Warsaw sophomore offensive and defensive lineman Dakota Todd knows you’re not quite sure how to shake his hand. “I’ll stick my left hand out and they’re not used to it,” said Dakota. “So I’ll just be like, ‘Alright, let’s get this shake over with.’ And I’ll stick my right out. And I’m just like, ‘It’s cool just shake it. You’re fine.'”
Dakota was born with Poland’s Syndrome, which left him without a right hand or right pectoral muscle.
For years, that left Dakota on the sideline. “They said, ‘Hey, you can’t play,” said Dakota.
That’s what Dakota’s doctors said back in fifth grade. And what he wanted to play was football. “[They said] your chest, your hand, you’re going to get seriously hurt,” said Dakota
So Dakota hit the weights. Using a special hook to latch on to the barbell, he proved to himself, and everyone else, that he wasn’t going to let this condition stop him. That started the first time he walked onto the football field and met his JV coach.
“We were doing pushups,” said Dakota. “And [coach] said, ‘Todd, you can just do sit-ups if you want.’ And I just said, ‘No coach, I can do some pushups. I’m all good.'”
In fact, he’s the best. Dakota recently set a state record for his age and weight class by deadlifting and squatting more than 400 pounds at a powerlifting event to benefit children with cleft palates.
His coach calls him an inspiration. “Any time I think of Dakota the first thing that comes to my mind is, ‘No excuses,'” said Warsaw Head Football Coach Ryan Boyer.
Dakota credits inspirational people he’s met along the way with similar conditions.
“I was at the gas station and a guy, who I saw before, he has two nubs,” said Dakota. “And we got to talking just about life and things. What we grew up with. And it’s cool because he rides a Harley Davidson motorcycle with two nubs.”
And some that he’d like to meet, like Seahawks draft pick Shaquem Griffin, who played in the NFL without a hand.
“I saw that story and I saw that he wanted to play football,” said Dakota. “And I was kind of in that weird limbo state where I didn’t know if I liked the sport or wanted to play the sport more. Then I saw a video about it and I was like, ‘Dude I want to play. I’m dedicated now.'”
And it’s got him feeling like there’s no limit to what his future holds. “If I have an opportunity to play football somewhere then I’d do it,” said Dakota. “If that doesn’t work out, I’d travel the world doing weightlifting events. If that doesn’t work out, I’ll go be a carpenter and go build stuff.”
After years of proving everyone wrong, who could doubt him?
