Jason Heyward Baseball Academy hosts showcase for inner-city baseball players
On a frigid Martin Luther King Day off from school, 16 youth baseball players descended on the 150,000-square-foot community center offering education, wellness and sports opportunities for kids in the Austin neighborhood.
Within that complex is the Jason Heyward Baseball Academy. Complete with a baseball field, the complex also has cages and instructors to help players who use the space. So, on this day off from school, the academy hosted a showcase for middle and high school players.
The showcase gave inner-city baseball players the chance to showcase their skills and gather videos that could then be disseminated to college coaches. The goal of the event was to help players from underserved communities who love playing baseball the opportunity to get on the radar of college coaches. The video and instruction was free.
“I have to give it to [Intentional Sports baseball director Sam Incandela],” Heyward told the Sun-Times. "He is the one who's been a driving force in our productivity this year. “To have a showcase for kids to be able to get the footage is huge. To be able to get it to college scouts, pro scouts, for them to have the footage for themselves so they can kind of analyze it, to be able to create this environment and create this activity in a space where this is something the players will have is huge."
Incandela joined Intentional Sports a year ago. He’s a Fenwick graduate who went on to play at Indiana University before becoming an assistant coach at IU and Northwestern. For him, hosting an event to get kids videos that they could use to improve their skills or send out to college coaches was important.
College assistant coaches aren’t traveling as frequently, and when they do, they’re likely looking for seasoned college players who could enter the portal.
“The idea was to get kids nominated that don't necessarily have the means to get recruited normally,” Incandela said. “The kids were nervous initially, but they took to the instruction of a few of the drills we did. We didn't want to have a regular showcase vibe. We wanted to be able to instruct a little bit. And they took to the instruction and got better within the drills, and it was great.”
Baseball is one of the most expensive sports to play at a high level. It can cost roughly between $1,500-$3,000 for the equipment required — bat, glove, cleats. That figure doesn’t factor in travel to games or tournament fees. The kids in attendance don’t have the means to go from showcase to showcase, showing their skills to whoever is in attendance. Having the film of their skills gives them something tangible to show to multiple people.
“It's crazy how it's all changed from when Jason and I were coming up through the ranks,” former MLB outfielder Curtis Granderson told the Sun-Times. "Growing up people said, ‘If you’re good enough, you'll be seen.’ That's still somewhat true, but now you have to have the ability where, if I can't come to see you, I got to at least be able to access you, and that access includes these videos. It starts to even the playing field because I may be as good as someone else, but if I don't have that video, it's only my word versus their word. But the kids got that video today to show it, and it even starts things out a little bit.”
Monday’s showcase was just the start. Incandela is going to continue to work with the kids to sharpen their skills.
“The kids want to play at the next level,” Incandela said. “It's going to be fun to stay in touch with them. We're going to make videos, send it out to colleges, talk to them, find out what they're interested in, and try to help the kids market themselves.”