DALLAS -A22-year-old Texas man was so desperate to play high school footballhe was willing to try anything, including faking his age and changing his identity.
In the eyes of coach Jim Ledford, Taylor Markeith Smith looked like his next star football player.
"As a coach, you see a kid walk in and he's 6-foot-5, 220," Ledford recalled. "Your eyes light up and automatically think defensive end, tight end."
Smith told coach Ledford he was 16 when he showed up at Richardson's Berkner High School in 2008, and his parents had died. So the coach put smith in pads and let him onto the field for two-a-days.
"An extremely smart kid that articulated himself very, very well," Ledford said.
The 30-year veteran coach saw talent and suspected Smith was older than 16, but Smith showed the principal a birth certificate that appeared to prove his age.
The prinicpal wasn't buying it, and voided Smith's documentation to play football.
Turns out, he was right. Smith was actually 19, and Berkner wouldn't be Smith's last stop.
At least a dozen other schools in Richardson, Dallas, and Garland say Smith had also visited them. ome let him practice with the football team.
South Oak Cliff says he even brought an impostor posing as a district case worker.
"I thought we had a troubled kid," coach Ledford said. "I'm just glad we caught it, and it didn't affect our kids one way."
