Tim Karam’s son, Caden, loves baseball.
Caden competed for the Bangor Little League All-Star team that reached the championship game in the New England Regional two summers ago and came one win away from reaching the Little League World Series.
Tim Karam wanted his son and other children to have the opportunity to work on their skills year-round, so he created an indoor facility with artificial turf designed to serve that purpose.
“We don’t have enough facilities in the area and you can barely get into the ones we have” due to the demand, Karam said.
The Hillside Athletics facility, located on Hillside Avenue in Bangor between Bangor High School and the Broadway Hannaford, recently opened its doors. It includes two batting cages and a series of golf simulators with state of the art equipment, along with an artificial turf surface.
The baseball portion of the facility has a Trackman for analytics, HitTrax for real time data and a virtual ballpark experience, and an iPitch pitching machine with customized pitches to mimic any pitcher. Twenty-three Major League teams use iPitch Spinball, according to Karam.
Stalker Radar is used to measure pitch speed.
The batting cages are each 70-feet long.
In the other section of the facility are GolfZon simulators, which enable golfers to choose from more than 200 golf courses. There are five hitting surfaces and automatic ball retrieval. There is also a driving range.
“Cameras will show you your swing path,” Karam said. “And we have an automatic tee so people don’t have to pick their golf balls up.”
Former Bangor High School, University of Maine and Liberty University star left-handed pitcher Trevor DeLaite has partnered with Karam to offer group and individual baseball lessons through his own business.
Karam said the facility cost approximately $250,000.
Golfers can play for $30 an hour from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. during the week and $40 to $45 after 2 p.m. or on the weekends. The basic batting cage will cost $30 an hour but the cage with the HitTrax and IPitch will cost $45 an hour during weekdays and on weekends.
Karam said the artificial surface can be used by trainers to teach classes like pilates or boxing. Birthday parties and team-building events can also be held there.
He said the response has been good so far.
“We have had a lot of Bangor High varsity players here,” he said.