Ja’Mauri Williams has special arms, and that is how his teammates and classmates describe them. With those arms that are special and unique, his coaches on his little league football team say the eight-year-old can throw a perfect spiral and, with his special arms and catch a pigskin perfectly with no help at all.
Williams is always asked the same question when meeting someone new or going to a new place but he said it doesn’t bother him much.
“They ask me how were you born,” Ja’Mauri said. “I just tell them I was born like this because God made me like this.”
He is used to the question. His arms are shorter than most and he has no hands. They look different than those of his teammates, but Ja’Mauri admits that he likes that.
He has been playing sports since age three when he picked up baseball. A television station out of Albany showed up to film a segment about his first baseball game.
“They just wanted to know how he could play baseball with no hands,” Colby Williams, Ja’Mauri’s mother said.
Playing in the front yard, he picked up a football and started throwing with his cousin. From there he learned to catch and even perfect his spiral, where he tucks the football close to him, spins his arms and releases the ball to throw it.
But this is Ja’Mauri’s first football season. In the spring his mother said he would play soccer.
“He just learned how to play, I really don’t know how … no one really taught him,” Williams said.
The two have a phrase they always say:
“We do everything turned up,” she said, explaining she and Ja’Mauri,  do everything the best they can, on a higher level.  They try to push the limits and see what they can accomplish  despite setbacks and difficulties.
It’s Ja’Mauri’s goal to catch a touchdown pass in football this season and even score a homerun in baseball this coming spring.
“I want him to do all he can do and be all he wants to be, I want him to be normal,” Williams said. “That’s my whole goal for him — to have a normal life. That’s why we are out here playing football and that’s why we play baseball too. And we are playing soccer this year.”
She said she worries about him getting injured in football, his arms do not have all of the same bones as the other kids on the field.
“He could easily break something,” she said, and explained she had to do some convincing to get other family members on board with him playing sports. for fear of injury.
But Ja’Mauri said that is his favorite thing about the sport — hitting and tackling.
“Its fun to get hit in football,” he said, shyly smiling and chewing on his mouth guard. “I like to catch the football too.”
It shows on the field, where Ja’Mauri runs plays and catches the ball like any other player.

Editor’s note: This article is part of the “People Always Ask Me” series. If you or someone you know has something interesting they are always asked about, email the Post-Searchlight newsroom news@thepostsearchlight.com