Patrick Byrne of Norridge demonstrates how he plays golf while balancing on one leg. His dad introduced him to the sport after Byrne lost his leg in a construction accident in 1992. Byrne now teaches veterans, stroke survivors and the visually impaired how to play the game. | Ryan Pagelow~Sun-Times Media

Patrick Byrne of Norridge, who lost his leg in a construction accident in 1992, spoke to students at Leigh School in Norridge on May 16 about living with a disability and playing sports. Byrne was a member of the gold-medal-winning sled hockey team at the 2002 Paralympic Games in Salt Lake City and was inducted into the Illinois Hockey Hall of Fame in 2010. | Ryan Pagelow~Sun-Times Media

Melissa Schaefer, an eighth grader at Leigh School in Norridge, plays wheelchair basketball for the Jr. Bulls and participated in an assembly about athletes with disabilities in front of classmates at Leigh School on May 16. | Ryan Pagelow~Sun-Times Media

Melissa Schaefer of Norridge, an eighth grader at Leigh School in Norridge, plays basketball with classmates who are trying out wheelchairs for the first time during an assembly about athletes with disabilities. | Ryan Pagelow~Sun-Times Media

Michael Knapp of Chicago demonstrates how to ride a hand cycle at Leigh School in Norridge. "I was hit by a car while biking eight years ago. I never thought I'd be on a cycle again," he said. | Ryan Pagelow~Sun-Times Media

Patrick Byrne of Norridge demonstrates how to ride a hand cycle during an assembly at Leigh School in Norridge on playing sports despite disabilities. | Ryan Pagelow~Sun-Times Media

Ryan Schmeda, a fifth grader at Leigh School in Norridge, races Hailey Danisewiecz of Evanston who uses a special prosthetic leg to run triathlons during an assembly on playing sports despite disabilities at the school. | Ryan Pagelow~Sun-Times Media

Kelly Shanley, a fifth grader at Leigh School in Norridge, tries to catch a softball while trying out a wheelchair during an assembly at the school to go along with the book "One-Handed Catch" about a young baseball fan who loses his hand and learns to play the game again. | Ryan Pagelow~Sun-Times Media

Patrick Byrne of Norridge holds up the prosthetic leg he uses after losing his leg in a construction accident in 1992. Though he prefers to use crutches or a wheelchair to get around, the prosthetic leg helps him with phantom pain in the leg he lost. Behind him are Don Zommer of Bartlett and Hailey Danisewiezc of Evanston who also demonstrated how they use their prosthetic limbs to play sports. | Ryan Pagelow~Sun-Times Media

Kevin McKee (left) of Chicago, a gold-medalist with the USA Sled Hockey Team, and Erica Mitchell of Chicago, a member of the USA Women's Sled Hockey Team, talk about their experiences playing sports at Leigh School in Norridge. | Ryan Pagelow~Sun-Times Media

Patrick Byrne (left) of Norridge talks to students at Leigh School in Norridge with J. J. O'Conner of Mount Prospect about playing sports despite disabilities. O'Conner broke his neck while playing hockey when he was 16 and now manages a sled hockey team and plays soccer in his power chair. | Ryan Pagelow~Sun-Times Media

Patrick Byrne of Norridge plays for the Blackhawks Sled Hockey Team, was a member of the gold-medal-winning sled hockey team at the 2002 Paralympic Games in Salt Lake City and was inducted into the Illinois Hockey Hall of Fame in 2010. | Courtesy photo