This is the second installment of a month-long series about amazing athletes who manage to compete in their particular sports despite incredible challenges. In their stories you will see optimism, courage and indomitable spirit. I’d like to thank them for being willing to share the intimate details of their lives, and you for reading their stories.

Lindsay Hood launched her full-contact career while in the womb, when she hit and kicked holes in the placental water sack. Some of her limbs were still sticking out of the water sack when it closed back up, cutting off circulation to those parts of her body.

When the otherwise healthy Hood was born 31 years ago, because no blood flow had been allowed to some of her limbs for several weeks, she had to have a few fingers on her left hand removed, as well as her left leg just below her kneecap.

You might be surprised to learn, then, that Hood is a sumo wrestler, training for a triathlon, and an All-Pro professional football player. Hood is the starting right tackle for the SoCal Scorpions, the 2007 Women’s Professional Football League (WPFL) champions.

Football isn’t a sport for the faint of heart.

To play on the front line, or what’s called “the trenches,” you have to be big and you have to like to hit.

Hood plays right tackle on the offensive line. On passing plays, she drops back and protects the quarterback. On running plays, she gets to hit people, forcibly moving big defensive ends around, creating “running lanes” for the tail-backs.

As you can imagine, it’s a physical position, one that requires tremendous power, balance, and agility, especially from the lower half of the body, which makes what she does with a prosthetic leg all the more remarkable.

“I’ve always been strong,” Hood said matter-of-factly. “Even as a kid, I was the one on the playground lifting other kids up to get the ball out of the tree.”

Though only 5-foot, 9-inches tall, Hood is a powerhouse at 190 pounds, comprising mostly muscle mass, which she’s built steadily by cross-training and working out at the gym.

Hood admits that she wasn’t an avid football fan as a kid, though she did spend time watching the sport.

“I didn’t always understand what was going on,” she says, “but I saw a lot of hitting, and that excited me.”

When the idea of trying out for a professional women’s football team came around, Hood wasn’t intimidated.

“I have a very supportive family,” she says. “Whenever I would think I couldn’t do something, my parents were right there to say, ‘Yes you can.’”

Hood and her parents have drawn inspiration from Hood’s aunt, who is blind.

Despite being impaired, Hood’s aunt is an accomplished skier and has won more than 20 gold medals in competition.

“Knowing that,” she said, “I can’t really come up with any excuses for why I can’t do something.”

Hood’s overcome-at-all-costs attitude served her well last season. The SoCal Scorpions won the league championship, and Hood was named to the 2007 WPFL All-Pro team, an honor for a second-year starter who almost lost her starting job to an up-and-coming rookie.

Hood is the smallest lineman in the WPFL.

“I am always going up against defensive ends at least three inches taller than me and [who] weigh at least 20 or 30 pounds more than me,” she said.

Because of Hood’s size, the Scorpions’ new head coach entertained the idea of putting a bigger and younger woman on the line.

Hood wasn’t about to let anyone take the starting job she worked so hard for.

She raised the level of her play and convinced the coaching staff she was right for the job. After all, what she lacked in size, she makes up for with true grit.

She needed every ounce of that grit in the 2007 championship game, when the Scorpions were down at halftime against the three-time champion Houston Energy.

“We were mad,” Hood said. “We were mad and we had all made a decision that we were not going to lose that game. We had not come this far to lose.”

The Scorpions mounted a comeback, led by team MVP and running back Desiree Weimann, who, because of outstanding offensive line play by Hood and her teammates, found some running room late in the game. In the second half, the Scorpions scored two unanswered touchdowns, shocking the Energy in front of one of the largest crowds ever to watch a professional women’s football game.

Whether the challenge is physical or mental, Hood doesn’t shy away – despite the physical challenge she has.

“You’re always better when you have to fight for something,” she said.