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northbrooktower.com sports<br />
the northbrook tower | May 16, 2019 | 47<br />
Northbrook Baseball to open indoor youth baseball training facility<br />
Alumnus Kipnis<br />
donates to help<br />
build facility<br />
Online content<br />
For a video tour of the<br />
facility, visit NorthbrookTower.com.<br />
22nd century Media<br />
1st-and-3<br />
Players of the<br />
week<br />
1. Casey Mutchnik<br />
(Above) The Glenbrook<br />
North gymnast<br />
was named<br />
the IHSA Gymnast<br />
of the Year at this<br />
year’s state meet<br />
following his senior<br />
season with<br />
the Spartans.<br />
2. Jason Kipnis The<br />
Spartans baseball<br />
alumnus and current<br />
major league<br />
player donated<br />
to help open an<br />
indoor facility<br />
for Northbrook<br />
Baseball.<br />
3. Jon Scheyer<br />
Considered by<br />
many as the best<br />
basketball player<br />
from Northbrook,<br />
Scheyer visited a<br />
Willowbrook class<br />
for a fun surprise<br />
and start to week.<br />
Submitted content<br />
Northbrook Baseball announced<br />
May 6 that it will<br />
open its own state-of-theart<br />
indoor baseball training<br />
facility.<br />
Scheduled to open later<br />
this Spring, the Northbrook<br />
Baseball Kipnis Center is<br />
part of the organization’s<br />
ongoing effort to improve<br />
the quality of youth baseball<br />
in the area by providing<br />
Northbrook Travel and<br />
House League players an<br />
unprecedented opportunity<br />
to work with their coaches<br />
year-round in a facility of<br />
their own. The facility will<br />
also host other Northbrook<br />
Baseball-sponsored clinics.<br />
Located at 1851 Janke<br />
Rd., the Kipnis Center is<br />
scheduled to open in June.<br />
The Kipnis Center was<br />
made possible by a generous<br />
donation from Cleveland<br />
Indians second baseman,<br />
Jason Kipnis. Kipnis<br />
is a Northbrook native who<br />
played with Northbrook<br />
Baseball during his youth<br />
before going on to become<br />
a star at Glenbrook North.<br />
Additional important donations<br />
have also been<br />
made by other long-time<br />
Northbrook Baseball volunteers,<br />
which, along with<br />
a recently-launched capital<br />
campaign, will ensure the<br />
facility’s long-term financial<br />
stability.<br />
“Northbrook and Northbrook<br />
Baseball played significant<br />
roles in shaping<br />
me into the person I am today,<br />
and some of my best<br />
childhood memories are<br />
of playing baseball with<br />
my friends on the fields<br />
around town,” Kipnis said.<br />
“Coming from a community<br />
and a youth baseball<br />
environment that gave so<br />
much to me, I am really<br />
happy to have found a way<br />
to give something back.<br />
This facility will help ensure<br />
that the quality of<br />
baseball in Northbrook remains<br />
high and that players<br />
of all levels get access<br />
to year-round training.”<br />
The climate-controlled<br />
facility will feature stateof-the-art<br />
lighting designed<br />
to replicate outdoor<br />
daylight conditions, along<br />
with artificial turf, batting<br />
and pitching tunnels, highquality<br />
pitching machines<br />
and a full array of additional<br />
baseball training<br />
equipment.<br />
As part of the ongoing<br />
partnership between<br />
Northbrook Baseball and<br />
Glenbrook North Baseball<br />
— through the GBN Feeder<br />
Baseball Program —<br />
Glenbrook North Baseball<br />
will also have access to<br />
the Kipnis Center during<br />
weekday mornings and after<br />
school, at a time when<br />
The Northbrook Baseball Kipnis Center will give Northbrook Baseball and Glenbrook<br />
North baseball players somewhere to hit indoors. Photos by Michal Dwojak/22nd<br />
Century Media<br />
The facility is expected to open in June.<br />
the facility would otherwise<br />
sit empty. This will<br />
assist the program with its<br />
player development, winter<br />
scheduling and help<br />
overcome Chicago’s challenging<br />
Spring weather.<br />
“For many years, our<br />
House League teams have<br />
not had access to indoor<br />
training space and our<br />
Travel teams have been<br />
forced to rent space at various<br />
private indoor facilities<br />
throughout the area —<br />
usually at a high cost and<br />
with less than ideal time<br />
slots,” said Mark Gerstein,<br />
president of the Northbrook<br />
Baseball Board of<br />
Directors. “The arrival of<br />
the Kipnis Center makes<br />
those issues problems of<br />
the past. Through the generosity<br />
of Jason and others,<br />
we have developed a firstrate<br />
indoor training center<br />
while managing to keep<br />
the cost of playing baseball<br />
in Northbrook very<br />
low. This is something our<br />
entire community can take<br />
pride in.”<br />
Listen Up<br />
“At the end of it I just knew that everything I’d<br />
work for so long had fallen into place. ”<br />
Cam Hardagree — The GBN boys gymnast on<br />
competing at the state meet, where he won a title.<br />
tunE in<br />
What to watch this week<br />
The Glenbrook North boys volleyball team travels to<br />
Highland Park on Thursday, May 16.<br />
6 p.m., May 16, at Highland Park<br />
Index<br />
45 - Boys Water Polo<br />
44 - Girls Soccer<br />
Fastbreak is compiled by The Tower’s staff. Send comments to<br />
m.dwojak@22ndcenturymedia.com.
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