Facility for serious athletes coming to N.B.

BY JENNIFER AMATO
Staff Writer

NORTH BRUNSWICK — The Zoning Board of Adjustment approved an application for a sports training facility to be located at 1330 Livingston Ave. on Feb. 16.

LaMonte Forthun presented his schematic for the renovation of a portion of an existing warehouse into a 14,588-square-foot recreation, education and training facility for the aspiring higher-level athletes.

“I believe there is a demand, a need for the facility you’re proposing,” board Chairman David Sirna said. “It goes beyond the basic high school operations of sports facilities. You’re taking it to the next level. You’re well-versed and knowledgeable, it seems, in this area, so I think it’s going to be an outstanding addition to the community.”

Forthun, one of the principals of All Sport Academy, explained the layout of the building which would include space for eight batting cages, a weightlifting room and a speed-training facility. The main floor would be divided into seven sections of 20 feet each with retractable nets to allow for smaller or larger spaces, depending on the need for scheduled baseball, softball, flag football, basketball or soccer clinics.

“The facility is large enough to house more than one activity at the same time,” Forthun said. “But it is not a wide-open space where kids will run around or run into each other.”

As a result, athletes from pre-kindergarten through high school would benefit from the facility. Younger children would come in during the school day when the gym is not occupied, and older children would schedule their appointments for later in the day.

“By getting involved with local businesses and getting the word out and doing this, we’d like to have [the kids] come in for about 45 minutes and run around and have some type of activity,” the baseball coach said.

Since Forthun is specifically designating this facility for serious athletes who intend to pursue a future career in sports instead of having a recreational atmosphere, he explained the importance of training students mentally, and included that academia will be supported as well at the facility.

“One of the things we obviously need kids to understand is that if their grades are not up to par, they won’t be able to compete in sports anyway. ... If they want to be better athletes and want to compete, that’s why they come to us,” he said. “We’re not looking to open a tutoring center per se, but we’re looking to offer that support for them.”

Forthun said this goes hand-in-hand with marketing for college. Although high school students expect to get noticed if they are remarkable athletes, personal connections are more beneficial for exposing their talent.

“What tends to happen is they need a little help getting the word out there and getting their name out,” he said.

Therefore, the facility will offer grade-point-average maintenance in addition to statistics, video documents and yearly progression analysis. Forthun said he also has the means to get athletes additional exposure to coaches, including former college coaches, a former major league baseball pitcher, a coach at Temple University, the state record holder for shot-put and discus, a local school athletic trainer and his wife, who is a South Brunswick physical education teacher.

“The contacts I have developed over the past 10 years will tremendously help us,” he said. “We can’t do it ourselves. ... but my list of contacts is incredible.”

Even more beneficial would be the availability of the training grounds on holidays. Forthun mentioned, for example, that if students have Presidents Day off, they can still come in for a four-hour batting clinic instead of playing video games all day.

Another component of the projected use is the institution of leagues. Although Forthun said the building is not large enough to accompany actual play, he said he would be interested in the organizational aspect, such as coordinating with the Middlesex County baseball program.

An athlete since the age of 10 and a coach in South Brunswick for the past 10 years, Forthun said the facility is necessary because a comparable one does not exist locally.

“There is not something available like what we’re looking to do in our general area,” Forthun said. “This is a facility that has a tremendous amount of use for athletics and other types of activities.”

Despite concerns of increased traffic, extended operating hours and noise, the Zoning Board unanimously approved the application to allow the facility in the current I-1 industrial zone upon the conditions of operating hours being Monday- Friday from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., Saturday from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m., and Sunday from 1 to 10 p.m.; only 150 square feet allotted for retail space; and no activity occurring outside of the facility.

“I do not want to see a warehouse and truck traffic that could operate for 24 hours a day which would burden the roads 10 times greater than this,” Sirna said.