There are many stories of athletes playing through obstacles.
There is one such athlete from Lexington, Kentucky who's defying odds at a very young age.
In many ways, 8 year old Adam Bender is just like any other kid that plays little league baseball.
And in many ways, but one.
“It's not really teachable. It's not that we figured out a great way to teach him how to do things. We give him the tools, ball bats glove, and we let him experiment to see what works best for him. And that's what we let him go with,” said Adam’s dad Chris Bender.
Adam was born with a tumor in his left thigh.
After chemotherapy didn't work, Adam’s leg was amputated on his first birthday.
Chris Bender said, “We felt we were somewhere between crutches and heavy prostheses and wheelchairs. We didn't know how adaptable he'd be. But we got a glimpse of it 48 hours later when he started figuring out how to crawl.”
From crawling to playing baseball, soccer, and even football, Adam does it all without the aid of a prostheses.
Chris Bender said, “He makes plenty of outs, he gets on plenty of times. When he gets out he hangs his head and goes back to the dugout like every other kid on the team does and when he gets on he runs the bases as hard as he can.” It's completely second nature. They throw the ball at him just as hard, they run at him just as hard, they're happy to slide into him if he's trying to block the plate. There's no cautious reaction around him because of his situation.”
Experiences Adam’s parents hope will serve him well down the road.
“I think it'll be something he'll be able to look back on and realize I had to do things differently but I still didn't have any problems keeping up with my peers. And I’m hopeful that translates into other areas of life,” said Chris Bender.
