By Dan Marshall

Mid Island Pirates open new training facility

Nov 22, 2018 | 11:13 PM

NANAIMO – Ball season? …Not exactly but the Mid Island Pirates have built a new facility to ensure their players can train all year round.

They’ve converted an old cooling unit at South Nanaimo Regional Recycling into a practice space that can accommodate any aspect of the game.

Pirates coach Doug Rogers on the versatility of the team’s new indoor facility:

Doug Rogers estimates the cost of converting the facility including labour would likely have been about $20,000 – $30,000 but most of the equipment was donated, and the bulk of the labour was done by the team’s coaches.

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It took a few weeks to complete the transformation from cleaning, to painting, installing turf, and putting in the removable mound and cages.

Rogers on the winter training schedule:

There are a few other teams in the Premier Baseball League with these types of facilities.

Rogers referenced the Langley Blaze and North Shore Twins.

He says a year round training centre will help the Pirates to be one of the PBL’s cutting edge programs.

Baseball, even at the high school level, is a 12 month commitment according to Rogers.

The Pirates started their winter training this week even though the season won’t begin until April.

Rogers feels Mid Island is in a great position to have a success year on the field in 2019.

“Our goal right now is the final four,” Rogers said. “If we get into that you never know. We’ve been with them three years, this group. We’ve coached them up to the point where they should start dominating some teams out there.”

dan@nanaimonewsnow.com

On twitter: @danmarshall77