Keep Swinging at Choice Athletics

The days of winter weather shutting down competitive baseball players for months at a time is over. Choice Athletics opened last year with the goal of keeping bats and clubs in motion. You're watching the Local News Network, brought to you by Serious Texas Bar-B-Q and SkyUte Casino. I'm Connor Shrieve. With multiple hitting bays and high tech feedback, baseball and softball players, along with golfers can stay sharp through the off season.

So Choice Athletics is a facility that I built because we needed a lot of wintertime practice for not only golfers, but mostly like we start out with baseball and softball. They have a real challenge in this county and in the area of trying to get extra practice time in, and they go into like their tournaments, the school season, clearing off the fields with snow and baseball.

Choice Athletics has multiple pitching machines accommodating both baseball and softball players, along with turf training zones. The back room houses a golf bay, allowing users to play around at courses from around the globe.

A lot of people ask can we do an indoor training facility? Why don't we have one? Will we use one? So I just said I'd do it. Currently, I'm an independent contractor, so allow me the freedom to be here during the day and work basically from home. 'Cause my facility's where my home is really, at this point. So that's what gave me the freedom to start this and try it.

Batting cages are a time-tested source of fun, but value for competitive players comes from the instant feedback and analysis.

We can record 120 frames per second video. We can go back and replay it. It keeps your exit belows, launch angles, anything you need to see your progression as a hitter. It also works for pitchers and catchers. It can record their throw downs. Pitchers, it can record their speed from the hand, speed at the plate, the break of the pitch, it's got tons of information.

The business opened in May of 2023 and Dempsie feels like he's still getting the word out. It is the official indoor facility for Fort Lewis College softball.

They don't have anywhere to practice. They're inside their gym. They have to share it with, you know, multiple other sports and everything like that. So they came to us and we worked out a great agreement that we booster them, they do advertisement for us. You know, I think last year we were, every time there was a strikeout, they would mention Choice Athletics, that strikeout was brought to you by Choice Athletics. So we did a lot of that.

Choice is hosting half day camps over the holiday break. You can book a session, sign up for coaching, or reserve the simulator online. Learn more about this and other stories at durangolocal.news. Thanks for watching this edition of the Local News Network. I'm Connor Shrieve.