It's heartwarming to discover those among us who are dedicated to helping local youths prepare for the future while enjoying the present. We recently had the opportunity to visit with Pinnacle Sports owner Earl Stalter who graciously gave us a tour of this wonderful facility while explaining their mission, goals, and offerings;
After 22 years in the technology consulting business, I was looking for something to do where I could give back to the community while helping our young people. I have a daughter who plays a lot of soccer and I had been in this facility many times watching her play. When I realized that this property was up for sale, it became obvious that it would be a shame to have this beautiful facility and an asset to the soccer community sit empty. To make a long story short, I bought the property in February of 2002 and with my business partner Mark Gerberich, decided to utilize this facility to reach out to kids and provide them with a safe, clean facility where they could learn life skills through team sports. We opened the doors for indoor soccer for the first time in October 2002 and we now have increased our offerings to include basketball, volleyball, roller hockey, baseball, Tai Kwon Do, jump rope, and wrestling.
Our staff consists of folks who run each of those programs and we provide skills training, do clinics, and host leagues in each of these different sports. The net result is that the kids learn how to build their skills, focus on improving themselves and their team, and work with their teammates to achieve their goals. We're able to start working with youngsters as young as five years old in soccer but with baseball and basketball, they're usually nine or ten years old before they get into it. Although our focus is on the kids, we work with all age groups including the adult teams and leagues.
We have 29 acres of land and when we bought the facility, it included 72,000 square feet of space. Working with Paul Brownlee from Brownlee's Athletic Techniques and Chris Lewandowski of Sports Performance Improvement, we've created a new, 46,000 square foot building that hosts an indoor baseball field, 8 batting cages, a virtual reality cage, and a workout area for athletes who are trying to take their abilities to a higher level.
Our goal is to make ourselves available to all kids and create programs to provide the very best training available. We build our teams based on skill level rather than age. By allowing kids to play together with others at their skill level, they continue to learn and grow with the sport. The only requirement we have is that they enjoy the sport and, from there, we'll help them grow and become better adults. We run a very value based program and strive to provide the kids with values that will serve them well throughout their lives.
What better gift to give a child than the opportunity to learn life skills in a team environment. Call or stop by Pinnacle Sports today and don't forget to tell them that The Advocate sent you!
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