GREENVILLE, Mich. — For Hudson Goetz, one thing is very clear.
"What is your favorite sport?" I asked him.
He quickly answered "Cornhole."
It's an obvious answer, not just because of his love for the game or his tremendous talent, but because it's one of the only sports he can play.
“From what your mom has told me, you have been a fighter. Not just on the cornhole field, but your entire life. Where does that come from? Why are you such a fighter?" I asked.
“I don't know," he said.
“He doesn’t have a choice," his mom, Angela, chimed in.
Hudson's had to fight from the moment he entered the world.
He was born with Pierre Robin sequence, a rare condition characterized by an underdeveloped jaw, a backwards tongue, and, in his case, a cleft palate, all blocking his airways.
"The first year especially was a real challenge," Angela said. "His tongue was sewed to his bottom lip so that he could have an airway. He was finally able to have that on done, and life started to feel a little more normal. He didn't really require as many breathing treatments or a feeding tube anymore. We finally felt like okay, we're going somewhere.”
After one condition was addressed, another would appear.
In 2018, doctors diagnosed Hudson with juvenile arthritis. Then, a year later, the Goetz family had possibly their biggest scare of all.
"He got really sick out of nowhere," Angela said. "He couldn't really stand up without having terrible headaches. (He) couldn't lay flat without having terrible headaches. Couldn't do much of anything.”
She added, "We were sent to Helen DeVos, where we found out that he has a Chiari malformation, and intracranial hypertension. So that literally means his brain is falling through the base of the base of his skull. Thankfully, with just some minor interventions, we've been able to handle that thus far.”
Hudson's endured more than a lifetime of medical issues at only 10 years old. Those issues have created other barriers, for someone who just wants to be a kid.
“The biggest thing, of course, is not being able to play contact sports," Angela said. "He's got the heart of an athlete.”
I asked Hudson — "For someone who's been through so much, I think a lot of other kids would be so down on themselves and be so negative. How were you able to stay so positive?"
"I get sad and down a lot. But then I realized that I can do stuff.”
Both his parents compete in cornhole, so this was an almost expected evolution.
Hudson struggled to begin, but just like he has in life, he kept fighting,
"I couldn't hit the board when I first started," Hudson said. "Then, six months later, I could get a little more accurate hitting a board. So my dad let me play.”
Less than a year after he picked up a bag, he picked up a first place finish in a regional event while playing doubles with his best friend Jaxon Besio.
"I think I about cried when they won that day," Angela said. "I was really happy.”
“Were you crying?” I asked Hudson.
"No," he responded.
Calm, cool and collected.
Instead of tears, Hudson kept shedding his opponents and impressing the pros.
Jeremy Schermerhorn has been playing competitively for eight years. It didn't take long for Hudson to catch his attention.
“He started rolling in the bag — if you hit the board a certain way, it rolls over bags — I'm like, "Dude, I can't even do that, and I've been doing this thing for like, eight years. What in the heck?”
Hudson's own heroes see a star in the making. But his parents maybe wish he would slow down.
"Which feels better: winning a tournament or beating your mom and dad?" I asked.
"Mom and dad,” Hudson said with a smile on his face.
Hudson didn't just overcome his past. He shattered expectations.
So, at the end of our interview, I asked if he had a message for others who are battling adversity.
As it was with my very first question, the answer was obvious.
"Don't give up," he said.