The high school football season kicks off tonight, ending the summer speculation and bringing with it my favorite season of the year.

The elite teams and players will separate themselves in the next three months, but a recent trip to watch Baylor practice reminded me of why I enjoy the prep game more than any other level.

You can’t fake heart or passion, and Baylor’s Chuck Hudson has a truckload.

Hudson is competing for the Red Raiders’ starting quarterback job. The fact he is on the field at all is an inspiration that reaches far beyond football.

Hudson was born with an underdeveloped lower right leg. He has no ligaments in his right knee and little flexibility in his ankle, and that foot is smaller than his left. When he breaks the huddle and steps to the line with a pronounced limp, his parents anxiously hold their breath and unfamiliar onlookers point and begin asking questions.

“I can feel people stare a lot, and I know they wonder what’s going on,” Hudson said. “People don’t expect to see me come out and take the snaps. But since I first started playing, I’ve tried to work harder than anybody to prove myself so nobody would look at me as any different.

“People say there are life lessons you learn from football. I didn’t see that until recently when I started thinking about everything I’ve overcome just to be a part of this team. I come from a strong Christian background. I used to think, ‘Why me?’ but I realized God is going to use what I have to go through to glorify Him. I think he has me playing football for a reason.”

Shortly after Hudson was born, his parents were given the news that he would have to overcome long odds to enjoy a fully active life. He went through one surgery before he was a year old and has had four more since, including two excruciating leg-lengthening procedures. The last of those still causes him to grimace, four years later, just at the memory.

But shortly after he began attending Baylor in the sixth grade, Chuck announced to his family that he would be playing football.

“There are a hundred other things his mom and me would rather he be doing,” said Chuck’s dad Jimmy, a receiver on Baylor’s 1973 national championship team. “But football has always been Chuck’s love, and we support him. He’s every American boy that loves football.

“When he was born, we got the kind of news no parent wants to hear. We deal with it now, but then the unknown was a lot tougher. He’s done all of this on his own. He’s a real testimony.”

Hearing stories of his dad’s and three uncles’ playing days at Baylor created in Chuck a dream to wear the red and silver uniform on Friday nights.

In my 18 years of covering local prep sports, this is the best collection of college prospects our area has had going into a season. But the best part of high school football for me has nothing to do with who has the most recruiting stars by their name. It’s still the purity of the game, and kids like Chuck Hudson who play for all the right reasons.

“Chuck is a kid that is a model for courage, commitment and competitive drive,” Baylor coach Phil Massey said. “There are days when we’re doing agilities (drills) and I know his leg is hurting, but he refuses to stop or take a break. He gets through on raw determination.

“His presense is a constant reminder to our kids. He has the full respect of every player out there — and every coach. Chuck is a winner in the sense that he will never stop trying.”

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