The power of sports can never be underestimated.
The same goes for Escondido’s Kory Barnett.
He was proving it at Saturday’s Challenged Athletes Foundation wheelchair basketball clinic, as CAF teamed with the Mesa Foundation and SDSU adapted athletics for an afternoon of hoops and hope.
With the CAF players racing this way and SDSU men’s basketball crew headed that way, it was nothing but summer fun.
“Some of these players haven’t been in an athletic chair before,” Barnett, 43, said. “So for them to see what it’s like to sit in one was part of the experience.”
Barnett’s two cents?
“These things can turn on a dime and make sharp turns,” he said. “To see them playing in them was awesome.”
With two full-court, four-on-four games bringing the energy, it was a sliver of wheelchair basketball heaven.
CAF presented the stairway so that Barnett, and countless others since its inception in 1994, could embrace the world of athletics despite a few obstacles.
“From getting me chairs to just about everything else, CAF has helped me along in my journey to adaptive sports,” said Barnett, a single dad of two girls.
Barnett was 20 years old when his life changed in a car accident involving a drunk driver. Suddenly, someone who played every sport as a teenager and softball as an adult was fighting for his life with a spinal-cord injury.
“One day I ended up in the hospital,” Barnett said. “I was in a coma for four or five months.”
Guests would visit Barnett, but he was unaware of it. A logbook was started so that family and friends could note their appearances and provide uplifting messages.
Among the visitors was a stranger to Barnett, but a dear friend of CAF, and he had heard of Barnett’s plight.
“Bill Walton came and saw me when I was first injured,” Barnett said. “I didn’t know about it. But it was inspirational that he did that and I’ve been gung-ho about CAF since.”
Barnett would see Walton, the late Basketball Hall of Famer, and their connection was clear.
“I saw him in physical therapy,” Barnett said. “He pulled me up and gave me a big hug.”
The CAF puts its arms around those seeking an active lifestyle, regardless of their sport or physical disability. From wheelchairs to mentorship programs, benefiting world-class athletes to those with a world-class heart, the CAF has raised more than $191 million for our sporting colleagues.
Other locals participating with Barnett were Manuel Cano (Escondido), Angelo “Tigershark” Sanchez and Carnell Martin (Oceanside), Joel Ellen (San Marcos) and Thom Gilbert (Poway).
As with most CAF events, it was difficult deciphering the day’s biggest benefactors: the steely CAF athletes or those giving of their time?
“It was fun to get the guys out here in the wheelchairs and competing,” SDSU’s Cam Lawin said. “But a lot of our guys are having trouble. It shows you how good of athletes our campers are and what we have to be grateful for.”
CAF continues to bring greatness to athletes of all ilk, many of whom were dealt a bum hand. But they refuse to fold and attack their sports with an incredible zest.
“All of us are trying,” Barnett said. “And we are competing as hard as we can.”
Contact Jay Paris at [email protected] and follow him @jparis_sports
