On a roll: Why wheelchair basketball is coming back to Fayetteville

The repeated sound of basketballs tapping the wooden floor of Massey Hill Classical High School gym was heard Thursday night, while wheels glided across the wooden court.

The sounds and sights in the gym signaled the return of adaptive wheelchair basketball in Fayetteville.

The adaptive basketball team, known as the Fayetteville Flyers, has been in the area since at least the 1990s and had different incarnations through the years, previously known as the Fayetteville Wheeltrotters, the Physicians’ Total Rehab Flyers, and now the Fayetteville Flyers.

Coach Booker “Tee” Foster played for the local team off and on in prior years, and is now balancing the coach and player role.

Foster was injured when a Humvee ran over him in 1992 when he was serving at what was then Fort Hood, Texas, and connected with the Fayetteville Flyers in 1994 after moving to the area.

“We had a great history, a great fan base, sponsors, donations,” Foster said. “We’ve been to conference tournaments. We won conference tournaments.”

After Coach Charlie Hudnall died in 2004 and the team disbanded, Foster went on to play for teams in Lumberton and Raleigh, but started working on reorganizing the local team last year after it again split up in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

He reached out to former players, and used word of mouth to create this year’s team, which includes seven military veterans and four other players, some of whom are quadriplegic players, paraplegic players and amputees.

New team and former players

Players of the newly formed team first met Tuesday night and returned to the gym Thursday evening for a second night of practice this season.

The players then swiveled their wheelchairs and propelled themselves across the hardwood court.

One of those players, Marquis Kearse, first connected with the adaptive basketball team in 2016.

Kearse said he grew up playing basketball with his cousins and played recreationally without an organized team when he attended Methodist University.

Seeing the locally organized team return “means a lot,” Kearse said.

“Being disabled there is not a whole lot of different opportunities,” he said. “I’m 30 years old, and growing up I didn’t play sports like obviously soccer, so didn’t compete;  But being around other disabled people in an environment where we’re all equal, having an actual outlet is very good.”

The team is part of the Carolina Conference and set to play against teams from Charlotte, Raleigh, Spartanburg, Columbia, South Carolina, Charlottesville, Virginia and Virginia Beach.

Anthony Stroud is another returning player who previously played with the team after being injured in 2012 when the power steering went out in his car, which hit a tree.

“Basketball has always been a stress relief,” Stroud said. “I get on the court, and everything that’s going on in the outside world goes away. I just love being around the guys right here. That’s a passion of mine.”

Stroud said he had to relearn the game, now shooting from a lower vantage point or navigating getting the ball and a wheelchair down the court.

“It came to me naturally once I got into the groove and started learning the game, but it just started coming naturally because I love playing ball,” he said. “It’s nonstop.”

Rules of the game

Foster said the team still plays by National Collegiate Athletics Association rules, but some are modified like pushing wheels on the chair more than twice is considered traveling if the ball is passed, dribbled or shot.

Leaping out of the chair is a technical foul.

The goal is still the same: five players putting a ball in the hoop.

“Basically everything is the same, just in a wheelchair, but the wheelchair is considered part of the body, so if it crashes, the ref could consider it a foul,” Foster said. “But it does get very competitive and heated. It’s tough, but a lot of fun.

The team practices twice a week, from 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays, in the Massey Hill Classical High School gym, where supporters can pop in.

Foster set up drills for players Thursday night and advised them on shooting free throws or taking on defense or offense roles.

“It’s a new transition for me in regard to I have to think as a coach first and then a player, but I still have to keep myself in a position if called upon that I step in,” Foster said. “But I’m excited and looking forward to what’s to come.”

Fayetteville Flyers set for new wheelchair basketball season

Fayetteville Flyers wheelchair basketball team bidding for national crown

Seeking local support

The schedule for the current season is being finalized, with games being on Saturdays and the season running from September through April.

In the meantime, the Fayetteville Flyers are looking for donations and sponsors.

The Flyers Wheelchair Basketball team is part of the Southeastern Wheelchair Sports Association and is a 501c3nonprofit.

Those interested in being a donor or sponsor can use the nonprofit identification No. 57-1014751 and call Foster at 910-624-1947 or team representative Lana Witiak at 910-709-7994.

Fayetteville-Cumberland Parks and Recreation coordinates with Massey Hill to provide the space for practice and games.

Staff writer Rachael Riley can be reached at rriley@fayobserver.com or 910-486-3528.

This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Wheelchair basketball team returns to Fayetteville, NC