Bolden not letting disability slow him
By KEVIN CHIRI
Slidell news bureau
SLIDELL – There is nothing unusual to a father when he comes in the door after a day of work, greeted by his little boy running and jumping into his arms.
But the day it happened to Jesse Bolden there was quite a difference.
His young son, Ja’Miri Bolden, was not expected to ever walk or run normally after being born with a rare condition called Fibular Hemimelia.
Approximately one in 40,000 babies are born with the condition which means a child is either missing one of the two fibula bones in their lower leg or has one bone that is extremely short. The result is that a child will struggle walking normally most of their life.
But they must not have told Ja’Miri that. By the age of four he was walking on the side of his foot, then he began walking on the tips of his toes. And as many young boys do, he decided at an early age that he must play football.
“I kind of realized something was wrong when I was maybe three or four,” Ja’Miri said. “I remember saying to my dad that when I got big, I hoped they could fix my foot so I could play football.”
In the meantime, the young boy apparently didn’t want to wait. His father signed him up to play in the Slidell Youth Football Association (SYFA) when he was four, and even had to sign a waiver for the little league acknowledging his disability. But it didn’t take long for him to shine, quickly becoming one of the fastest kids on the team.
He started playing in the line since they thought it would be a safe position for him, but when his agility and quickness were recognized, he was moved to linebacker on defense, and running back on offense.
By the time he was playing at Boyet Junior High School he was a star, turning in one game when he scored four touchdowns.
“I always felt like I had to disprove the doubters,” he said. “People look at how I walk or run and don’t think I can play, so I have an attitude of wanting to prove you wrong.”
This year he will be a senior at Northshore High School, settling in as a defensive end and linebacker, and coming off an all-district season for the Panthers that is quickly drawing attention from colleges, including major Division I schools.
“My goal now is to play college ball, and I do believe I will be doing that,” he said. “I love football and want to keep playing, and I know my foot isn’t going to slow me down.”
Northshore head football coach Bobby Sanders agrees and sees excellent potential for his young player.
“No doubt, Ja’Miri has the ability to play at the college level,” he said. “The only thing he has to overcome is the perception from others that he can’t do it, but he’s already proven here that he can play.”
Sanders said that the ability for Ja’Miri to get off blocks from linemen “is as good as I’ve seen in a high school player. He has great speed, strength and quickness. Now, he just has to realize that there will be lots of other great high school players wanting to make the college teams, and for him to become great in college he has to get more consistent with his workouts and commit to 100 percent on everything from practice to the field.”
Ja’Miri was selected to the first-ever Area 22 sports team this year, which picks 22 of the best athletes on the North Shore. And a growing list of colleges have already begun to notice him as he has gotten several letters of interest and is now being invited to the schools for a visit—a mark of a player the school wants.
Most recently he has added letters from TCU, Ole Miss and Southeastern, after already receiving letters from Mercer University and Mississippi State University.
The 6-1, 230-pounder originally started playing at Salmen as a freshman, then transferred to Northshore in his sophomore year. He got into his first game in the eighth week of the season and ended up playing throughout the end of the year. He was among the top tacklers all season long and in a state playoff game he grabbed a fumble out of mid-air and rambled 45 yards for a touchdown. Any questions about his speed, considering the disability with his foot, were answered as he ran away from the defenders chasing him.
His father Jesse said that when his son was born the doctors said that amputation of the leg was one option, or they could seek a series of surgeries that would have cost over $400,000.
“There was no way we were going to amputate,” Jesse said. “And we could have never afforded the surgery cost, so we just left it in God’s hands.”
The decision was obviously the right one and gave the young man an opportunity to be as normal as any other kid, and now showing that he can be an above average football player. As for the prospect of college, Ja’Miri believes he will be on a team one way or another.
“If I don’t get a scholarship from somewhere then I will walk on,” he said. “But I have to keep playing and I have confidence I can make it in college. I know who I am, and I guess I keep wanting to prove people wrong who didn’t think I could do this.”