{"id":9336,"date":"2025-04-29T15:46:35","date_gmt":"2025-04-29T22:46:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/?p=9336"},"modified":"2025-04-29T15:46:35","modified_gmt":"2025-04-29T22:46:35","slug":"palomar-college-professor-selected-as-u-s-deaf-olympics-head-coach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/palomar-college-professor-selected-as-u-s-deaf-olympics-head-coach\/","title":{"rendered":"Palomar College Professor Selected as U.S. Deaf Olympics Head Coach"},"content":{"rendered":"

Palomar College students might just know David Hamilton as an American Sign Language Assistant Professor, but he also has a lifelong love of basketball that led to five gold medals in the Deaflympics<\/a> and a recent selection as the head coach of the U.S. Deaflympics basketball team.<\/p>\n

Hamilton said he learned his love of the game from his father, who was also deaf.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince I was four years old, I remember my dad playing basketball. I was fascinated by watching him move and play on the court,\u201d Hamilton said through an interpreter. \u201cI fell in love with basketball, and I\u2019ve been in love with it ever since.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hamilton\u2019s family is a mixture of deaf and hearing people. In addition to his father, his grandmother was deaf, and a sister and brother are deaf. His mother can hear, along with another sister. One of his daughters is deaf, while another daughter and a son can hear.<\/p>\n

In traditional basketball, the referee\u2019s whistle determines calls and when fouls have occurred. Hamilton said that in deaf basketball, referees raise their hand to make calls.
\n\u201cDeaf people are heavily dependent on their vision,\u201d he said. \u201cInstead of hearing, we focus all our attention on what we see. It\u2019s just natural to see a hand go up and stop.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hamilton never let his deafness hold back his love for basketball. He was chosen to play basketball in the Deaflympics when he was a 17-year-old high school student, playing along other team members in their 20s. The U.S. basketball team that he played on won the gold medal five times.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe U.S. team was so strong. No country could compete with us,\u201d he said. Hamilton was chosen to be a flagbearer for the U.S. team during the 1997 Deaflympics held in Denmark. A month after that honor, his son was born.<\/p>\n

Hamilton won his fifth gold medal during the 2001 Deaflympics held in Rome, then started coaching for the team beginning in 2005. He stepped away from coaching for several years, but when he watched the Olympics in Paris, he got the itch to return to the sport.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw the hearing Olympics, and I realized I miss basketball, and I wanted to get back into it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Hamilton was selected as head coach of the U.S. basketball team and will be preparing the players to participate in the Deaflympics being held in Tokyo, Japan this fall. Each member of the team is required to raise funds to participate in the Deaflympics, which can prevent some highly qualified athletes from attending.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe players feel so honored to be picked, but we have to fundraise,\u201d he said. \u201cWe do not get support from the government or sports organizations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hamilton said the Deaflympics is an opportunity for deaf athletes to express their love of basketball.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s fun for them to compete and they love the peer support,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re representing their country, and they can really show their skills. They want to win a medal and show their pride.\u201d More information is available on this exciting sport, visit the USA Deaf Basketball website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Palomar College students might just know David Hamilton as an American Sign Language Assistant Professor, but he also has a lifelong love of basketball that led to five gold medals in the Deaflympics and a recent selection as the head coach of the U.S. Deaflympics basketball team. Hamilton said he learned his love of the… \u00a0Continue Reading: Palomar College Professor Selected as U.S. Deaf Olympics Head Coach<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10665,"featured_media":9338,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19,9,23,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-carousel","category-features","category-home","category-slider"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nPalomar College Professor Selected as U.S. Deaf Olympics Head Coach - Palomar News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/palomar-college-professor-selected-as-u-s-deaf-olympics-head-coach\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Palomar College Professor Selected as U.S. Deaf Olympics Head Coach - Palomar News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Palomar College students might just know David Hamilton as an American Sign Language Assistant Professor, but he also has a lifelong love of basketball that led to five gold medals in the Deaflympics and a recent selection as the head coach of the U.S. Deaflympics basketball team. 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