Three time Team USA Paralympic wheelchair basketball player Nate Hinze has a remarkable life journey.
“I kind of joke, when I give presentations to kids, (I tell them) I have a golf club in my leg,” said Hinze.
When Hinze was a junior at Cedar Grove-Belgium High School, he was diagnosed with a from of bone cancer called osteosarcoma.
“(We) found a tumor in March (2005) which was just about the end of basketball season. Then I had to go through my treatment at Children’s of Wisconsin. In August of 2005 I needed a surgery to remove the tumor which took away my ability to run, jump, play what we call able bodied sports,” Hinze said.
He finished high school and later attended U-W Whitewater. It just happened that the university had 1 of 8 wheelchair basketball teams in the nation for college athletes at the time. That’s where Hinze’s Paralympic path began and he’s never looked back.
To hear more of Hinze’s extraordinary story, click on the audio player above.