My students need access to a pitching machine so they can be well-prepared for our upcoming baseball season and improve their batting skills to be able to continue playing baseball after high school and semi-professionally.
Our students are from very hard-working families located in the communities of the South East Side of Chicago where steel mills once employed many close-knit neighborhoods. However, most of the jobs and social mobility have long since departed our families. Our student athletes are some of our hardest working students who often juggle schoolwork, in addition to practice time and often part time jobs and family obligations.
These students often dream of playing baseball after high school, however, our school has a lack of baseball resources to help prepare them for this opportunity.
My Project
Our student athletes do not have access to a pitching machine to conduct indoor batting practice and therefore, are not able to be fully prepared for our spring season- every year. There are no local batting cages in or within twenty miles of out school, so our student athletes only receive minimal coach-thrown batting practice which is timely, exhausting, and inefficient. Being able to use a pitching machine will help all of our student athletes grow the confidence in themselves and their abilities for many years to come. Furthermore, students who dream of playing collegiate baseball will be better prepared for these opportunities. Many of our students have had enough curve balls thrown at them by life already, and having a Pitching Machine will symbolize our school's ability to persevere in and off the baseball diamond. Lastly, our students are much safer being in our gym doing BP than being in the neighborhood, and a Pitching Machine will allow us to attract and retain the most at-risk students who often find practice boring.
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