U.S. Army Spc. Sydney Cavanagh, red jersey, shoots the basketball over a defender during wheelchair basketball at the 2025 Army Trials, Fort Bliss, Texas, April 3, 2025. Over 60 wounded, ill and injured Soldiers and veterans are at Fort Bliss, April 1 - 10 to compete in a series of athletic events including archery, cycling, shooting, sitting volleyball, swimming, powerlifting, track, field, rowing, wheelchair rugby and wheelchair basketball. The Army holds qualifying trials to assess and select athletes for competition in the DoD Warrior Games. This year, the DoD Warrior Games will take place July 18 – 26 at Colorado College in Colorado Springs. (U.S. Army photo by Spc. Samuel Signor)

(Photo courtesy Spc. Syd Cavanagh)

Army Spc. Syd Cavanagh is getting his mind and spirit aligned in his track wheelchair as he says before track events at the Army Trials, April 5, 2025, Fort Bliss, Texas.

(Photo courtesy Spc. Syd Cavanagh)

Army Spc. Syd Cavanagh and his girlfriend in South Carolina, November 2024.

FALLS CHURCH, Va.- Army Spc. Syd Cavanagh is excited to be a member of Team Army competing at the 2025 Department of Defense Warrior Games in Colorado Springs this July. Besides the competition, he explains how his passion for adaptive sports has him in unfamiliar but exciting territory. “I walked into the SRU as one person and I left a completely different one in a good way,” said Cavanagh, who injured his right knee while on deployment in Syria and recovered at the Fort Cavazos Soldier Recovery Unit.

“I didn't know what my life was going to look like. My career was over; potentially, my Army career was over. I figured I would have to tuck my tail in and move home. In the SRU, they helped me physically and with mental health support to get through the injury, and it gave me a spark with purpose,” said the Army reservist who was a sheriff’s deputy in his civilian career.

After surgery on a torn ACL of his right knee, Cavanagh discovered adaptive sports through his SRU. He competed at the Army Trials in April with the adaptive sports experience he had under his belt, and it paid off. He recalls the day he learned he made Team Army. “I was on the phone the entire night just calling people I cared about and sending other texts. I couldn’t believe it, and I almost didn’t have words. Happy is an understatement.”

Adaptive sports gave Cavanagh the confidence he needed to feel whole again. He said having the Army Recovery Care Program to help him is a huge blessing. “When you lose your purpose, you can go into dark places. In the SRU, they have mental healthcare, physical therapy, and adaptive sports. All of that working together is something. Putting you in a team environment and working together, showing you can go through some crazy things and your friends have gone through some crazy things too, you find that when you work with each other, you will come out on top!”

Cavanagh is training hard to help Team Army come out on top at this year’s Warrior Games. “I'm competing in field, indoor rowing, wheelchair track, and wheelchair rugby, which is the adaptive sport I am most excited about.”

Besides the competition, he wants to share with the rest of the world what adaptive sports can do to help heal. “I'm just so happy that I get to tell the people in my hometown you might be able to turn on the TV or you'll definitely see pictures of these sports that you've never seen before and now you can relate to it, because someone you know is doing it, and now you can tell your friends that there's a wheelchair basketball team on a national level along with other adaptive sports.”

Ever so grateful, Cavanagh will take his rightful place competing on Team Army, reflecting on how he got here and recognizing the why. “I tell people Warrior Games is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and I am trying to humble myself. I'm trying to thank God for it. I know I will smile when I hear my name at the games! When I see all my brothers and sisters around me, and we're getting out there and kicking butt, it will be awesome! It's easy to get on a high, but I think the most important thing about all of this is why we're here, and we're here for awareness, and that is the passion that I've taken outside of the games as well.”