“I was with my people,” 10-year-old participant Hazel Bluth said.
At events like Ability360’s 10th Annual Cactus Classic Standup Amputee Basketball Tournament, adaptive athletes of all ages and prosthetics find competition and community.
“We all know that when we leave this gym today, life’s not fair. There’s not something out there for everybody,” player/coach Troy Druppal said.
That’s the reality of many adaptive athletes in a world that’s becoming more inclusive but has a ways to go.
“Being a kid from Indiana, small town, I grew up not knowing any other amputees and not knowing about this community,” Ability360 Program Manager of Athletics and Cactus Classic Tournament Director Nick Pryor said. “Finding Ability360, it really opened my eyes up to see what this community does for each other. I’ve always wanted to give back and I don’t want to see any of those kids fall through those cracks and not know about these opportunities.”
“Knowing that they’re there for you,” Hazel said. “They’re just people. [We’re] the same.”
Isn’t that what we all want in this life? To know someone’s there for us.
“They get to share in their struggles and their successes,” Hazel’s dad, Dustin Bluth, said. “Some of these kids wouldn’t go do it just because they feel like someone’s gonna make fun of them or they don’t quite fit in and here they come in and they all participate…for them to come and do things they probably wouldn’t do in a normal environment…that might lead to when they’re at school or later in life, ‘I did it there, I can do it here.’ You can see all the kids confidence grow.”
From self esteem to fundamentals, they get opportunities to expand their horizons.
“They show me their ways and they combine their way with the way I play,” Hazel said. “Other people have confidence and seeing them do it inspires me to keep going and keep trying.”
“It’s awesome to see new faces every single year,” Druppal said. “As I’m speaking, there’s kids becoming amputees unfortunately and when they get out of the hospital with they’re rehabbing, we want them to know that there’s resources like this that they could come to and they’ll always have a home here at Ability360.”
Checking out the @ability360 10th Annual Cactus Classic Standup Amputee Basketball Tournament 🏀
We got some hooooopers out here!@Sports360AZ pic.twitter.com/fvhfN1K4Ck
— Eliav Gabay (@eliavgabay) May 18, 2025
Not only is it crucial for the kids, but parents as well.
“These parents get to learn from each other,” Pryor said. “I’ve heard so many stories about parents keeping in contact. The kids build lifelong friendships out here on the court, but these parents do too, because they’re the one’s worrying about the insurance and the prosthetics…to have those people around them to talk through it and give them advice is incredible…A lot of parents worry at first but once they see this and they’re around it – [their kids] are gonna be alright.”
“We live in Mesa and we had no idea this facility existed until she started coming [to the Ability360 events],” Dustin Bluth said. “People come from different walks of life…It’s amazing. It really makes you appreciate everything you have.”
Spreading the word is as important as any other aspect of these programs and is pivotal in their continued investment, energetically and fiscally.
One of those programs is AMP1 Basketball, which plays a huge part in raising awareness across the country.
“We go around and advocate,” Pryor said. “Our whole thing is to motivate, educate, and inspire. We’ve done a lot of disability awareness games where we play against able-bodied players. We’ll go and talk to schools ranging from elementary to college level and we do clinics and camps all over the country. It’s really to show other amputees that they can do it…If you work hard, this thing can take you different places all over the world.”
Pryor and Ability360 have high hopes for the future.
“I gave them a challenge,” Pryor said. “It’s really up to them to see how much this grows…communicating with their peers in those other camps and challenging them to come out here. I want to see this have a couple different divisions and the camp itself grow. We have two full-sized courts – we can accommodate a lot of kids. I would like to see this place packed and the bleachers packed with parents.”
To learn more, head to Ability360.org.
