Source: The Mercury News (Calif.)
Rob Mendez sounds like any other football coach on any other field across America — passionate, authoritative, knowledgeable — but he is like no other coach you know.
He has no arms or legs. He moves in a custom-made wheelchair that he operates with his shoulders. He diagrams plays on a smartphone attached to the chair, using a stylus that he maneuvers with his mouth.
Mendez, 28, is an assistant coach at San Jose High. Born without limbs, a condition his parents learned about a month before birth, he has been beating the odds for almost 30 years.
“The fight in life, I can relate to the fight on the field,” Mendez said. “Hopefully show them that I am not giving up, and they can’t give up on the field. We all need each other.”
