I had one of the best games in my life on March 5th, 2010. All the hard work and sacrifice for years and years chasing a dream that didn’t exist finally came to life. My team, Amp 1, took on the Mattituck high school seniors/staff. We are a group of individuals who are all amputees and have a story to tell. Stepping out on that court we knew we were the automatic underdogs just because of the way we looked, all missing a leg. But we train hard and have more heart than most people. We truly feel that use using Designer Whey products like the waters and Blitzes help us out a great deal. We as amputees that play stand up basketball have to work ten times harder than most people to just get around on the court. By us using the products it helps gives us the edge we need to push through and get to the next level of competition. With our hard work and heart, we beat an able bodied team in New York playing stand up basketball. Amputees beat able bodies! It was a big accomplishment for Amp 1 and for everything we have been fighting for for years and years. Many people told us this would never happen and it couldn’t be done, it was impossible. But we are setting out on our own to prove the impossible can be possible. With a victory like we had in New York, it’s just the beginning for us and our inspirational motivational movement that we feel will affect many in the entire country.

Next we move on to my home state Texas. We will be playing for Camp Sanguinity, a camp for kids with cancer and blood disorders. I went to this camp as a camper when I was battling my cancer and continue to go back every year as a counselor. All the proceeds raised for this game will all go to the camp. We again will be playing an all able bodied team with a combination of camp/hospital staff. This will be our biggest event yet. We all have been training hard for the past month or so getting ready for this event. We go through the protein waters very quickly while playing basketball and I myself like to drink the Blitz powders before and sometimes after my workouts. Since I have been drinking Designer Whey, I can tell and feel a huge difference in my stamina and my performance on the court. With three weeks away till our next big event, we are in focus mode and doing what we feel God kept us all alive for to help others with our gift. On May 22, 2010, Amp 1 will again make the statement that with hard work, determination, and faith you can reach your dreams and goals.

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More than a game: Basketball-loving amputees want a league of their own
By Emily James
Deseret News
Published: Saturday, Jan. 23, 2010 12:58 a.m. MST

Brandon Larson, from left, of Salt Lake City, drives to the hoop as Tyler Hyatt, of Salt Lake City, blocks Steven Osborn, of Mesa, Ariz., as members of Amp1 Stand Up Amputee Basketball play a demonstration game at the Copperview Recreation Center in Midvale Friday. T.j. Kirkpatrick, Deseret News

From the waist up, it was like any other four-on-four basketball game. There were plays called, screens set, 3-pointers shot, fouls called, free throws taken and high-fives all around.

What made Friday’s game at the Copperview Recreation Center in Midvale different was that seven of the eight players were amputees, each playing with a prosthetic leg. And if the game was short — only 20 minutes — the message brought by the players was one of a long effort to get a league for such players.

Tyler Hyatt of Salt Lake City and Scott Odom of Fort Worth, Texas, both amputees, met when Hyatt came across a video of Odom on YouTube playing stand-up basketball. Hyatt had been interested in starting a stand-up amputee league, but he was always told the same thing – it could not be done.

Hyatt contacted Odom, and the two quickly became friends. They spoke on the phone every night about their shared dream. Odom had been trying to generate interest in a stand-up amputee league for nearly 10 years, and the call from Hyatt was all he needed to get it started. Together the pair co-founded Amp 1 in 2009, a team that they hope to turn into a league.
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At the end of the first 10-minute half in Friday’s game, the white team, consisting of Myles Davis of Detroit, Brian Vincent of San Diego, Steven Osborn of Mesa, Ariz., and Odom, led the blue team 16-14. But by the end of the game, the blue team, made up of Salt Lake players Brandon Larson, Dane Tidwell, Hyatt and Hyatt’s brother Bronson Hyatt, who is not an amputee, had come back to win 35-32.

Odom and Tyler Hyatt have slowly gathered players who are amputees, typically those who were either born without a leg, or lost one to cancer or an accident, from around the country.

Tyler Hyatt lost his leg at 4 years of age. He was biking down a hill when he ran into a garbage truck that was backing up. The truck then rolled over him and dragged him for 15 yards.

“By then, the damage was done,” Hyatt said.

Seven doctors at Primary Children’s Medical Center worked hard to keep Tyler Hyatt alive. He had 18 surgeries in three months.

“They were able to save my life, but they weren’t able to save my limb,” Tyler Hyatt said.

Odom has a different story, but one that also ends in the loss of a leg. Extremely active growing up, Odom often complained of knee pains. Family doctors told him he was too active. It wasn’t until two weeks before he started high school that his football team doctor suggested an X-ray and then an MRI, which led to the discovery of osteosarcoma — bone cancer.

Odom was given the option of keeping his leg — but losing his ability to be active — or having it amputated. A die-hard sports fan, he gave up his leg for the hope of the chance to get back in the game — any game.

“I was looking at my leg or my life,” Odom said. “And I’d rather lose my leg and keep my life.”

The prospects of getting back into sports drove Odom to work extra hard in therapy. In 2001, he was nominated to carry the Olympic torch and passed it off to cyclist Lance Armstrong in Austin, Texas.

“I kind of took that torch like my championship trophy that I beat cancer,” Odom said.

Every player on the Amp 1 team has a story to tell about how they came to be where they are today, and every story includes a love for basketball. Davis has a story similar to Odom’s. Also an osteosarcoma survivor, Davis had to give up his leg to survive.

“By hearing Scott’s story, it just motivated me even more,” Davis said.

Amp 1 has brought together a group of like-minded individuals who want to do what they love and prove those who doubted them wrong. They also hope to bring amputees into the mainstream, so when new amputees go out in public they are accepted and not perceived to be different from any other person.

“This is what I feel like I’m meant to do,” Odom said. “It’s more than basketball. We’re going to shake up the sports world.”

Amp 1, a play on the popular traveling streetball team And 1, will reunite next in Mattituck, N.Y., on March 6.

The team is still in its beginning stages, but it has dedicated players. Brian Vincent, a chef in San Diego, who was born without his left leg below the knee and a club foot on his right leg, has the popular Michael Jordan “Jumpman” logo tattooed on his right leg. But instead of Jordan having two regular legs, it depicts one of the legs being a prosthesis.

“I really believe in it,” Vincent said. “That’s why I have it.”

More information can be found about the Amp 1 Basketball Team on its Web site at www.amp1basketball.com.

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