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Todd overcomes the odds
BY Chris O’Dell Staff Writer
When most high school athletes sign a letter of intent to play college sports, the event is a significant moment in that student’s life. For Plano Senior graduate Jake Todd, his signing with Brookhaven College was something much bigger.
“This is probably the biggest day of my life,” he said. “Knowing that I am finally playing ball in college is something I have always dreamed of.”
However, Todd’s story is far from your typical college signing day tale. That’s because Todd suffered a stroke at birth that doctors thought would keep him from ever walking.
“Many kids would have quit,” said Jack Todd, Jake’s father. “This kid never quit. But who am I to tell him what he can and can’t do? He has had to work twice as hard as everyone else has had to.”
Limited to playing with just one arm, Todd has exceeded all expectations in the game he loves most.
“The game just kind of fell to me and I fell in love with it,” he said. “Ever since I can remember I’ve always had the TV on baseball. I’ve always had a passion for it; it’s what keeps me going.”
A longtime Los Angeles Angels fan, Todd has always looked up to one former Angel in particular.
“I can think back to when Jake was 4-years-old,” Mr. Todd said. “And Jim Abbott’s poster was on Jake’s wall.”
Like Todd is doing now, Abbott overcame a major obstacle in his life and became a Major League Baseball player despite being born without a right hand. Todd said he has always admired Abbott for the things he has accomplished on and off the field.
“I’ve been watching video of [Abbott] and studying how he pitched and how he talked to people and inspired them,” he said. “I just wish I could be like him and follow in his footsteps.”
If the hard work and dedication is a sign of things to come then Todd may do just that. As a trainer for the Wildcats’ athletic department, Todd never missed a single practice. Plano head football coach Jaydon McCullough, who taught Todd in U.S. History, said he has never had a trainer or a student quite like Todd.
“He’s the kind of kid that I believe by the way he lives his life, he makes everybody around him better,” McCullough said. “I’ve never once heard him complain. He always tries to have an optimistic outlook on life, and I think if everyone had that same outlook their life would be a lot better.”
However, it’s not just in the classroom or as a trainer that Todd has excelled. It’s the early morning workouts each and every day, it’s the continuous studying of the game of baseball, it’s the practice on the mound every week and it’s the life-long love of baseball that has Todd proving all his doubters wrong.
“He always has the right attitude in everything he does,” said Clark Penfold, Brookhaven head coach. “That shows you how he was raised, and I’m just really looking forward to getting to know him better in these next few months.”
Signing with Brookhaven has even more meaning to Todd and his family after Todd didn’t make the Wildcats varsity team as a junior or senior. But with the dedication and will to succeed, Todd has earned his opportunity on the mound for the Bears.
“If someone believes in you, they make you believe in yourself,” Mr. Todd said. “This is one reason I love the game of baseball. You can be tall, short, fat, have one hand or one eye and still play the game.”
Todd said he plans on pitching for Brookhaven for two or three years before possibly signing on at the University of Texas-Tyler. Although many might still doubt Todd’s ability, anyone who knows him knows you can’t always judge a book by its cover.
“This proves that dreams can come true,” Mr. Todd said. “If you want something so bad and you work at it, I mean really work at it, and believe it, then you can get it.”
This fall Todd won’t be finishing his lifelong dream, merely continuing it.
“If I could tell everyone that doubted me through the years anything,” Todd said. “I would tell them, ‘How do you like me now.’”
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