David Rocha of Bloomfield's Fastpitch Nation Sports Arena rakes out the infield Sunday before a fall league softball game between Fermi and Conard High School. (Tia Ann Chapman / The hartford Courant)
Related links
LOOMFIELD — -
As he gazed at his indoor softball field from the bleachers at Fastpitch Nation, David Rocha said he was inspired during his four-year struggle to open the business by James Earl Jones' soliloquy on the timelessness of baseball in the movie, "Field of Dreams."
"I know it's corny," Rocha said. "I had that speech on my iPod and whenever I was depressed, I'd listen to it over and over. It kept me going."
Rocha, a software manager at IBM, even played the "they will come" speech at Fastpitch Nation's opening ceremony in September 2008. Rocha, 45, of Simsbury, spent years developing a business plan, searching for a building and lining up financing for his dream field.
He received a boost last year when Tom Eastman, a veteran softball pitching coach from South Windsor, agreed to invest and join him as co-owner. That meant more than 100 of Eastman's students at the Connecticut Baseball Academy in East Hartford moved with their coach to Fastpitch Nation.
With financing from Simsbury Bank and a federal small business loan, Rocha said they bought the former clay court building of the Bloomfield Tennis Club on Douglas Street for $525,000 last summer. They spent about the same amount renovating the center, just as the recession hit.
But business has taken off as word has spread in softball circles about the unusual regulation-size infield with real clay and a small AstroTurf outfield.
The business served 1,200 customers in its first season and expects to host 700 to 800 softball and baseball games this winter. Teams pay $1,200 to $1,500 a season to play there, and private softball lessons cost $60 an hour. Members can pay $199 a year to join and receive 15 percent off lessons.
The University of Hartford softball team practices there in the winter, Rocha said, and its batting cages can be reconfigured for golf. The business turned a small profit in its first year, Rocha said.
The clay field is the centerpiece of Fastpitch Nation, Eastman said Sunday over the twang of balls hitting aluminum bats during a high school tournament.
Eastman, 57, retired as a systems analyst at UnitedHealth Group the day before he and Rocha started renovating the building. He was drawn to Rocha's dream of tapping into the underserved softball market.
"I started giving pitching lessons 15 years ago as a hobby. Then it turned into a religion," Eastman said. "Now it's my life and my second career, really."
While Rocha handles marketing, Eastman gives lessons five days a week and takes care of the 11,000-square-foot field with its 36-foot-high ceiling. Once a week, the infield needs to be dragged to get lumps out, rolled to pack it down and watered to keep the dust down.
Parents and players at Sunday's tournament said the infield replicates the feel of an outdoor field.
"You get true fielding," said Anne Marie Edwards of Windsor, who was watching her daughter Adrienne, 17, play. "I really like that it caters to softball, too, instead of baseball."
Alyssa Wagner, 16, a junior and second baseman at Suffield High School, said she likes playing on the clay.
"It's really good for practicing bunting and slapping the ball," she said. "It helps with your reaction time, too."
With girls making up 95 percent of his customer base, Rocha, who has four daughters and a son, said he tried to make them feel welcome, with pale green and cream walls in the lobby and lounge, and posters of the U.S. national softball team.
"I wanted this place to be warm and inviting, not dark and dingy like a locker room," he said. "Girls like belonging to a place of their own."
On Sunday, girls in softball gear sprawled on black couches in the lounge, chatting and texting. Wagner said she feels at home at Fastpitch Nation.
"It's got a nice softball vibe," she said.
•Fastpitch Nation, at 62 Douglas St. in Bloomfield, is open Monday through Friday from 3 to 9 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Information: 860-242-0055, www.fastpitchnation.net.
"I know it's corny," Rocha said. "I had that speech on my iPod and whenever I was depressed, I'd listen to it over and over. It kept me going."
Rocha, a software manager at IBM, even played the "they will come" speech at Fastpitch Nation's opening ceremony in September 2008. Rocha, 45, of Simsbury, spent years developing a business plan, searching for a building and lining up financing for his dream field.
He received a boost last year when Tom Eastman, a veteran softball pitching coach from South Windsor, agreed to invest and join him as co-owner. That meant more than 100 of Eastman's students at the Connecticut Baseball Academy in East Hartford moved with their coach to Fastpitch Nation.
With financing from Simsbury Bank and a federal small business loan, Rocha said they bought the former clay court building of the Bloomfield Tennis Club on Douglas Street for $525,000 last summer. They spent about the same amount renovating the center, just as the recession hit.
But business has taken off as word has spread in softball circles about the unusual regulation-size infield with real clay and a small AstroTurf outfield.
The business served 1,200 customers in its first season and expects to host 700 to 800 softball and baseball games this winter. Teams pay $1,200 to $1,500 a season to play there, and private softball lessons cost $60 an hour. Members can pay $199 a year to join and receive 15 percent off lessons.
The University of Hartford softball team practices there in the winter, Rocha said, and its batting cages can be reconfigured for golf. The business turned a small profit in its first year, Rocha said.
The clay field is the centerpiece of Fastpitch Nation, Eastman said Sunday over the twang of balls hitting aluminum bats during a high school tournament.
Eastman, 57, retired as a systems analyst at UnitedHealth Group the day before he and Rocha started renovating the building. He was drawn to Rocha's dream of tapping into the underserved softball market.
"I started giving pitching lessons 15 years ago as a hobby. Then it turned into a religion," Eastman said. "Now it's my life and my second career, really."
While Rocha handles marketing, Eastman gives lessons five days a week and takes care of the 11,000-square-foot field with its 36-foot-high ceiling. Once a week, the infield needs to be dragged to get lumps out, rolled to pack it down and watered to keep the dust down.
Parents and players at Sunday's tournament said the infield replicates the feel of an outdoor field.
"You get true fielding," said Anne Marie Edwards of Windsor, who was watching her daughter Adrienne, 17, play. "I really like that it caters to softball, too, instead of baseball."
Alyssa Wagner, 16, a junior and second baseman at Suffield High School, said she likes playing on the clay.
"It's really good for practicing bunting and slapping the ball," she said. "It helps with your reaction time, too."
With girls making up 95 percent of his customer base, Rocha, who has four daughters and a son, said he tried to make them feel welcome, with pale green and cream walls in the lobby and lounge, and posters of the U.S. national softball team.
"I wanted this place to be warm and inviting, not dark and dingy like a locker room," he said. "Girls like belonging to a place of their own."
On Sunday, girls in softball gear sprawled on black couches in the lounge, chatting and texting. Wagner said she feels at home at Fastpitch Nation.
"It's got a nice softball vibe," she said.
•Fastpitch Nation, at 62 Douglas St. in Bloomfield, is open Monday through Friday from 3 to 9 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Information: 860-242-0055, www.fastpitchnation.net.
