Home Plate Collective: Offseason development to support young athletes

RAPID CITY, S.D. (KELO) — Outside of school sports, being on a team can be expensive and not easily accessible.

Earlier this year, Home Plate Collective in Rapid City stepped onto the baseball field to make an impact for kids wanting to get better at the game.

Home Plate Collective works with Harney Little League for field space and training.

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“What are we doing in the off-season? Why can’t everybody go to one place and workout and stuff like that. I just decided to go for it. You know, there’s really no set-in-stone plan when this started or anything like that but through the help of Harney Little League in offering their facilities to us we’ve been really able to put something in motion that has kind of wings of its own now and has really grown more than I expected it to in the first year,” Home Plate Collective Founder Donte Bledsoe said.

This program can help players of all ages and skill levels.

“My son loves to play baseball all the time, which is really tough in the winter. So the fact that this was a 365 day program, I mean it doesn’t take place 365 days but it’s a year long program, was really important for my son and for his development,” Parent Stephanie Erickson said.

It emphasizes the change from seasonal development to year-long improvements.

“It’s kind of like riding a bike. You don’t forget how to ride a bike once you learn, but the more you ride it, the better you are at it and baseball is the same way. Yeah you learn how to swing a bat and field a ground ball, that’s awesome, you can come back in six months and do it, but you won’t do it to a high level,” Instructor Willie Stephen said.

“You know, one thing that’s cool about our program is that we’ll be able to evaluate these kids, track these kids, all the way through the program. That way when you go to play for a new coach next summer we can communicate with that coach and show them your strengths, show them your weaknesses. And what you didn’t do well in the summertime, we can work on in the off-season,” Bledsoe said.

In their first year, this free clinic has more than 70 athletes taking part.

Classroom work and helping the academic development through study halls help the student athlete’s development as well.

“You also have to pay attention and put in as much effort at school and in other areas of life to be successful in the sport you want to work in. Because if you’re struggling in other areas you can’t be successful in that sport. So I think that’s going to be a huge thing for parents is seeing a program that’s geared towards the whole picture versus just one focus.” Erickson Said

“We want to really dive into the mechanics of it all. We want to peel back the layers of essentially bad baseball and start with them young to get better baseball started at an earlier age,” Stephen said.

“We’re not another team, we’re simply here to serve the community. So we want these kids to go back to their program wherever they decide to play and be as good as they possibly can be. You know, that’s something that’s hard to do in this community with the divisiveness and maybe we can bridge that gap and bring everybody together and enhance everyone in town,” Bledsoe said.

Home Plate Collective has already grown close to maximum capacity. They are looking to expand their space to help even more kids.

Their yearly programs get underway after Labor Day. To learn more about Home Plate Collective, you can see more information here.