Houston Chronicle by Jenny Dial Creech 7/10/2019
A few parents, a couple of coaches and a handful of football players sat on bleachers with a tin roof over them on Houston’s northwest side Wednesday afternoon.
Giant tumblers full of ice water sat on the hot metal, along with gym towels and T-shirts.
And on the ground next to the bleachers lay two bright red tennis shoes attached to prosthetic legs.
Not wanting them to get too hot, Mike Hodge picked up the prosthetics and moved them to the shade. After all, his son Calder would have to put them back on as soon as practice ended.
On the field, Calder pranced between yard lines, standing tall on a pair of running blades. He scrambled around looking for a receiver and made throw after throw, stopping to lift his blue T-shirt to wipe the sweat dripping from his face in the steamy Houston heat.
Calder, a 14-year-old from Tomball, was born without tibia bones in his legs and without opposable thumbs. His parents, Mike and Kayla, made the supremely tough decision to amputate Calder’s legs when he was 2 years old so he’d never remember a life of having them.
None of that stopped Calder from developing a deep passion for football. And despite all the surgeries, the judgments, the looks from strangers and the constant wave of naysaying, he isn’t letting anyone tell him he can’t play.
Normal upbringing
“I feel most normal when I’m playing football,†Calder said.
It’s been that way as long as he can remember.
The youngest of four boys, Calder watched his older brothers play football growing up. When he was 5, he asked Kayla if he could play.
More:
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/sports/columnists/dialcreech/article/Fazed-by-nothing-14-year-old-QB-plays-with-14091563.php
Calder Hodge works out at Blitz Football in northwest Houston. This fall, the 14-year-old
quarterback enters high school at Legacy School of Sports Sciences.
