Jimmy Newsome
Jimmy started his storied basketball career in Washington, D.C., where he played for the Diplomats (1979), a deaf basketball club, which led to his first AAAD championship. He played for the Hollywood Silent Recreation Club in 1981 to 1983 and then again from 1985 to 1992. He returned to the Diplomats in 1984 and joined Chicago in 1993. Jimmy received his first MVP award in 1981, but he then rampaged through 1982, 1983, 1985, 1986, 1992, for Hollywood Silent, and received the MOP award in 1990 and the 2nd Team All-Star award in 1989.
Jimmy was selected to be part of the Deaflympics team in 1981 (Köln), 1985 (Los Angeles) and 1997 (Copenhagen). He also chaired for the 1994 (Cleveland H.S.) & 2006 (Las Vegas) FAAD Regional Tournaments. He became president of FAAD, which was “WDB” during his presidency, in 2006. He served as the Men’s BPAC Representative for Deaf National Basketball. He ended his playing days with Dynamingle as a coach/player in 2011. Jimmy played 23 years’ worth of FAAD regional deaf club basketball tournaments, including 15 FAAD champions (10 with Hollywood and 5 with Riverside/Dynamingle), 6 MVP awards, 1 MOP award, and Coach of the Year. He also won 6 AAAD championships and was voted the MVP three times. He led in scoring for AAAD.
Jimmy coached high school basketball and won the Western States Basketball Classic tournaments three times in a row. He was the head coach for the USA deaf men’s basketball team during the World Deaf Basketball Championships in Poland in 2019 and won the gold medal. He is a certificated USA GOLD Coach. He has taught Physical Education at California School for the Deaf, Riverside, for the past 20 years. He has a bachelor’s degree in physcial education and a master’s degree in deaf education.
He resides in Moreno Valley, California, with his family.