By Michael Kinney
In 2019, Brenden Butler discovered he had bone cancer in his foot. After completing 10 months of chemotherapy, his right leg had to be amputated to get rid of the cancer completely.
During his treatment, Butler made the decision he wasn’t going to let the loss of a limb stop him from being active and he made some goals for himself.
“When I lost my leg, I kind of made a goal to myself to run para track,” Butler said. “I had run a little bit before and had always been an athlete. I wanted to pick kind of the hardest thing to do.”
Butler was in Oklahoma last week to try and make good on those goals. The Dallas native was one of several hundred athletes competing in the 25th Annual Endeavor Games, which were held at the University of Central Oklahoma and various locations in Edmond. It was the second time he had entered the annual event since losing his leg.
“This, for people at least in the Dallas area, has the best competition,” Butler said. “You get to run against guys who have been established for a little bit. Obviously, they have been around for 25 years so it’s the most established para-track event in the nation at this point. It was a no-brainer to be here to try and qualify for the Paralympic team trials.”
The Endeavor Games is an adaptive sports competition for athletes with physical disabilities, according to Leigha Pemberton, the Assistant Director for Events and Partnerships for the games. In its 25 years, it has become a breeding ground for the Paralympic games and has been one of the largest multi-sport, multi-physical disability competitions in the nation.
“So most of our competitors come from Texas and Oklahoma,” Pemberton said. “We have about a 50-50 share between those two, and then the rest of them come from all across the US. This year we actually have three or four countries that are visiting as well.”
The UCO Endeavor Games for Athletes with Physical Disabilities were first held in 2000 with 91 athletes competing in seven sports. This year it has grown to 312 registered athletes in 10 different sports. The sports included wheelchair basketball, powerlifting, air rifle, track and field and swimming.
The athletes range in age from elementary school kids who were born with physical handicaps to men and women in their 40s and 50s who were injured late in life.
“I think people are looking for more and more opportunities,” Pemberton said. “Especially since we’ve had a hard time after Covid kind of bouncing back, and I think we’re finally seeing that and people are like, let’s get out and let’s do stuff.”
The games aren’t just for those who have paralympic dreams. For many of the kids who make their way to the Endeavor Games, it’s one of the few times they are provided an opportunity to compete in athletics since many school districts do not offer adaptive sports.
“We believe in sport for life. You don’t have to be a serious competitive athlete. We want you just to get out and get on the water in a kayak or play volleyball because you just want to, and it’s fun,” Pemberton said. “Same thing with wheelchair basketball, whatever it is, you can do it at any age, at any point in time. And I think right now not very many states have adaptive sports in their schools, and we really want for Oklahoma to adopt that, to bring adaptive sports into their schools and to give kids at that pivotal age an opportunity to compete with their friends.
“There’s no reason that they shouldn’t. And so really many of these kids coming from different states and from Oklahoma don’t have that many opportunities and they have to travel a lot,” Pemberton continued. “So it’s nice that we’re able to offer something on this scale in the state of Oklahoma and hopefully one day will affect change and the schools in Oklahoma. We value our students and we are going to provide them with opportunities to compete.”
But it’s not just about the competition. The games have become a yearly reunion for those who have grown up coming to the games.
“One of the things Endeavor Games tries to do is we try to make it just a full event. It’s not just a sports competition, but it’s an opportunity to get together year after year with your friends and your family,” Pemberton said. “Some of these people that are adults have been coming since they were kids. We have a timeline on our wall this year, and they see themselves as kids and then all of a sudden they’re here as adults. It’s become a tradition and more and more athletes are learning about adaptive sports and competitive adaptive sports and finding out about all the opportunities. I think that’s part of the reason why we’re seeing growth and why it’s important to be here. We want to give athletes with physical disabilities as many opportunities as possible to compete and have fun.”
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