It’s been three months since Kelly Barrow-Smith and her family opened Smith Brothers Baseball Central in New Lowell, and the response to the 12,600-square-foot indoor baseball and fitness facility has so far been fantastic.
“Within four hours of getting our occupancy permit, we had a Barrie rep team training here,” said Barrow-Smith. In all, the facility has seen multiple visits from four Barrie rep teams, two NDBL teams, the Stayner select team and the Mansfield select team. It has also played host to free introduction days for each of the South Simcoe Minor Baseball Leagues, and is home to a thriving series of clinics on all types of skills used in hardball and fastball.
“It’s been going really well,” said Barrow-Smith with a smile, but after a quick tour through the facility, you wonder if she’s at all surprised. It’s clear, after all, that Barrow-Smith, her husband Kirk Smith and their sons Kirby and Konar Smith, baseball lovers all, knew what they were doing when they developed their business plan.
Standing in the lobby of Smith Brothers Baseball Central, your eye is immediately drawn to the indoor field, which takes up 8,000 of the building’s 12,600 square feet. Covered with the same turf that’s used at the Rogers Centre, the field can be used as a whole or divided up into pitching and batting tunnels. It’s clear that the field is the facility’s star attraction, as it can be seen from most of the other rooms. Included in those are a fully stocked workout gym, a parents’ viewing lounge complete with comfy furniture and a flat-screen television, and a multi-purpose room that’s used for many of Smith Brothers’ non-baseball activities.
And the non-baseball activities are many – don’t think for a second that Smith Brothers caters to baseball players alone. The facility offers gymnastics and tumbling classes, dance and fitness programs, yoga and Zumba. As of next week there will be a massage therapist in residence. And any seniors who are interested in some indoor bocce ball or age-related fitness programs, they should get in touch as Barrow-Smith would like to gauge interest in such services.
All of these programs are important to the whole picture at Smith Brothers, but it’s baseball, of course, that is the Smith family’s first love. Both Kirby and Konar play rep baseball in Barrie, and Kirby is currently playing with the Oakville Royals of the Ontario Premier Baseball League. Now 17 years old, Kirby is hoping a scholarship to play ball at an American university might come next.
Despite Simcoe County being a hotbed of baseball, the Smith family noticed, as their sons progressed up the ranks to elite ball, that there was no proper training facility in the area. They started to investigate the possibility of establishing one, and everyone they talked to told them that whatever they build should be in Barrie, where there are 700 kids playing Little League Baseball. But being based in New Lowell, they knew that there were 1,200 kids playing in the South Simcoe Minor Leagues, and New Lowell is geographically in the centre of all of that. So they built it there, and are happy that they did.
Smith Brothers currently has 17 employees and four contract staff. Among its coaches are Creemore’s Brad Grieveson and Kirby Smith himself.
“We want to be a place that can help the average player step up their game to the elite level,” said Barrow-Smith. “If we can do that, we’ll be happy.”
For more information on all of the programs offered by Smith Brothers Baseball Central, visit their website at www.smithbrothersbaseballcentral.com. Note that the facility is now gearing up for summer baseball camps; information on those can be found at the website. Smith Brothers can also be reached at 705-424-0427.