BORN2RUN State-of-the-art sports complex has lofty dreams

The Grove City-based facility will hold an open house today and Sunday.
By JOHN KOVACH
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
GROVE CITY, Pa. -- The Born2Run Sports Complex that opened last month is expected to become a huge regional asset for schools, athletes, coaches and the general public, and have the potential to evolve into a national attraction.
By offering a wide variety of sports, leagues, camps, clinics, events and related support services within state-of-the-art facilities for persons of all ages, the complex is expected to become an ideal setting for young athletes to learn, develop and to gain exposure to other athletes, coaches, ideas and philosophies.
"The reaction we have received from kids is exactly what we expected," said James Hoy, director of operations for the $7.5 million sports complex located in Springfield Township on Route 208 just west of I-79 and east of the Grove City Outlet Mall.
"For a basketball or soccer player, it is like heaven for kids," Hoy said. "This is basketball heaven. We feel we really have hit home with our target audience, which is young athletes."
Hoy, former Sharon High basketball coach from Barkeyville, originated the idea for the complex, and partnered with developer Thomas Linton of Hermitage to build the facility.
Linton is chief executive officer of Linton Industries, a commercial and industrial general contractor in New Castle. He also owns a commercial real estate holding company and a commercial real estate development company.
Linton owns 60 percent of the complex while partner Curt Gramly from Hermitage represents a group of investors called Capital Sports that owns 40 percent.
Three phases
Groundbreaking for the three-building complex was held last October.
The first phase, a multi-purpose, 60,000-square-foot gymnasium that includes four basketball courts, eight volleyball courts and one indoor field for soccer, football and lacrosse, has been completed.
The second stage, a 360-person athletic dormitory, and the third phase, a 26,000 square-foot roller hockey arena and a day-care center, are expected to be finished in June.
The facility also has outdoor fields with more expected.
Linton said the project potentially could involve 114 acres. He said the complex is built on 20 acres of a 32-acre parcel, and that the remaining 12 acres, and an 82 additional acres behind the parcel, are for future expansion.
Future development "really depends on what works best in the first phase of the development," Linton said.
Hoy, who hopes to add more soccer fields, said, "Our goal is to become an Olympic training village with the same type of facility and national reputation."
Everything in one place
Jim Wildman, a former Sharon High football coach who is in charge of the football camps at the complex, said the facility has everything that athletes and coaches could need all in one location, which makes it ideal for camps and clinics and connecting with other people. And he said the fees are reasonable.
"The fee is $33 per person per day that includes three meals a day, a brand-new dorm, access to everything in a beautiful setting, and with less expense than a lot of people are having now," said Wildman, who noted that the first three weeks of August will be available for high school football camps.
"So often, high school coaches in a number of sports in junior high and high school send athletes away to camp, and the cost they are paying is quite high," Wildman said. "And here is a [facility] where elementary, junior high and high school athletes can come that is less than an hour away, to a topnotch facility, and not pay $390 to send them to camp."
Wildman sees unlimited potential for the complex.
"It's going to go through some growing pains until everyone finds himself to see what works," Wildman said. "In time it will be a state-of-the art campus facility."
Because, as he sees it, "One's imagination is the only limitation, and as time goes on, I'm sure that there will be other activities available."
kovach@vindy.com