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Basketball player with one arm and no legs

FITCHBURG, MA — North Central Charter Essential School coach Kyle Gillis stopped basketball practice Tuesday so a photographer could film Roman Sweeney shooting 3-pointers. Standing on his titanium legs, Sweeney held the ball in his right hand while balancing it against the stump on his short left arm. Then he heaved the ball into the basket on his first attempt and his teammates cheered. Sweeney, a 19-year-old senior, has been amazing people with his determination and sense of humor since his parents adopted him from a Russian orphanage when he was 6. He was born with legs that end just above the knee and a left arm that extends to where an elbow should be. On his stump, which he nicknamed "Paul" after no one in particular, is one digit that amounts to a thumb. Sweeney joked that he was like the Lady Gaga song, "Baby, I was born this way." Sweeney's birth mother gave him up to an orphanage and Tim and Pam Sweeney, who have four biological children, welcomed him into their home in Orange. The family never treated him like he was disabled and don't even have a handicap placard for their car. "On paper, I guess I'm disabled," Sweeney said, "and if it gets me free stuff I'll take that, but when it comes to people saying, 'Oh, you can't do that because you're disabled,' then that's when I'm like, 'Oh, I'll try it.' " Sweeney plays tennis, break dances and even climbed Mount Monadnock on a school trip. Last spring for NCC's baseball team, Sweeney played first base and pitched an inning of relief, retiring all three batters he faced. He was startled when a hard grounder bounced off his rib cage, but he picked the ball up and threw the runner out. Basketball is his favorite sport, but his mother, a U.S. history teacher at NCC, didn't want him to play it until this year because he can't easily brace himself when he trips so she was afraid he'd get hurt. "He had to learn how to fall," she said. So Sweeney had to be content with attending the games last season as a fan. At halftime of each home game, he'd take one-handed shots from half-court and Gillis said he made more than he missed. Yes, Sweeney's right arm is very strong. Video by Christine Peterson, read more at telegram.com http://www.telegram.com/article/20130...