Hub 44 To Provide That Next Step for Baseball, Softball Players

It is a multifaceted operation when it comes to building any type of athletic program. It’s not only a responsibility of the players, but also coaches, parents and the like.

When it comes to competitive high school sports on Long Island, and more specifically in Suffolk County, such as baseball and softball, simply wanting success is not enough. Much of the time it becomes that an entire community effort is needed.

Enter Shelly Schaffer.

The East Hampton varsity baseball and softball programs have certainly taken strides the past few years — both have ended decade-long playoff droughts recently. But both programs want more, and in order do that, they needed a spot where they can play and practice year round. Players looking to take their game to the next level previously have had to travel upwards of an hour, not only to receive further instruction in their respective sports, but just to have a spot where they can gather.

Schaffer, a mother of two, to Alexis, 12, and Nick, 17, saw that need and provided it with Hub 44, a brand new, 6,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art baseball/softball facility located at 44 Tan Bark Trail in East Hampton.

“We decided to do this because there was nothing out here for the kids, in terms of baseball and softball. The opportunity was just not there,” she said. “How can you be expected to play against these kids up the island when they have something like this within five minutes or so near them? It really hit home for me that we needed this when I struggled to find a softball team for my daughter. And we’re still struggling to put a travel softball team together and to develop a program.”

Hub 44 is a climate-controlled facility that features a 52-foot-by-80-foot indoor turf field that includes three 15-foot-by-80-foot batting cages, which can also be converted into six 15-foot-by-40-foot batting cages. There are baseball and softball pitching machines and pitching mounds, but the gem of the facility is the HitTrax simulation system.

HitTrax is a multi-faceted tool that hopped on the scene in recent years and is used throughout the baseball and softball world. It provides measurables for coaches, such as launch angle, distance, pitch speed and more, but it can also be used to simulate games and provide detailed analytics to prospective coaches and teams. This winter, during the first weeks the facility was open — it held a soft opening in December — it ran a HitTrax league that was wildly popular among the kids, said East Hampton varsity baseball head coach Vinny Alversa, who is also the manager of Hub 44.

“We had seven to eight teams in each league, probably five kids on each team, and we went all winter on that,” he said. “You’re basically playing a simulated game, where either the kids are pitching or the coaches can, and the computer generates how and where you hit the ball based off how it came off your bat. It keeps balls and strikes and it can really do everything.”

Alversa said the closest facility like Hub 44 is 365 Athletics in Bellport — the former All-Pro site — the same location he had to go to as a ballplayer during his playing days to get any type of further instruction and to be a year-round player. The new facility in East Hampton is going to do wonders, he said, not just for his own baseball program, but for the community as a whole.

“It’s tough when the closest place to get a clinic was an hour and a half there, and an hour and a half back. Here, we’re about 15 to 20 minutes away from anyone, depending on where you’re coming from,” he said. “We’re already getting kids from Southampton, Sag Harbor, Montauk. A few kids have even come from Hampton Bays. And they all enjoy it.

“We’ve had a good mix of the older guys coming in and the younger guys,” he said. “Our Wednesday night clinics for 7- to 9-year-olds basically sell out every week. The only time it didn’t sell out was during the past week school vacation, and even then we were short by one, of selling out. The Sunday clinics for 5- to 7-year-olds, those are swamped. We’ve had to start putting people on waiting lists.”

Jack Dickinson and Hunter Eberhart are both seniors at East Hampton High School who both longed for such a space growing up. Even without it, both managed to become exceptional players — Dickinson has committed to Niagara University while Eberhart to Crown College in Minnesota; both to play baseball.

They acknowledged that it wasn’t easy being from East Hampton and having to keep up with the rest of the ballplayers in Suffolk. Not only do they both work out at Hub 44, but they help out with clinics and continue to do so long into their college careers.

“When I was younger, traveling an hour, hour and a half, I could see the mileage on my parents’ cars pile up,” Eberhart explained. “And all of that was necessary to be able play to college baseball. Without playing year round, you’re not getting that opportunity to play at the next level. Luckily, I have two parents who worked very hard to do well for themselves and afford to be able to take me to games and clinics up the island. But for someone who isn’t as fortunate as I was, they’re now going to be able to have a big batting cage go work in, and varsity high school and college players and coaches who have played in college, all for 30 bucks.

Our Wednesday night clinics go for 30 bucks, and that doesn’t seem like a lot, but maybe that’s all a family can afford to have to pay for something extra that week and now they get the same experience that we had growing up, except now it’s localized. And it brings something new and exciting, which is something we needed from a baseball perspective.”

While Hub 44 is certainly centered around baseball and softball, that’s not the only use for the location. Schaffer said even some lacrosse players have used the space during the winter to work out, and they’ve even hosted some birthday parties and plan to host even more in the coming weeks. There is also dodgeball planned to use the space.

And something that parents may love to hear is that ready-to-go meals are available on the premises provided by Schaffer’s Round Swamp Farm, which is right next door. Families can take the meals to go and have dinner ready in minutes after a clinic, workout or practice.

Both Dickinson and Eberhart think that the baseball and softball community will be paying dividends to Hub 44 in the years to come.

“I think, definitely from a travel baseball perspective, whereas most kids went up the island to play, now there’s no excuse not to play here,” he said. “We have the coaches willing to put in the time and now we have facilities like Hub 44 and now we can build into a baseball town and produce good players.

“It’s just a great addition and something we’ve been trying to get out here for a long time,” Eberhart added. “Now that it’s finally here and taking off, I think we’re definitely going to see a difference in the amount of ballplayers and it’ll definitely grow baseball here, and as a guy in his final season of high school ball who has been playing for over a decade, it’s really great to know that it’s going to keep growing and progressing.”

Schaffer said that the idea all long has been to provide local youth with the tools to succeed. Now it’s up to them to take advantage of it.

“I think Vinny and I and all of the staff here have laid a good foundation for the kids to start,” she said. “It’ll be really interesting to see what happens maybe in five years from now and see what that progression on the field will be.”