Teen who lost her leg to rare cancer aged 10 opens up about the realities of 'embracing her disability' after going viral for her Bama Bound outfits

A wheelchair basketball recruit headed to the University of Alabama this fall made waves after giving fans a glimpse into the realities of being a Bama-Bound freshman.

Skylar Scarnecchia, 18, from Warren, Ohio, enticed a huge following on social media thanks to her upbeat outfit-of-the-day posts in which she highlights her clothes and accessories, along with her prosthetic leg.

She decided to show off her 'fits on TikTok over a June two-day orientation for incoming freshman at University of Alabama, hyped on social media with the tag #BamaBound.

While #BamaRush has become known for sorority hopefuls' excessive displays of wealth, Skylar went viral with her own down-to-earth narration of her look - also proudly highlighting her prosthetic in the process.

Skylar has since sat down with DailyMail.com to discuss the realities of her journey. 

Skylar Scarnecchia, 18, from Warner, Ohio, is an incoming freshman at the University of Alabama, where she'll be playing for the wheelchair basketball team

In attending #BamaBound - also known as the orientation for incoming freshman - Skylar went viral on TikTok showing off her OOTDs (outfits of the day)

In her now viral videos, for her day-one outfit, Skylar showcased a light-blue American Eagle tote, red tank top and red-striped white athletic shorts from Amazon, vintage Havana shoes, earrings from Amazon, a Kendra Scott necklace and an Apple Watch. 

And her prosthetic leg? From Ohio's Hanger Clinic. 

On day two, it was the same American Eagle tote and Apple Watch but this time with Amazon overalls, Walmart top, Converse shoes, necklaces by Kendra Scott and TJ Maxx - and again, prosthetic from Hanger Clinic.

'Thank you guys so much, and roll tide!' Skylar concluded, sounding off the university's rallying sports cry. 

'Before I committed to Alabama, I always saw #Rush TikTok and I thought it was so cute, and so much fun seeing all these girls out and everything,' Skylar told DailyMail.com.

'Then, as I saw the prices, I can't do that stuff. So, going to #BamaBound, I did see some girls posting their outfit of the days and I said, "This is my opportunity to show my outfits, but on a budget,"' she said with a chuckle.

As her OOTD post for #BamaBound 'blew up,' Skylar described how 'it was so humbling looking through the comments and people were like, "Thank you for being real and like, what your prices are, what your like outfits are."'

'It's so important to be real on social media,' she added.

'I think embracing your disability is so important,' Skylar reflected of representing an unconventional form of beauty

Skylar began playing basketball in the second grade - and went on to discover wheelchair basketball after losing part of her right leg to cancer

Skylar also acknowledges how she's representing beauty in an unconventional way as she heads to a campus that's gained some notoriety through the #BamaRush phenomenon for championing very narrow - and for most, unattainable - standards of feminine beauty.

'I think embracing your disability is so important,' Skylar reflected.

And it's a beautiful thing to show people. Because you don't usually see people with disabilities on an everyday basis unless you have someone in your life with one.

'And so when I was showing my outfit, I was like, I'm gonna shout out Hanger Clinic because that's how I got my leg,' she described.

As for people speculating that she was in fact aspiring to partake in #BamaRush, Skylar quickly set the record straight.

'Rush is cool and all but I'm playing adaptive sports. And I wanted to highlight adaptive sports at the University of Alabama so we can get new fans… I think it's an awesome program, and they need to be just as big as any other sport there,' she said.

Still, Skylar's passion for athletics came long before her prosthetic, and playing sports is at the core of her identity.

'I was an active kid,' she told DailyMail.com. 'I played every sport I could imagine - soccer, track, volleyball, softball, basketball.

'And I loved all the sports, not necessarily that I was good at all of them!

'But basketball was the one sport that just clicked with me and I've always loved.'

'I was an active kid,' Skylar told DailyMail.com. 'I played every sport I could imagine - soccer, track, volleyball, softball, basketball'

She's now heading to the University of Alabama on a full sports scholarship within the university's Adapted Athletics program

She first took up basketball in the second grade, and played 'stand-up basketball,' as she describes it, up through her cancer diagnosis.

As a fifth-grader, Sklyar was diagnosed with stage four synovial sarcoma, an ultra-rare cancer that affects soft tissue, in her foot.

'So I had to put my life on pause for my disease. And I was very upset about it. I love basketball. So it was very disappointing,' she said.

In the course of her treatment, Skylar ultimately lost her part of her right leg, from below the knee, and was fitted for a prosthetic. 

And, cancer-free by middle school, Skylar was ready to get back on the court.

While she played the game well with her prosthetic, she admitted that, by her sophomore year of high school, her 'love' for 'stand-up basketball' was starting to 'fizzle out.'

But, right as she was starting to question her passion for basketball, she got a message from Paralympian Darlene Hunter, who suggested she try wheelchair basketball.

'At first I was like, "I don't know if I want to. I can run, I can jump, I can stand. Why would I go in a wheelchair?" But that was just my pride getting in the way of an amazing opportunity,' Skylar described. 

'So eventually, God spoke to me and said, "Skylar, try the sport. I think it's going to open a lot of doors for you."

'And I tried my very first practice out with the Cleveland Cavaliers. And as soon as I sat in that chair, I fell in love with the sport all over again.

'It was a feeling that I could never, I feel like, relive or imagine, but it was just there. And I knew from that point on my life was changed,' she recalled. 

In fifth grade, Skylar was diagnosed with stage four synovial sarcoma, an ultra-rare cancer that affects soft tissue, in her foot

Skylar ultimately ended up losing her right leg below her knee - but was thankfully found to be cancer-free just one year later

Though the basic rules of wheelchair basketball are similar, there are some key differences in how the game is played.

'It was very hard!' Skylar said of the adjustment. 

'You don't think about how you have to dribble while pushing your chair,' she pointed out. 

In the official rules, players may hold the ball in their laps or in their hands for no more than two pushes of their wheelchair before they must dribble it again.

The height of the hoops, at 10 feet, is the same as in stand-up basketball, with the court dimensions the same size as well.

The scoring system is also the same, with one-, two- and three-pointers as measured by the shooter's distance from the hoop.

Over Easter of 2022, with Skylar still a high-school sophomore and growing to love wheelchair basketball more and more, her mom surprised her, asking her if she'd want to go to University of Alabama's wheelchair basketball camp the coming summer.

Skylar enthusiastically said yes. 

When she arrived to campus for the first time, she said it was like Lynyrd Skynyrd's Sweet Home Alabama had come true for her.

'Because I just felt like home there!' she said.

During camp, she was singled out by Coach Ryan Hynes, the coach for the university's women's wheelchair basketball team. 

Coach Hynes had also led the team to win the national championship for five years running - which is also most of his tenure, having taken up the position in 2018. 

He asked Skylar to stay in touch.

In the scary days following her cancer diagnosis, Skylar had chosen an elephant to appear on tee-shirts and other merch intended to help her and her family fight the illness

Attending wheelchair basketball summer camp before her junior year of high school, Skylar was shocked to realize that the elephant was also the mascot at University of Alabama

On Good Friday of 2023, he officially reached out to her to ask if she wanted to come play on the University of Alabama women's wheelchair basketball team, with a full athletics scholarship, as part of its Alabama Adapted Athletics program. 

'And I did! I was like, "There's no other option for me."'

What's more, Skylar felt a special affinity to the university thanks to a symbol that, in a stunning coincidence, directly echoed what had been for her an image of hope from the scary days following her cancer diagnosis.  

Back then, she'd been asked to choose an animal to put on a tee-shirt as part of community fundraising efforts for her and her family.

Skylar chose an elephant, with its trunk raised in the air - as a sign of 'good luck,' she explained.

Years later, as her parents were picking her up from summer camp at the campus, the family decided to snap a quick photo in front of the university's sign.

On seeing the sign, they were collectively, giddily shocked to take in the image of an elephant with its trunk raised.

In addition to instantly feeling at 'home' on setting foot on campus for the first time, Skylar took its elephant mascot as a sure sign she was meant to attend Alabama

Only then did she realize that the university's mascot was, in fact, an elephant. 

'Leading up to that, we had no idea what the mascot was. We didn't know anything about Alabama. We were just there to play wheelchair basketball,' she recalled.

'And we pulled up, and the elephant with a trunk up was right there. Because their mascot is Big Al. And me and my family just started crying together and we just hugged. And this is so significant to me.

'And so to be here at the University of Alabama, with these new opportunities, and their mascot to be an elephant, that's not a coincidence. That's a God thing.'

As for her educational aspirations, Skylar plans to major in Human Development and Family Studies with a concentration in Child Life.

After college, she plans to become a child-life specialist, with the aim of helping children battling cancer, and she once was.  

'I want to be their light at the end of the tunnel,' said Skylar.