The Tribune

By TENAJH SWEETING

Tribune Sports Reporter

tsweeting@tribunemedia.net

INTERNATIONAL Sports Academy in collaboration with Reloaded Baseball commenced the “Bat 2 Base-ics” baseball and softball camp this past Monday at the Baillou Hills Sporting Complex.

The developmental sports camp saw kids from the Tee-Ball to the 14-and under (14U) division show up in droves to learn the fundamentals of both sports at an early age.

The two-sport camp is focused on enhancing the baseball and softball skills of the players, improving their discipline and conduct, and preparing them for traditional and unorthodox in-game situations that may arise locally and internationally.

Peron Burnside, president of Reloaded Baseball, is particularly excited to get the collaborative camp started following the team’s recent return from the Perfect Game baseball tournament in Sanford, Florida.

“The first two days have been a huge success and we have a lot of kids who are not a part of the Reloaded programme who are here, particularly from the Family Islands, Grand Bahama and Eleuthera, and it is going really well,” Burnside said.

With the first two days of training in the books, the president said the main objective is to collectively work on the individual deficiencies of each young player. “We want to target certain key aspects of development so we are using this camp to pinpoint the deficits in each child, and develop those fundamentals. Our ultimate goal is to bring every child up to international standards in pursuit of higher international development,” he said.

The president added that once the players stick with the newly-started programme, they will see improvements and the team will provide the specific data to show the development in their skill sets as time progresses.

Geron Sands, co-founder of I-Elite, worked along with the Tee-Ball kids yesterday and was impressed with the body of work accomplished in the first two days.

“It’s been amazing so far the last two days just seeing these kids come out here and be excited to play baseball and learn more. It’s exciting to see them so ready to play at this young age,” Sands said.

He relayed that the softball aspect of the joint camp is going great as well and wants to bring the sport back to the forefront for the young ladies.

“Softball is going great, we have a couple of girls out here learning the fundamentals, something we want to do in the future is bring girls softball back from a younger age and this is a good beginning for that, we are just hoping to build off this and stay focused on the young females,” he added.

As the co-founder of I-Elite, Sands said camps like “Bat 2 Base-ics” are great for placing more focus on certain skills and in the future they hope to host more clinics like this throughout the year.

Individuals interested in registering can still capitalise on the opportunity by contacting 445-4551 or bat2basics242@gmail.com

The collaborative multi-sport camp wraps up on Friday.