Ryan Martin, was diagnosed with Spina Bifida when he was born and had both his legs amputated at the age of two. Through Martin’s life he has been able to depend on basketball for strength mentally and physically. After playing overseas for 12 seasons of his career, he is now a professional basketball player for New York Rolling Knicks of the NWBA. Martin has shown great amounts of resilience by turning his disability into motivation to inspire others.

Martin has become President of his own foundation, The Ryan Martin Foundation, and has also become a consultant for the NCAA. The goal of the foundation is, “to help youth and adult athletes with disabilities live independent, impassioned, productive and full lives through sports training, mentoring and education.” A personal goal of Martins is to “reduce stigmas about disabilities and demonstrate that the sky’s the limit.”

On Friday, May 19th Ryan Martin will be visiting to deliver a motivational speech to the students and staff of Woodland.