, a 160-pound senior defensive back, were first team selections; Brian Thorn, a 155-pound senior running back-linebacker, and Aaron Trotter, a 160-pound senior quarterback, received honorable mention. Thorn was a TAPS first team all-stater on both offense and defense, and Navejar made all-state as a defensive back.
Although the national crown is TSD's first in three decades, Valimont and Navejar continued a string of All-America players at the school. Lineman Mitchell Stock wa a 1985 first-team pick, and running back Leftly Lincoln was a first-teamer in 1983 and 1984.
TSD's 1986 team averaged 45.3 points per game during the regular season while allowing only 9.8 per game. The Rangers were 3-0 in TAPS District 5 play.
"We're tremendously proud of this team," said Camenisch, who took over the TSD program in 1983. "The other two national champions here at TSD, in 1947 and 1957, are legends, and it is a thrill to the players on our 1986 team to join them."
TSD was selected from among 24 deaf school teams whose 1986 season records were submitted to the National Deaf School Association. Alabama School for the Deaf (7-1) was ranked second; Model School for the Deaf in Washington, D.C. (8-1-1) was third.
The national title was TSD's third in four years. Ranger boys track and field teams were awarded national crowns in 1983, 1984 and 1985.
Source: Austin American-Statesman, Thursday, January 15, 1987
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