‘A Chance of Life’ — Battling illness, Mathiaz Rocha signs with Texas State

Mathiaz Rocha became Texas State football’s newest player on Tuesday. 

Rocha, 14, joins the team through Team Impact, a national nonprofit that brings children facing serious illnesses with college teams to form life-long bonds. 

“We’re fortunate to add our 15th member to this year’s signing class,” head coach Jake Spavital said. “While we’ve had such a success in recruiting, I felt that we had not finished our signing class completely. We’re in need of an all-star and we didn’t have to go far to find this guy. Mathiaz is a courageous 14-year-old … The Texas State football program is proud to have him on our team currently.”