The CAST tournament allows participants who may be have lost a limb or not have full range of mobility of their body to play in a tennis in a competitive tournament. 

CAST partnered with Guilford Regional Tennis Association to host players from all over the world and was started by John Hizer in 2019. This year, a player is coming all the way from Japan, according to the organization’s website.

“That’s what’s most inspirational about this tournament, is a lot of these players were born with birth defects or issues at birth and have spent their whole lives overcoming whatever physical limitations that they had to play, whatever sport, not only tennis, but, you know, any sports,” Hizer said.

John Hizer plays a friendly game of tennis. (Spectrum News 1/Sydney McCoy)

Hizer lost his leg in a car accident when he was 19 and never knew if he would be able to walk again. 

“Obviously, as you’re laying in the bed in the hospital, you know, what am I going to do? Am I going to quit or am I going to suck it up and, you know, and still be an athlete?” Hizer said. 

He said he had lots of encouragement from coaches and people in his life that allowed him to have the courage and strength to try sports again.

“So that’s really what began my search. I mean, tennis was not one of the first sports I tried. I tried golf, which, you know, who’s really good at golf?” Hizer said. 

He said he had never played tennis before and was inspired by his daughter to start hitting the courts, even playing in tournaments. 

“But over the years have gotten better to be able to hold my own with them and improve my game,” Hizer said. 

CAST is one of the only standing adaptive tennis tournaments in the world, according to Hizer, and the group hopes this tournament will inspire large organizations to make standing adaptive tennis a paralympic sport.

An adaptive player competes in the 2022 tournament. (Courtesy CAST)

“We’re trying to organize on our own to show them that we’re serious about this and that this is something they should really take a look at and help us get it to the next level, too, so it can be a paralympic sport,” Hizer said.

Ashley Xu has played in the CAST tournament in previous years. She lost her leg at 10 to cancer. 

“When I was a kid, I was a dancer. And so, you know, pointe shoes are not something that are very conducive to a prosthesis,” Xu said. 

She said she never thought she would play a sport with a ball, but found her way to tennis years later.

“My husband got me playing. And so I have never let my disability really stop me from doing things,” Xu said.

She said she believes the tournament is a great opportunity for people with disabilities to play tennis and plays with able-bodied people as well. 

“I feel like I’m lucky. I’m probably one of the least disabled ones in the tournament and I am able to play tennis with able-bodied people and not as well,” Xu said.

Hizer says that through funding of corporate sponsorships and personal donations, CAST is able to provide financial assistance to the players so anyone can come play. 

“That was ultimately one of my goals in the beginning was to be able to help people get here, to have some fun and and not let money get in the way of them playing a sport that they like to play,” Hizer said. 

The tournament also provides a free clinic for children to learn the basics of adaptive standing tennis the day before matches start.