TAMPA — When Tiffany Brindza saw her son Kyle for the first time, his feet were already in casts.
Born with clubfoot, a deformity in which an infant's foot or feet are turned severely inward, he would grow up in casts and braces, doctors telling his mother he may never walk normally, may never play sports.
He had six corrective surgeries as a child, the last in sixth grade to cut the Achilles tendon in his right foot so it could be extended to allow for more normal extension. Again, doctors told him he'd miss an entire season of soccer, but he was back in goal a month later.