(gentle music) (upbeat music) - [Jordan] We have our wheelchair basketball practice for Wisconsin Adaptive Sports Association.

- I find it fun.

I call it "giant bumper cars."

- [Jordan] We've got our youth team, our high school level.

- Before I was disabled, I played baseball for a while and I still wanted to play sports.

- So in order to qualify for adaptive sports, you have to have some form of physical limitation.

Whether you're missing a leg through an amputation, or you've got a bum hip, bum knee, or like myself, I have my spinal cord injury.

Some of the kids here were born with their disability.

- This chair is different than, like, a everyday chair.

An everyday chair goes straight, whereas you can kind of see the wheels are angled here.

It's built for more aerodynamics.

This doesn't have brakes.

It's got, like, a wheel in the back so that you don't tip over.

And then, this is meant to go faster than your everyday wheelchair.

- This game is the exact same as able-bodied basketball, or standup basketball.

There is no double dribble, but there's still a travel.

So every two pushes on your wheels, you have to dribble or pass.

Otherwise, if you take a third push, it's a travel.

- Well, I was injured in 2020 in August.

And it's connected me to the disability world, and just shown me all the possibilities.

It's pretty much helped me become stronger and more willing to be more adventurous.

- [Jordan] Kick it out to Cat, 'cause she's gonna be moving up.

- [Jordan] I know what having something affect your life in such a drastic way can do.

And what this does for all the people that get to play.

All the confidence it instills, the freedom that it feels, and just the camaraderie to be a part of.

It's awesome.

- I've met a bunch of new people and Paralympians and everything, and I've got to do stuff that I probably wouldn't be able to if this didn't happen.

- What we have going on in Milwaukee, we've got a lot of cool programs where we encourage able-bodied people to come in and and play with those with disabilities.

And everybody gets to play on the same leveled playing field.

- All the sports still have the basic of teamwork, of leadership, of just working together.

And that it's not fundamentally different.

Yeah, my goal, I would like to continue onto college playing basketball and possibly go to the Olympic level, and professional level through that.

It's gonna sound really cliché, but never give up.

It really is, it's a true sentiment because if I would've given up the day I was told that I would have to be in a wheelchair, I would've just sat and wasted away.

And now I'm involved in so many things.

- To try and make it into the Paralympics, the wheelchair Paralympics for basketball or track.

Don't think of it as, "Oh, I'm disabled," or "I have something like this," and you know, "I can't do things that everybody else does."

You can do the same things that anybody else does.

Just adapt it.

(upbeat music) (gentle music)