FAIRLEA, W.Va. — Early season baseball practices in the Mountain State?
To say the least, they can be tough.
Head coach Cory Mann and assistant Matt Boswell are working to make those practices a lot more pleasant and productive at Greenbrier East High School.
The vision was put in place several years back.
That dream?
An indoor baseball facility down the right field line at the Spartans’ home ballpark.
The project is coming closer and closer to fruition.
“Obviously, living in southern West Virginia with the weather and everything, the earlier you can get things rolling and have a place for kids to be — throwing inside, hitting — it’s going to give you an advantage,” said Mann. “If you can take ground balls on turf as opposed to a gymnasium floor, it’s a lot more realistic.”
It goes much deeper than hitting, pitching and taking ground balls, said the Spartan coach.
“On the flip side of that, just having a place that is the kids’,” he added. “It’s something they can take pride in. It’s their facility. They’re going to have a locker room in there. Living in the culture of the program every day I think will go a long way as far as building the program and having the culture within the program.”
The community has jumped in to help financially.
Hollowell Foundation, Med Express, Spartan Athletic Foundation, Greenbrier County Sheriff’s Association, Seneca Trail Charitable Foundation, Greenbrier Physicians, James F.B. Peyton Fund, The Greenbrier, S.J. Neathawk Lumber Company — the list goes on and on.
“If you figured everything up if you had to buy everything that we’ve slowly gotten and made happen — you’d be right now, with materials, at a half-million or better to do a project like this,” said Boswell.
“A lot of different people have helped out,” Mann added.
How far back did the project start? You can trace it all the way to the summer of 2016.
“When I got the job, I wanted an indoor facility of some sort done,” said Mann. “When the flood hit in 2016, they restructured the golf course at The Greenbrier and this building was getting taken down. I made plans to try and get it for this purpose and was able to make that happen. Since then, it’s been trying to find funds to make this is a reality.”
Another big step was the purchase of artificial turf for the facility.
Boswell was on a travel baseball trip near Fairmont when his nosiness paid off in a big way.
“I saw all this turf laying there and asked what was going on with it,” he said. “They said the soccer complex bought it from the college. But they didn’t do their due diligence and it ended up they couldn’t use it.
“I told them I was interested and they said how many rolls do you need,” Boswell continued. “I told them I needed all of it. I work for Neathawk Lumber and they helped make it happen. That right there saved us a lot of money.”
The main priority right now for the coaches is getting the building up and the turf laid so the program can start their indoor workouts.
Mann said he hopes the project can be totally completed by the end of the year.
“Yeah, hopefully, we can have this completed by the end of the year if the money falls into place,” he said. “A lot of people have helped out tremendously and stepped up and gave us money. We’re just trying to find the rest to finish it off.”
Both Mann and Boswell agree that the facility, upon completion, will be a boost to the entire Greenbrier East baseball program and their players both on and off the diamond.
“It’s definitely going to help tie the program completely together,” Mann said. “It something that the kids will able to be proud of.”
This page is available to subscribers. Click here to sign in or get access.