Player inspiring football coaches, teammates
10-year-old doesn’t let birth defect keep him out of the game
When Deer Park Junior Seminole football coaches teach the fundamentals of catching a football to young receivers, Jaxon Payton, 10, pays no attention to the instructions.
First off, he’s a defensive lineman, but there have been moments when he’s been asked to catch a pass in the end zone when his team sought to earn two points after a touchdown.
Yet those instructions of forming a diamond-shaped window by putting the thumbs and index fingers of both hands together go in one ear and out the other for Jaxon.
Because of a birth defect called amniotic band syndrome, he has no hands.
“We found out at the 20-week ultrasound. They didn’t see hands in the ultrasound like they should have,” Jaxon’s father and Juniors coach Keith Payton said.
A rare defect that occurs in one out of every 1,200 and 15,000 births, the syndrome occurs when the inner layer of the mother’s placenta becomes damaged during pregnancy, and strands of tissue — amniotic bands — form inside the sac. They get tangled around a body part of the developing fetus, cutting off blood supply.
“In his case, (the hands) never developed,” Payton said. “In some kids’ cases, it’ll stunt and they’ll have to amputate. His hands just didn’t develop because they didn’t have any blood supply.”
Now Jaxon, a fourth-grader at Pasadena-First Baptist Christian Academy, is drawing admiration from all who watch him play football.
“I think about the game mostly,” said the boy, who is preparing for a game Saturday when the Junior Seminoles play in the South Texas Youth Football Association (STYFA) playoffs at Friendswood Junior High School.
“I don’t think about it because no one really says anything,” said Jaxon, who especially enjoys playing soccer since any hand contact with the ball in that sport results in an infraction. “No matter what sport you play, you still have to run.”
“His courage is just amazing,” said 10-year-old Connor Deason, who has been a teammate with Payton for the last three seasons. “I personally think it’s a great experience for him. He’s a good football player.”
Keith Payton said that when his son was 2 or 3, he did occupational therapy at Shriners Hospital for Children.
“They had Jaxon on a curriculum where they were supposed to go at their own pace. He was scheduled for six weeks, he did it in three. It got to the point where there was nothing more they could do for him,” Payton said.
Assistant coaches on the Junior Seminole team love Jaxon’s drive.
“He goes out there every day in practice and games and gives it 100 percent like it never happened,” assistant coach Austin Deason said. “He goes out there and fights, regardless of his condition, just like the rest of the boys do. We work on it in practice, giving him opportunities to catch a pass. We’re hoping he has success in the future with it.
“He fights and fights and fights. You can’t coach that.”
“Being a little different, he comes out here and works his butt off,” agreed assistant coach Sergio Aguirre. “He never asks us for anything special. He does the drills like everybody else. It takes a lot of heart . ... I love that kid.”
Jaxon isn’t the first local kid to draw notice for sports achievement despite physical challenges.
The League City Cowboys, a STYFA opponent, had a player named Keith Harris in 2019-20 who had little to no fingers or thumb on one hand. But during baseball season, he was regarded as one of League City Little League’s better players and was named to the all-star squad.
The Huntsville Pony Baseball all-stars had a youngster on their roster in recent summers who had no left forearm, and yet the coaching staff made him their starting first baseman. He would glove a throw with his good arm, transfer and tuck the glove under the other arm, take the baseball out and throw it to his pitcher.
Jaxon has role models at the professional level if he wishes to continue playing sports. Jim Abbott had a 10-year Major League Baseball career as a pitcher despite having no right hand. The pinnacle to his career was throwing a no-hitter during the 1993 season. A standout player for the Michigan Wolverines, Abbott was named to the College Baseball Hall of Fame in 2007.
No one is more tickled at Jaxon’s approach to life than his mother, Jennifer Payton.
“Every day, he amazes me,” she said. “He plays Xbox and he’s so good. His handwriting is amazing. He’s had all A’s his whole life. There hasn’t been anything yet, that he hasn’t figured out. We just let him do it. He’ll figure it out. We are very proud of him.”
Jaxon writes in cursive by holding the writing instrument at the end of his two arms.
The plan is to have Jaxon play one more season in STYFA and then compete on Pasadena-First Baptist Christian Academy’s football team for fifth- and sixth-graders.
“I’ll never tell him he can’t do something. He has a good cando attitude,” Keith Payton said.