By Tom Behrens
Chronicle correspondent

At first, Ryder Anderson thought his mom was joking.

But the 10-year old from Katy soon figured out that she wasn’t kidding at all when she told him, and his 12-year old brother Rodney, that they were selected to play in the Offense-Defense Youth All-American Bowl set to take place on Jan. 2 at Doug Shaw Stadium in Myrtle Beach, S.C.

“They told me when I got home from school,” Rodney said. “My mouth dropped all the way down to the floor. I was so excited; I was jumping around.”

Jobie Anderson, mother of Ryder and Rodney, found the boys’ names listed on the Offense-Defense website.

The Anderson brothers will join 11-year old Irvin Green and 9-year old A.J. Harper, both also from Katy, along with dozens of peers from their age groups nationwide in the East-West clash.

The four Katy boys, along with 56 other athletes selected from over 100 young athletes from all over Texas who participated in a summer Offense-Defense football camp at Prairie View A&M University.

Offense-Defense conducts approximately 40 camps across the United States each summer where players and coaches from college and NFL teams teach the basics of football. At one time or another 30 of the current 32 NFL Head Coaches coached at Offense-Defense football camps. Coaches need at least one year of college coaching experience.

As for Rodney, he played running back and defensive back at Katy Junior High School and is described as having great field vision and serious cutting ability.

“I like the challenge, running, and scoring with the ball,” Rodney said. “I like seeing the holes and then going through them.”

Six games into the season, it was discovered that Rodney had been playing with a broken bone in his right foot.

“I knew something was wrong, but I didn’t think it was broken,” Rodney said. “I thought it was just sore from me being on it.”

But Rodney didn’t want to miss his first season in junior high.

“I just kind of ignored it,” he said. “It hurt when I did certain cuts, so I found different ways to do those cuts. It worked almost the same. Sometimes I would slow down in the hole. After we went to the doctor and found out what was wrong, it took some of the pain out knowing just what was wrong. They game me a brace. They gave me a boot and I am progressing out of it. I feel great now.”

Good enough to declare himself ready to go for the game.

As for younger brother Ryder, he played quarterback for the Cypress Longhorns and is said to have an ability to read defenses very well.

“He pretty much tells me what is going on out there,” father Rodney Anderson said. “He can call plays pretty much on what the defense has given him.”

Harper has been playing football since the age of four.

This past season he played running back fro the HYFL Rams. In the summer, he was named All Defensive MVP for his age group in the Offense-Defense camp.

Harper stands just 4-foot-6 and weighs in at 70 pounds, and he uses that to his advantage.

“Because he is small other players misread the intensity he plays at,” said Shira Harper, A.J.’s mother. “A lot of people don’t think he is going to hit as hard as he does.”

Hitting people is what he loves to do on the field.

“Getting a hit and knocking people down,” is what Harper says is his favorite thing about football. “Defense is what wins games.”

Although he is only a fourth grader, he played up on the fifth grade team this past season.

“He is probably one of the smallest players on the field,” Shira Harper said.

There are eight teams playing four games beginning at 9 a.m. The last Youth game is expected to conclude by 3 p.m., after which the high school All-American teams will take the field in a nationally televised game on FOX Sports Net.