Jada Cano, a 20-year-old St. Mary’s University student, is as busy as can be.
On Tuesdays, Cano gets out of class and heads to practice with the power soccer team she co-captains. Then quickly back to campus to teach trial advocacy — Cano is vice president of her university’s mock trial association. She and her team returned from a tournament in Arizona in early January. This weekend they head to Virginia.
Cano, a junior political science major with plans for law school, is now vying for a spot with the U.S. National Power Soccer team and a chance to compete in the upcoming power soccer world cup.
At age 2, she was diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy, a genetic disease characterized by muscle weakness and muscle wasting that tends to worsen over time.
“Very busy,” says April Zuniga, Cano’s nurse who sits on the bleachers at the gym where she practices. “It’s always something.”
Spinal muscular atrophy
Spinal muscular atrophy is a rare condition affecting between 1 in 6,000 to 1 in 10,000 people. The disease is caused by a genetic defect in the survival motor neuron 1 gene, leading to the loss of nerve cells in the spinal cord responsible for controlling muscle movement. There’s different subtypes of SMA that range in severity and life expectancy.
Last year, Cano became an SMA ambassador through Biogen, a biotech company based in Massachusetts that manufactures the medication that Cano takes to limit the progression of the disease and manage symptoms.
There’s no cure for SMA, but there are treatments to slow the progression of muscle weakness and fatigue that come with the disease. That includes a treatment approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2016 called nusinersen, known by the brand name Spinraza.
Cano has been receiving the injection every four months around her spinal cord since it was approved. The treatment has helped suppress the debilitating fatigue that often accompanies SMA.
“I remember I squeezed a ketchup bottle and my parents lost it, because that was something I could never do before,” Cano said. “I’ve been able to maintain these long-hour days, and be able to still be a functioning person at the end of it.”
It has also helped her sustain several hours of power soccer practice a week as she looks to compete at the highest level of the sport.
Power soccer
Cano discovered power soccer at age 5, and she’s been with the same team, the STRAPS Scorpions, ever since. Power soccer is a game with two teams of four players, usually played on an indoor court with a heavy 13-inch soccer ball.
Players exit their everyday motorized wheelchairs and strap into specially-built motorized chairs lower to the ground and containing a cage on the front for controlling, passing and shooting the ball. “This is my cleat,” Cano said.
Cano and her teammates practice passing, shooting and scrimmaging. They finish up by watching game film. “We compete very hard, we smack talk,” Cano said.
Off the court though, Cano said, the players share their experiences with their disabilities and challenges in navigating the health care system.
The Scorpions compete in the U.S. Power Soccer Association, made up of over 60 teams split into four divisions, including two other Texas teams in Houston and Dallas. In 2024, the Scorpions won second place in their division.
Cano and her co-captain, Jakob Narendorf, have been to tryouts for the U.S. National Power Soccer team, which will compete in the Powerchair Football World Cup in October in Argentina. Last summer, Cano had the opportunity to travel to England with the national team.
“I was the first person in my family to go out of the country,” Cano said with a laugh. “Nobody expects the person who’s disabled to get to go play a sport outside of their country.”
Jennifer Weatherford, a recreation therapist who specializes in adaptive sports for people with disabilities, has coached the team for 13 years. “She’s a dream come true as a coach,” she said of Cano. “Charging, amazing athlete, always giving back, mentoring the new players. She’s an amazing human.”
For Cano, power soccer offers a sense of autonomy, competition and community of people from different backgrounds with different disabilities.
“Ever since I was little, I was very much interested in being an athlete and having that competition. It just opened up this whole world … I can play a sport just like the kid next to me. It was empowering.”
“With our disability, it’s harder in the sense of everyday life, but this is something that we can excel at,” Cano added.
