A popular spot for local baseball enthusiasts to hone their skills has opened up a second location just north of Barrie.
After finding success at their Commerce Park Drive location, Chuck Schembri, owner of The Kage Barrie, opened the doors of their new north-end facility — located at 509 Snow Valley Rd., in Springwater — on Oct. 1.
He said opening a second location simply made sense.
“Things have been going really well in the south end and we’ve just been weighing our options looking at one bigger facility or a second facility," Schembri explained. "There’s not a ton of options or warehouses around that could meet our needs.
"This one popped up and it just happened to be the right price, the right size and we just ran with it," he added.
While both locations will include development skills programming, clinics and batting cage rentals, the new Springwater location also includes a synthetic ice surface.
“We’ve just expanded into hockey as well so we have a synthetic ice rink that’s about 25 feet wide and 50 feet long. Then, at the end of the month, we are adding a blade skating treadmill," Schembri said.
The new location also includes four cages — one with a HitTrax simulator — as well as an open area field, he noted
Schembri said when they first opened in Barrie in August 2020, they did have a synthetic rink; however, due to the size of their first space, they made the decision to remove it and focus on baseball and softball.
Now, with the new 15,500-square-foot north-end location, they have opted to bring it back.
“It was always something I wanted to get into. Now that we have more space we wanted to try it again,” Schembri said. “Our focus is always on programs for kids from four to 18. We have high-performance programs, we have development programs and introductory programs. That’s our bread and butter and that will be what we do at both the south and north locations.”
Schembri, who grew up playing high-level hockey and baseball, said getting to turn his love of his favourite sports into a successful business has been a lot of fun.
“I love going to work every day and I love being there,” he said. “We impact a lot of kids in the community. We just try to have a safe, fun environment for the kids and an outlet for them to come and leave all outside stress that’s going on … and just come and play the game that they love.”
