Indoor baseball and softball facility coming soon
LAWRENCE, WI - Hundreds of parents and students were shocked after they were told a 42,000 square foot indoor baseball and softball training facility is coming to the area.
The facility would be the new home of Impact Sports Academy. ISA in Lawrence works with 600 students a week, it has 26 travel teams and provides training for youth baseball and softball players.
ISA was founded by De Pere native and former MLB player Jason Berken. On Sunday, ISA held their summer kickoff meeting. At the very end parents and students watched a video, and were surprised with the announcement of a new facility.
Berken says their current facility lacks the ability to play competitive games indoors during the winter season, but the new facility boasts enough space for youth to play indoors and also offers space for weight training.
"For our staff to be able to get these kids more game settings in a larger space, I think we'll be able to expand their game and expand the instruction we provide them, but it really just comes down to our kids having this opportunity to be able to compete inside, and playing in this facility is going to be something that I've dreamt about forever,” said Berken, Owner of Impact Sports Academy. “So for us to be able to announce it tonight has just been a blessing, and a dream come true for me."
The new facility will be located in the Town Of Lawrence parallel to Interstate 41. The facility will be just north of the Lawrence Town Hall on French Road.
Parents say with the increasing number of students in the program, they're excited to see the new ISA facility come to fruition.
"Oh gosh it's going to be an awesome thing for them,” said Carri Luebke from Sobieski. “Right now you can tell it's starting to get more and more filled. We were here last year also and we definitely need bigger."
Berken says the new facility will break ground this fall, and be ready to go by the fall of 2020. Once the indoor facility is built, Berken plans on adding outdoor fields as the second phase of the project.
