Chaz Centore is very much a typical high school junior. On a typical day, he wakes up, gets to school as late as he can without being tardy, goes to football practice and goes home to do homework, play video games or hang out with friends.

There is one thing noticeably different about him, however.

The Frankfort Community High School place kicker was born with a condition that left him with underdeveloped arms. Doctors have not been able to pinpoint Centore’s exact condition. Centore said it has most often been described as bilateral brachial plexus.

Centore has adjusted to overcome his challenges in everyday life.

He puts on the same gray helmet with red feathers as his teammates, although he needs a teammate to snap the strap up. The same goes for his shoulder pads.

During team workouts, he spends most of his time in a room upstairs from the main weight room. It houses machines he uses to do leg press, hamstring curls, and a lift of his own invention that involves standing on one leg while straightening the other with resistance to improve quadriceps strength along with balance.

Frankfort head coach Brian Beery said Centore’s condition did not make him uneasy about letting him onto the team.

“I don’t ever want to take away the opportunity to play football from a young kid,” Beery said. “I think it’s a great sport. I knew that I could find something that he could do.”

Centore spends about fifteen minutes of practice working on extra points, taking the same five steps back from the kicking block, and coming at the ball straight on, making more than he misses.

After that, his day at practice is more or less over.

“I have a motto that I follow – Adapt and overcome,” Centore said. “Because I’ve had to live by that my whole life.”

Centore said the biggest adjustment he has had to make was when he started school.

Accustomed to doing everything— from drawing and writing to getting dressed—with his feet, Centore was forced to learn to write with his hands.

His teachers would not let him use his feet until after he was used to using his hands.

“I could write and draw beautifully with my feet,” Centore said. “But then I got used to my hands.”

Centore retained one skill with his feet: Playing video games.

Centore plays Call of Duty on Xbox 360 and Titanfall and Killer Instinct on Xbox One, along with older games on his Nintendo, all with his feet.

Some nights, Centore and his best friend, fellow junior Josh McReynolds work out at the West Frankfort Aquatic and Activities Center. The two have been friends since sixth grade.

“Just because he’s got a disability,” McReynolds said, “I don’t want him to feel different than anybody else.”

Football is not Centore’s only sport. He is also a competitive swimmer.

He competes in the Illinois High School Association’s Boys with Disabilities state finals, where he has earned seven medals.

Centore said his mother, Teri Centore, a United States Marine Corps veteran, got him started in both swimming and football.

“She knew that I was always into swimming,” Centore said. “I’ve always been kind of a fish out of water.”

Centore developed a competitive spirit swimming with friends and relatives. He said his goal was always to beat his older cousins. Although he never did, he was usually not far behind.