Dozens of Saturday visitors to 1855 Holste Road saw only the half of the building where the football player was.
While crowds were celebrating the grand opening of FitSpeed on the east side, Play Ball USA, on the west side, was quiet.
“We didn’t schedule anything, so we wouldn’t get in their way,” said Northbrook resident Ross Wilson, one of the owners.
Winter, however, is the company’s best time of year, when baseball and softball players seek off-season training.
Wilson and partners Matt Mahay and Kent Knebelkamp have six batting cages and three pitching mounds in their 10,000 square feet. The batting cages have an unusual accessory: a screen at the far end, where batters can see their bat speed and the angle of their stroke.
Play Ball USA is using the technology to help teach, Mahay said, the mechanics of how to combine the motion of batters’ upper and lower bodies to maximize their ability to hit and hit with power.
The Northbrook facility is about a month old. Mahay and Wilson opened their first location in Mount Prospect in 2013.
Knebelcamp, another Northbrook resident, is a 50 percent owner of the Holste Road building. He is also a principal of the Accelerated Center, a 96,000-square-foot indoor sports center that opened in late 2013 at nearby 1900 Willow Road.
Saturday, while the crowd was watching the Bears’ Brandon Wilson at FitSpeed, another two crowds were watching two kids’ indoor soccer games being played simultaneously at the Accelerated Center.
“I find it fascinating,” Village President Sandy Frum said Saturday, referring to the wealth of new indoor athletic facilities in her town.
She said the original Accelerated Center concept seemed like a bit of a stretch at first. The dual use on Holste Road seemed easy, after that, Frum said.
“The Accelerated Center took off, and I think this one will, too,” she said.