The Sandhills Sports Center will have two buildings, two or three outdoor baseball diamonds (one of which will be 300 feet to the wall) and an outdoor football/soccer field. Only one of the two buildings is under construction now.
The building will house an inline hockey rink that can be converted to a soccer field. It would also contain indoor batting cages, a pitching mound, a weight room and a 40-game arcade and party center.
Plans also include a sporting goods store that will be larger than any other store of its kind in Moore County, said owner George Fredericks.
The complex is designed to be a place for sports teams to practice when it rains and a place for kids to hang out and play sports.
“There’s nothing for kids to do around here,” Fredericks said.
Fredericks and his wife, Kris, have two children. They live in Pinehurst and run an Internet business and a garage for refurbishing cars. They wanted to do something to give back to the children of the area, he said.
They also expect it will be profitable. That is one of the reasons they are planning to offer a variety of sports and uses.
“If it was soccer by itself, hockey by itself or baseball by itself, then we couldn’t do it,” Fredericks said. “It had to be something multi-purpose. We’ve got to keep people in it.”
To make that possible, the sports complex will have a program in which parents can drop their children off and the employees will supervise them.
Security is a priority. Parents may be required to leave a driver’s license number. Another option would be that children would wear a bracelet with the name of the person who dropped them off. Employees would only allow that person to pick the child up.
It will be a safe place for busy parents to leave their children, Fredericks said. Parents who don’t want to leave while their children play can work out in the weight room. There will be a strength and conditioning coach on hand to assist them.
The second building, once it is constructed, will be for the adults, he said. It will have several tennis courts, a sports-themed restaurant and sports bar with big-screen televisions.
The restaurant and sports bar will be top-of-the line, he said. He hopes to recruit a top-notch chef. He plans a steakhouse fare. Customers will be able to look out over tennis courts.
Fredericks expects the tennis courts will be well used. The uncharacteristically rainy year of 2003 forced the cancellation of a lot of Pinehurst tennis, Fredericks said.
Weather won’t be a problem for the sports complex. It will be climate controlled, so winter won’t stop the tennis season.
Both buildings will be simple metal box designs — Hoke County’s more relaxed zoning was part of the reason for the location — but Fredericks is planning on adding brick façades. Building one should be completed this fall. A tentative date for the first hockey league games is Sept. 1.
Building 2 is taking a little bit longer, because the food and drink require licenses from the state. It should be open by summer 2005.
Fredericks and the rest of the team involved in the complex — which includes Jeff Wilson as general manager, Eric and Darlene Ritchie as managers, and Mackie McMillan as strength and conditioning coach — are also considering holding skateboard or in-line skating tournaments as a way to keep the place full. Much will depend on what the kids seem to favor during the “open skate” time from Friday afternoon to Saturday evening.
The Sandhills Sports Center will offer party packages and skate rental, as well. Fredericks also envisions it as a place for professional athletes, such as p major league pitcher James Baldwin, to hold clinics. The pitching machines will be type used in the major leagues, which can throw curveballs and sliders.
Many athletes love Pinehurst so much for its golf that they wouldn’t even require a fee, Fredericks said. He hopes a limousine from the airport and a round at Pinehurst No. 2 would suffice.
It all translates into something that Fredericks wants to serve all the children of the Sandhills, from Carthage to Laurinburg.
“A lot of people are wanting something for the kids,” Fredericks said. “A million and a half in the hole, it’s going to happen.”
