Business & Tech
Having a Swingin’ Time!
Lake Forest Police Department's annual clinic makes learning about baseball fun.
On Sunday, the Lake Forest Police Department hosted its 11th annual baseball clinic for kids at Walter Payton Center, the Chicago Bears’ indoor practice facility in Lake Forest. As usual, the event was a big hit.
Open only to Lake Forest/Lake Bluff residents and children of Lake Forest employees, the clinic is touted as one of the largest free, nonprofit community-based programs in the country.
“I was impressed,” said Judy Friedis-Craig, whose granddaughter, Emily, attended.
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In particular, Friedis-Craig was surprised the kids' showed such initiative when the coaches announced which of the seven training stations (including batting, pitching, catching, and base-running) each participate should report to.
“No one told the kids to run; they just hustled. There was no question they really wanted to do this,” she said.
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“It’s not just a four-hour babysitting session on baseball,” said Ron Fontana, a police-department volunteer since the clinic’s inception in 2000. "There's a lot more to it."
The kids get a complete workout, thanks to assistance from coaches who volunteered from Kinectic Connections and BatSpeed Academy in Gurnee, as well as instructors from the Lake Forest/Lake Bluff communities. What’s especially nice, Fontana noted, is that some of the kids the clinic first taught 11 years ago and who are now playing baseball in high school and college had also returned to help coach.
“They're replenishing everything we’ve taught, and it’s coming back around tenfold,” he added.
Eight-year-old Nick Alutto trained on how to steal bases; and 9-year-old Ian Schuler, a Minnesota Twins fan, learned how to avoid hitting a popup fly, while Emily Craig, a lover of high fastballs, nabbed some new tips that improved her pitching.
“Awesome!” raved the 7-year-old Craig. “I especially like when I hit a home run!”
The clinic was divided into two groups and meeting times: fifth- through eighth-graders met from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., while second- through fourth-graders met from 2:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Craig, as well as Ian’s younger brother, Owen Schuler, also age 7, benefited from clinic officials lowering the age limit this year, giving second-graders a chance to play.
