TERRE HAUTE — When the weather gets crazy this spring, baseball and softball players around the Wabash Valley now have a productive place to find sanctuary.
When last Friday’s Indiana State game against Bradley was postponed due to the rain, Terre Haute South high school coach Kyle Kraemer and his son Koby headed for Coaches Corner, which has a new 10,000- square-feet sports complex.
The Kraemers weren’t the only ones trying to get some extra swings in on the cold, soggy evening. The nine batting cages were full so the Kraemers had to wait 30 minutes.
On Monday afternoon, Terre Haute North coach Shawn Turner took his team to the complex for batting practice after the Patriots’ scheduled home game was postponed.
Coaches Corner owner Jay Kellett opened the facility in early December, and Turner said 10 to 12 of his 53 players “were there non-stop” during the winter.
“It’s really shown by how they’ve played this spring so far,” Turner said. “Hopefully I have more kids that take advantage of being a part of it in the upcoming years.”
In addition to baseball, the Vigo County Youth Soccer Association made use of the facility during the winter, with new director of coaching Greg Ruark providing instruction. The facility is also thriving as a site for Zumba; classes take place seven days a week, many classes filling the main room with about 100 participants for the dancing/aerobic fitness workouts. Stephanie Strole leads the busy Zumba workout schedule.
Coaches Corner is a welcome addition to the baseball community for Kraemer and Turner, who have the task of developing talent at the same rate as schools in the Metropolitan Interscholastic Conference.
Multiple indoor baseball and softball facilities exist in locations in and around Indianapolis with former professional players and local coaches offering instruction. Some schools have indoor facilities on site.
“Those places have been around about 10 years now,” Turner said. “Their teams have been using these places in the offseason. We’re about at the end of our run in being able to compete. The importance of working all year long is key, if nothing more than a half an hour 3 times a week.”
Turner and Kraemer lead two successful programs in the Wabash Valley, but West Vigo, Northview, 2008 Class A state champion Shakamak, Riverton Parke, Rockville and Marshall, Ill., are among the many programs that surround Terre Haute with baseball talent.
“This area has long been a hot-bed of baseball talent,” Turner said. “Their [Indianapolis players] are kind of gym rats, hanging out at indoor facilities of Indy. Their coaches are making it mandatroy or suggesting that their players are there all winter long.”
Kraemer is glad to see a local business step up to provide a need.
“You’ve heard several people talk about our community needs this, needs that, yet nobody was willing to step up and put a facility like that in until Jay,” Kraemer said.
Turner and Kraemer have made themselves available for private instruction as well.
“I’m working with kids that are 8, 10, 12, 14 … I have no doubt those kids will be leaps and bounds better at the fundmaental skills than those I’m not working with,” said Turner, who has worked with players from Covington, Farmersburg and Brazil in addition to those in his school’s district.
Jay Kellett, who bought Coaches Corner from Syd and Kathleen Nasser in 2004, began plans for the upgraded facility almost immediately. The Nassers opened Coaches Corner in 1976.
Kellett said he’s still feeling out the ability to maximize the uses throughout each day.
An unlimited daily pass is $15, and Kellett said he’s had players from the Terre Haute Men’s Senior Baseball League down to tee-ball aged children use the indoor amenities. Monthly and annual rates are also available, which allow for unlimited use when room is available.
Plans for the upcoming fall and winter are in the works. Turner and Kraemer have discussed some type of 4-on-4 baseball league in which pitchers and hitters can face off from a regulation distance in a competitive atmosphere.
“We can’t make it mandatory, but if I was a young player, I would make it a point to be there,” Turner said.
Kellett has discussed an indoor speed soccer league with local varsity soccer coaches that could be 3-on-3 up to 5-on-5. Terre Haute North boys soccer coach John Welch said some of his players go to Bloomington for indoor leagues, and the Wabash Valley Family Sports Center has winter leagues for high school players as well.
But for indoor baseball, it’s a unique business for the Wabash Valley.
“We’re still in a feeling out process and we’re trying to develop into a well-oiled machine,” Kellett said of the operation.
Local Interest
Baseball sanctuary: TH's Coaches Corner opens year-round indoor facility
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