Starting at Point Guard: Tiffara Steward, 4-Foot-6 and Blind in One Eye

The starting point guard for the women's basketball team at Farmingdale State College on Long Island, N.Y. is 4-foot-6, blind in one eye, and doesn't seem to think there's any reason that should keep her off the floor.

Tiffara Steward calls herself "a secret weapon," and that sounds about right. She was recently named the ABC News Person of the Week, and Farmingdale State College's coach, Chris Mooney, says she's constantly shocking people on the court:

"The other fans just can't believe how little she is, and the next thing you know she's knocking down shots or making a steal, or going in for a layup," said Mooney.

Steward is believed to be the shortest college basketball player ever. Twenty years ago, she was born premature and weighing less than three pounds, and her list of ailments included not having a cornea in one eye, being partly deaf, having vertebrae that didn't develop properly and having one leg shorter than the other.

But that didn't make much of a difference in Steward's life. Her mother, Vanessa Jones-Steward, told the New York Times:

"We never thought of her as disabled; we never said there was something she couldn't do. And once she started to play sports, we've never thought she was any different than anyone else."

Steward calls the New York Knicks' 5-foot-9 Nate Robinson and the 5-foot-3 former Charlotte Hornets guard Muggsy Bogues her favorite players, and she says her attitude has always been simple: "If you want to do it, go out and try it. If you try it and you can't do it, try it again."

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