By Chad Klassen

Indoor ‘field of dreams’ living up to KMBA expectations

Jun 24, 2016 | 1:37 PM

KAMLOOPS — On a perfect summer evening, the sun sets at McArthur Island. Yet the baseball diamond that’s usually home to the Kamloops Midget AAA Riverdogs is empty.

On this night, the team is practicing indoors at the Sussex Insurance Centre, a space for batting practice, a space to take ground balls, and just work on the fundamentals of baseball. 

“It’s huge,” says Grade 12 Riverdogs player Vincent Daley. “You just look at other programs, and they don’t really have these opportunities to have a facility like this, so I really appreciate it.”

The 5,000-square foot facility, on which constructed started in 2012 and opened the next year, is the only one in B.C. It’s packed during the winter seven days a week and even busy in the summer. 

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“It’s great when there are rain-outs and we can’t use the fields because it’s raining,” says Riverdogs manager Sean Wandler, who was part of the team that helped build the indoor facility. “Teams can just come into here and continue to practice and develop, which is something we’ve never had.”

Having extra time to practice has paid dividends for many players in the Kamloops Minor Baseball Association, namely those with the Riverdogs, who use it all winter and at least once a week in the summer. 

“It just gives you so many more opportunities in the winter, compared to an elementary school gym where you can’t really hit a real ball. You don’t have much room to throw, and with all the netting here, you can go through proper baseball drills,” says Daley, who’s used the facility since it opened in 2014. 

The players also have access to a weight room, operated by David Stride with Stride Performance. While they may not enjoy being put through the paces, at the end of the day it makes them better ball players. 

“It improves me, especially as a pitcher with my explosiveness delivering to the plate,” says Grade 11 Riverdog Hayden Bennett. “More speed, and just agility in general. It helps me deliver that extra little bit.”

When the association first thought of the idea, they had baseball in mind. But the facility is used by other sports teams as well. 

“Soccer, we’ve had some lacrosse in here, we have senior slo-pitch using it during the day as well,” says Wandler. “And that was always our goal, to not only just have baseball but if we can accomodate others, we want to do that, too.”

The indoor field of dreams has been just that. 

“It’s been something that’s been on our wish list for 40 years, and it’s always been talked about, dreamt about, so I can say, outside of the acutal Tournament Capital project that built the fields, this has been the most influential capital project Kamloops Minor Baseball in its history, no doubt.”