The first thing you notice when you meet 11-year-old Nathan Holmberg is that his smile is constant and it’s engaging.

Even more impressive than his personality is the level at which he competes on the wrestling mat because Nathan has no right leg.Nathan was born with no tibia, the large bone in the leg that supports much of the weight of the body. At 8 months old, he had to have his right leg removed.Rebecca Holmberg, Nathan’s mother, saw that when he was 3 years old, he liked to spin around in circles on the floor.A Lehighton High School wrestling coach, Dan Williams also noticed Nathan’s spinning and suggested that Nathan could consider participating in the sport.“I found out that Anthony Robles, (who won an NCAA college championship) wrestled with no right leg,” said Nathan. “He said he had no disability. So then, I thought why not me?”Let’s do this!When Nathan was 6 years old, he became a member of the Lehighton Booster Club’s wrestling program where he met assistant coach, Kris Nalesnik, whose son Conner was also a member.“I was never nervous about joining. I wanted to get started right away,” Nathan said.“He was raw when he came to us, but he’s such a hard worker, “ said Nalesnik. “He’s continued to improve his technique.”Speaking of his hard work, Nalesnik said that Nathan keeps pushing himself to get better.“When everyone else is dogging it and dragging themselves around from exhaustion, Nathan keeps going. He has no quit in him.”Camp for kids with limb lossSince passing his first test in the local program, Rebecca decided to take another step.Earlier this summer, she took Nathan to NubAbility, an adaptive Wrestling Camp in Illinois.The program specializes in coaching kids who are congenital or traumatic amputees and getting them mainstreamed into organized sports. Their mission is to instill courage and confidence in the young athletes that attend the camps.“I also wanted Nathan to learn from an amputee coach,” Rebecca said.“My mom was still unsure whether I should be a wrestler,” Nathan said.Once at the camp, he met coach Zach Rosen who had lost his right leg from cancer at the age of 8.“I can remember my life with two legs,” Rosen said. “I loved sports. They were my escape from a bad home life. After the removal of my leg, for the next 10 years of my life, I was heartbroken.”He first became interested in wrestling by watching World Wide Wrestling matches on TV. Then, after getting up the courage to learn the sport, Rosen became the first one-legged professional wrestler in the United States.It was obvious why Nathan and his coach hit it off right from the start of the camp.Embracing the challengeRosen’s dedication to his belief in Nathan is evident by the fact that the 3-year coach drove his car nine hours from his home in Michigan to mentor Nathan and a few other young wrestlers at the Pyramid in Lehighton.“It’s not just about what happens on the mat,” he explained. “I want Nathan and other kids with limb loss to know that there’s no middle of the road for people like us. We either sit on the couch eating potato chips or we show the world what we can do.”Former Olympic gold medalist, Scott Hamilton once said, “The only disability in life is a bad attitude.”“Nathan’s got such a positive outlook on life because he’s learned that the human body is an amazing tool that has the ability to overcome what it may be missing,” said Rosen, who is also a motivational speaker. “Many times I’ve been asked how can I wrestle with only one leg and I answer with, ‘I don’t know. I’ve never wrestled with two.’“I tell Nathan to never let what happened to him define who he is.”Nathan Holmberg is well on his way in defining himself. When he’s not swimming, skiing, or kayaking, he is preparing himself to become a member of his high school’s wrestling team.“I’m no different than anyone else,” he said. “I can do whatever I want to do and I can be good at it.”By the way, he’s already pretty good at wrestling — and very good at smiling, too.