Players mingle with pros at Kyle facility

It is not unusual to see professional baseball players in Kyle, just a quarter of a mile from where I-35 intersects Yarrington Road and about 180 miles from the nearest Major League Baseball team.

Power Alley Sports offers a place for professional, collegiate and amateur athletes to train.

Owner Trev Sanford said he knew that if he built a practice facility that was good enough, players would come.

The facility opened in December 2009 to professionals looking to train during the offseason and opened to the public a couple of months later.

It's not unusual for Sanford to look out his office window a few minutes before 4 p.m., the start of the facility's rush, and wonder if it will be another day when the parking lot is full.

"We're having to adjust as a staff. We're getting so full so fast," Sanford said.

Sanford said it is the staff and facility, which houses six enclosed 70-foot-by-14-foot batting cages, that set Power Alley apart.

"Everyone here has played DI [NCAA Division I] baseball, DI softball, pro baseball, pro softball," Sanford said. "It's hard to find people who qualify who aren't in a hurry to go get a big boy job, but when we do get them, the kids love them. There is nothing like being 12 years old working out with a former professional player who is throwing 97 miles per hour."

Power Alley's coaching staff consists of four former MLB players, a Division I conference champion and a three-time NCAA Women's Softball Coach of the Year.

In 2008, a year before Power Alley opened, Sanford began coaching a select team. The Cen-Tex Prospects have traveled the country playing games and tournaments; and so far the team has graduated 100 percent of its 25 players to college with scholarships. Three of those athletes are now in the MLB.

Sanford said his business partner, Linda Zapata, who teamed with her husband to lay much of Power Alley's groundwork, has been the most important contributor.

After providing an initial donation to the select team, Zapata was brought on to help coordinate many of Power Alley's programs. They said the Friday night Hit Nights have been especially successful. For $20, kids get an hour of all-you-can-hit in the batting cages.

Sanford and Zapata said that with the possibility of a new high school in Kyle in the next two to three years, the potential for Power Alley is almost limitless.

"We knew there were a ton of kids here, and it's getting bigger," Sanford said. "I'm not getting rich off of this, but for us, getting that phone call from that kid who just hit his first home run, that's what it's all about."

Power Alley Sports, 278 Edwards Drive, Kyle, 268-4500, www.poweralleysports.com