(Photo via wacotrib.com)

Last July, USA Football published a blog about Ricardo Benitez, a 4-foot, 2-inch Plano (Texas) West High School student who played football for the Wolves despite being diagnosed with Femur Hypoplasia Bilateral. The condition resulted in a hole in his heart and no femur in either of his legs.

He overcame all of that to play football for Plano West as a senior, bench-pressing 225 pounds along the way (he weighed 105 pounds at the time).

He wasn’t finished. 

Now, Benitez plans to enroll at Baylor University and join the football team. 

Thank you God. 136% committed. pic.twitter.com/L6trX3Vr30

— Ricardo Benitez (@_ricardo_17) April 21, 2018

Benitez, who played in two games as a senior at Plano West, built a relationship with Baylor cornerbacks coach Fran Brown. After Benitez’s senior season ended, Brown asked Benitez if he’d like to join the team this fall.

“I want to thank both of my parents for not raising me as a kid with a disability,” Benitez wrote in his Twitter post. “It is the greatest gift you two could have ever given to me.”

How a trophy reunited two high school football teammates

The Luverne (South Dakota) High School football team won the Southwest Conference championship in 1974. As is the case with most team championships, the Cardinals received a large trophy for their efforts.

Shortly before Jon Bot and a few of his teammates gathered in Minnesota for a fishing trip, Bot’s friend Brian DeJongh sent him a text message with a photo of the trophy, which was available for sale at an antique shop.

“I saw the picture in the text but I didn’t understand why he was sending it to me,” Bot told the Argus Leader (Sioux Falls, South Dakota). “And where did he see it? An antique store? Why would such a valuable piece of hardware be in an antique store? I mean, how many football conference titles has Luverne won?”

He bought the trophy for $28, and brought it along on the fishing trip. Teammates who were on the fishing trip posed with it, then they passed it around to other former teammates.

“We want to get it into the hands of as many guys on that team as we can,” Bot said. “They can set it down on a table and show it to their kids and their grandkids and make up their own stories about that season.”

West Virginia high school team to have female head coach

When Hannan High School in Ashton, West Virginia takes the field Aug. 24 for its first game, it will do so with the first known woman to coach a high school football team in the state’s history.

Kellie Thomas has coached the school’s volleyball, girls’ basketball and girls’ track and field teams, and has also served as a physical education teacher and trainer during her 20 years in the school district. 

Kellie Thomas (photo via wvgazettemail.com)

She’s no stranger to football. Thomas was an athletic trainer for Marshall University’s 1992 NCAA Division I-AA national title-winning team. 

“It’s a real honor to be hired as the new football coach at Hannan,” Thomas told the Herald Dispatch (Huntington, West Virginia). “I appreciate the opportunity that I have been given. I’ve been around the game for many, many years. I was actually on the Marshall sidelines when we won the national title in 1992 and I grew up in a family with three older brothers that all played football at Point Pleasant.”

Heroic football team seeks funds for a game

In May, the Boise (Idaho) Black Knights youth football team was hailed for rescuing a couple that was trapped in a vehicle in Oregon, which the players spotted on their way back from a game.

Now, the Black Knights have an opportunity to play against a highly touted California team, and they’re seeking financial help to make it happen.

The Knights’ coach, Rudy Jackson, told KTVB.com in Boise that the team has an opportunity to play a team in Inland Empire, California. The Inland Empire Ducks noticed the Knights’ heroic efforts and would like to play against the Knights, who went undefeated during their spring season.

"They noticed what we were doing, how much work we were putting in and they wanted to play us because they want to play the best of the best and they obviously think we are the best of the best," Boise Black Knights captain and quarterback, Mason McHugh told KTVB. "We have a special group of kids here so we want to share that with the nation."

Jackson said the team needs $25,000 for travel, hotel, food, and transportation. The team is hosting a carwash next weekend to help raise funds, and is also accepting donations through its GoFundMe page.