HEBRON — Eddie Warren had to sit out the contact portions of the first couple of days of practice for the Maine Shrine Lobster Bowl Classic because the helmet he brought to Hebron Academy was too small.

The irony of Warren being sidelined for an event put on by the Shriners because of an equipment problem isn’t immediately evident when one watches him kicking rockets between the uprights. But the most important equipment the Sacopee Valley graduate brings to the football field, or the park, the mall or the dinner table, for that matter, was made possible by the Shriners.

Warren, who will be kicking for the West in Saturday’s 21st Lobster Bowl (4 p.m., Waterhouse Field in Biddeford), walks on two flesh-toned, fiberglass legs. Born with deformed legs that were amputated when he was a year old, he has undergone three surgeries, two on his right leg, one on his left, at the Shriners Hospital. He still goes to clinics at the Kora Shrine and Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston regularly for adjustments.

 “They did really, really good work on my legs, and without them, I wouldn’t be out here doing what I’m doing now,” Warren said.

Warren has played football since Pee Wee, mostly as a kicker, linebacker and defensive end. He attended school in the Bonny Eagle and Portland systems before transferring to Sacopee prior to his junior year, also playing baseball and basketball along the way, and has been met by more supporters than detractors.

Football is his favorite sport. A couple of times, he’s lost a leg after being hit, but Warren isn’t afraid of contact.

“I just dealt with it. If my buddies can deal with it, I can,” he said. “I’m not any different that they are. The only difference is I’ve got fiberglass legs, they’ve got real ones. And they treat me just like anyone else, and I like that.”

“Eddie is such an inspiration to everybody around him,” said Heath Cormier, a co-captain at Sacopee with Warren and a member of the West squad. “When I first saw him the first day of our junior year, I was like. ‘Who is this kid?’ Then his first kickoff, I was like. ‘Where is this ball going to go?’ and it goes 50 yards over my head.”

Playing in the Lobster Bowl brings more of the same questions from a new set of teammates.

“I just tell them the same thing I tell everybody — it’s all heart,” he said. “I go out there and try and do my best. I may not be the best out there, but I’ll show it. I’ll try to act like I am and try to compete with the best.”

About a year ago, Warren was the one asking the questions when he had a meeting with former All-Pro kicker Morten Andersen, who was visiting relatives in Maine and heard about Warren. The two spent a few hours together going over the finer points of kicking.

“He told me to focus on the ball, keep your head down and run through it and it should go,” Warren said. “It was some really, really good advice.”

That advice may come in handy on Saturday for Warren, who told West head coach Kevin Cooper he wanted to concentrate on kicking for the game.

“I just want to focus on that in case it comes down to a situation where I need to make a clutch kick. I want to be able to do that for them,” said Warren, who will attend USM in the fall with plans of becoming a phys ed teacher one day.

“He’s good. As a kickoff guy, he kicks them a long way,” Cooper said.

“He’s a great kid,” he added. “I think him being on this team certainly shows that there is a great positive outcome for what the Shriners do. There’s the proof.”