Heat is rising off the turf at Kaukauna High School's football field. With the heat index more than 100 degrees many local school districts made changes to high school and middle school sports practice and game schedules and times. PC: Fox 11 Online
FOX VALLEY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — Youth sports have become a year-round reality for many families, as more and more indoor sports facilities are being built in Wisconsin.
“I try to fill that gap for some of the boys,” said Rick Cavaiani, owner/founder of Cavaiani Baseball Training in Little Chute.
Training starts as young as eight years old
Teams of 10-year-olds and 11-year-olds scrimmaged while off of school for Christmas break Monday afternoon. Cavaiani serves players from ages eight to 18, providing structured training beginning in November.
“I feel a lot more prepared than normal teams would, because they don’t practice in the winter,” said Garrett Reukauf, who plays for Cavaiani’s 11-and-under team.
Reukauf hopes to become the next Alex Breckheimer of Chilton or Ethan Cole of Fond du Lac, going from Northeast Wisconsin to professional baseball.
“When I first started playing travel baseball, my facility was an old glass-blowing company,” said Cole, who was drafted by the Colorado Rockies last year and played for 5 Star Wisconsin, based in Oshkosh. “It was a super small building — two cages, maybe a room for 90 feet.”
The current setup includes nearly a full infield and multiple batting cages, a weight room, high-tech devices to track his pitching and a small locker room. He doesn’t think he would have been drafted without the facilities or coaching at 5 Star — believing those to be necessities in Wisconsin.
“We’re inside the majority of the year,” said Evan Wick, the co-owner of 5 Star Wisconsin, when asked about the disadvantage Midwest baseball players have. “Kids down south get to see the real ball fly at their own real field every single day.”
The indoor training is producing results.
“When I graduated in 2002, there were four of us in the state of Wisconsin, including myself, that eventually played Division I baseball,” said Cavaiani. “I think this past year, there were almost 50.”
Concerns about longevity, injuries and cost
There are certainly concerns about year-round sports.
- It costs thousands of dollars per player, as youth sports has become a $30-40 billion industry
- Sports injury has become the second leading cause of emergency room visits for youth
- Burnout is on the rise
It’s for the parent to decide whether the risk is worth the reward. But from November to April — for some players once a week, and others three-to-four times — you may find a 10-year-old or a college student playing baseball in Northeast Wisconsin.
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