When Palmer Thompson was a young child, he and his family traveled to Big Sky, Montana, to ski. It was the first time that all four of them, including Palmer, were able to ski together and experience adaptive sports. On the way home from the trip, Chad and Angie Thompson knew they had to make a choice – either move to Boseman, Montana, or start their own adaptive sports group in Minot. Just a few years later, the Thompsons filed for their nonprofit license and founded Prairie Grit Adaptive Sports.

“It started slow,” Chad Thompson said. “There weren’t any opportunities around (for adaptive sports), so it was kind of an easy ask.”

The organization started out with just sled hockey, a form of ice hockey that sees players sit on a sled with two blades and pikes to move across the ice. Not long after, Prairie Grit started to add a wider variety of sports, including tennis, golf and wheelchair basketball, among others. At first, Chad and Angie Thompson would sign Palmer up for every activity. As he has grown older, Palmer Thompson said his favorites are sled hockey and hunting.

“Before we started Prairie Grit, I used to go on the ice with my brother,” Palmer said. “My dad would always bring me out … on a sled.”

Palmer Thompson awaits the ball while playing wheelchair tennis. Palmer will play for Minot High during the 2025-26 season. Photo courtesy of Angie Thompson.

Palmer’s brother, Oliver, also was very into hockey growing up. The Thompsons had their own rink in their back yard and spent a lot of time on the ice. Angie and Chad Thompson said the hockey community in Minot was always very accepting and loving of Palmer growing up, and his exposure to the sport at a young age helped him foster his love for the ice. When the Thompsons approached the community with the idea for Prairie Grit and the sled hockey team, the community was immediately on board.

“They gave us ice time like, right away,” Chad Thompson said. “Minot hockey and Minot Parks and Rec were on board immediately.”

In more recent years, Palmer Thompson has started to find a lot of enjoyment in tennis. He started eighth grade this school year, which means he will be able to play at the high school level. In high school tennis, Thompson plays while in a wheelchair and he gets two bounces on his side. With those accommodations, Thompson gets to play against other able bodied high schoolers.

Palmer, like the other three Thompson boys, attends Our Redeemer’s Christian School and plays for Minot High during the regular season. Chad and Angie have four sons: Oliver, Palmer, Wells and Ford.

Angie Thompson said the coaches at Minot High have been great for Palmer. They treat him like one of their own and even pushed him to attend a wheelchair tennis camp over the summer to improve his game, meet a paralympian wheelchair tennis player and learn from a professional wheelchair tennis coach.

Palmer Thompson said he is looking to play tennis all the way through his senior year of high school as well as through college. He also has already decided where he wants to end up – the University of Arizona in Tucson. A lot of Palmer’s role models in D1 adaptive sports ended up at Arizona, and he said he also is looking forward to leaving the cold weather behind.

Along with tennis, Palmer Thompson loves to hunt. Prairie Grit creates opportunities for adaptive hunting, including taking down turkey, deer, antelope and bear. Palmer Thompson knows a thing or two about hunting bears, and the bear skin rug on the floor of the Thompson’s home is proof of that, though the family said it was riskier than they would have liked.

Palmer and his dad were on the ground in the middle of the woods with no cell service. All they had was a flimsy hunting tent and a crossbow – no guns. Suddenly, they saw a bear, no more than 40 yards away.

“Me and my dad were basically stuck,” Palmer Thompson said. “They set up tent poles to keep the structure up and then they put, like, a see-through camp tarp over (them), and that was the only thing that was protecting us. The bear (was in) kind of a little dip … and there was someone up in the tree stand. It was her first hunt, and she was blocked by a tree, so she didn’t know there was a bear. She just heard the shot.”

After his first crossbow shot, Palmer Thompson had just managed to paralyze the bear. He said he could still hear it breathing. After radioing in the shot, the guide wanted to wait to get the bear, but Palmer and his dad were not having any of it.

“We were doing hand signals because we didn’t want to talk, just saying ‘get out here now!'” Palmer Thompson said. “They came in, three of them … and chased after the bear in the thickest area ever. They finally get the flashing on (the bear) and it is just staring at them.”

After the guides helped put the bear down, it took 10 people to bring it back to camp. The boys had pizza that night to celebrate. Two months later, Chad Thompson snagged a bear of his own early in the summer, but Palmer’s was more than 100 pounds heavier. It was the biggest bear the area had shot all year. Palmer Thompson isn’t sure whether he would hunt bear again. But if he did, he said, he would bring a gun next time.

“Palmer has kind of grown up at Prairie Grit,” Angie Thompson said. “Early on, he was at everything. In a way, he kind of had to be since we were involved in everything. Now, it’s a little more he picks and chooses.”

Though Palmer Thompson doesn’t participate in every sport anymore, he has had a lot of success in the sports he has chosen for himself.

“Overall, I think we’re just really thankful,” Chad Thompson said. “(Palmer) has gotten to do a lot of stuff and we have gotten to be a part of that. It’s pretty cool.”

The Thompsons expressed their gratitude to everyone they have worked with at Prairie Grit over the years, and Palmer is looking forward to another great season. Prairie Grit offers adaptive sports for kids of all ages as well as adults living with physical and developmental disabilities to help enhance their lives with sports and recreation.