THE HITTING CENTER - A community program of Calvary Church

Our motto:   "Mentoring the Champions of Tomorrow"

Mission Statement:

The Hitting Center is a community-based support program of Calvary Church of Springfield, IL.  Our mission is to provide consistent, dependable and accountable baseball and softball development and organizational support services to organizations, families and student athletes within the Springfield and surrounding areas.  Provide services and mentors (instructors/coaches) that are fully aware of, and fully accountable to, the roles they will play in the overall athletic and life development of an individual and family.  Provide for programs designed and targeted to go far beyond simple athletic skills development introducing and/or encouraging the value of healthy family and faith-based, Christ-centered balances.  Balances found to be vital in our ultimate goal of mentoring true "Champions of Tomorrow".

Our Vision:

One must recognize that we live in an athletic-crazed society.  Every day there are countless horror stories of abuses and tragedies erupting from what are simple games designed to be played with simple rules.  Coaching positions continue to be filled by less and less qualified and trained candidates.  They are often filled by parents or individuals filling the position simply because nobody else would do it.  Furthermore, situations are often complicated by the unhealthy and unrealistic athletic expectations of parents.  These situations most always result in tension between the child and parents.  This is why the role of a coach or instructor who understands his or her accountability as a positive role model becomes so important.  A challenge that The Hitting Center has been called to address.

We have taken our passion for youth and family mentoring through athletics, combined it with our expertise in team development and topped it off with our Christ-centered, heart-felt commitment in doing our best to address these needs for the sake of our next generation.  Instead of ignoring these “unhealthy athletic situations”, we have organizationally embraced them by promoting instruction and coaching services designed around building ongoing athletic mentor based relationships.

In serving in the role of athletic mentor, we often find parents experiencing the freedom to return to that important role of being mom or dad in the eyes of their child.  While partnering with the parents in the athletic development of their child, this often opens the door to discussing family and faith-based balances that are so vital to a child’s athletic development not to mention their overall life development.  Likewise in situations where dad is not available, we often become the “foster dad” helping mom to understand and develop her athletic-minded child. 

These are just a few examples of the mission, vision and effectiveness of our program.