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Clayton-based foundation helps get kids in the game By Randy Capps Members of the team take a break after a recent tournament. Front row, left to right, are: Lauren Wells, Christopher Kammerer, Braxton Barefoot and Alyssa Lynch. Second row: Kylei Gartin, Timothy Allen, Omar Sanchez, Matthew Baldwin, Jason Vaquis and coach Billy Gartin. Photo submitted by Richard Lynch CLAYTON — It’s an ordinary Sunday inside the Clayton Community Center’s gymnasium. Sunlight streams in from the windows, and a men’s pickup game is happening on one side of the gym. On the other side of the dividing curtain, there’s a practice going on. Cones are spread out in various places along the floor, and coach Billy Gartin, ball in hand, is calling out instructions from the middle of the floor. “Come on Omar,” Billy shouts. “Make that turn!” The cones are in place so that the players have to weave in and around them, before doubling back and making a layup. It’s a tough drill. It seems turning a wheelchair that sharply can be tricky. The Revolution, a youth wheelchair basketball team based in Clayton, is three years old. It was started by Richard Lynch, the founder and president of Revolution Adaptive Sports Inc. That company is a 501c3 nonprofit that raises money for the team’s equipment and travel to tournaments both locally and around the southeast as part of the National Wheelchair Basketball Association. The program is for children ages 5-18 who have a lower extremity disability, like Spina Bifida, paralysis or amputation. Lynch’s daughter, Alyssa, started playing wheelchair ball in Raleigh. But Lynch saw a need to bring that opportunity a little closer to home. “My daughter had played on the Raleigh team for a few years,” he said. “Two or three of the members lived in Johnston County and we found an interest of a few more people in playing in Johnston County. … So we started our own team down here.” The Revolution started with a handful of players, and now has around 10 players on the roster. “I needed to have a place where other children could have the same 16 | JOHNSTON NOW