SHENANDOAH, Pa. — Baseball players are breaking in Schuylkill County's newest athletic training facility.
It's called the Skook Sports Lab.
“It makes you feel like you're actually in one of the big facilities that you full-on train in,” said Kale Rowan, a 6th-grade player from Shenandoah.
From elementary to college students, baseball players of all ages are now coming from all across Schuylkill County and beyond to train in what used to be a storage warehouse for a beer distributor.
Seventh grader, Landon Trout, travels from Pottsville to Shenandoah every week because his middle school doesn't have a junior high team.
“They probably would have to go to like another league or another coach or get help a certain way, or their parents would help them most likely,” he added.
That's all Skook Sports Lab owner Ian McCole said he had to choose from while growing up. Making it harder to train to play baseball at the collegiate level.
Newswatch 16 followed McCole from pitching on the field here at Shenandoah Valley to playing at Misericordia and Saint Joseph's University.
And now he's passing on what he's learned on all those teams here.
“You know, there was never anything like this to get me the help that I needed that would of made getting recruited, playing in college a lot easier than it was for me. That's what I'm hoping to do, give a couple guys something I didn't have while I was growing up," McCole explained.
What started off as giving lessons in his own backyard has transformed into an indoor facility where McCole can train players all year round.
“You know, watching these kids who watched me pitch and now watching them do what I went to do is crazy,” added McCole.
One person McCole saw cheering for him on the sidelines was Kaleb Maksimik, who says McCole inspired him to continue playing baseball in college.
Maksimik will be playing at Shippensburg University after he graduates from Shenandoah Valley High School this June.
“Ian helped me out a lot, like with talking to the coach and everything. The day the coach came to watch me, he was there helping me with everything. So if it wasn't for Ian, I probably wouldn't be where I'm going,” he mentioned.
McCole hopes he will be able to help even more of his players get the same opportunities he did.
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