Inner City Baseball In Atlanta Took A Big Step Today

Inner city youth baseball in Atlanta took a big step forward today!

Casey Cavell, owner of D-BAT Atlanta finalized a partnership with L.E.A.D. that will all eight of our partner middle schools to have access to his 22,000 square foot "state of the art" indoor baseball training facility through the spring.  This is a big deal because now hundreds of undeserved middle school males in the Atlanta Public School system will have access to elite training provided by Diamond Directors at an elite training facility.

Click here to learn more about Diamond Directors and D-BAT Atlanta.

In previous years, our middle school teams wouldn't train in the winter due to a lack of facilities while our competitors trained in preparation for spring and summer baseball.

Some readers may say "good for L.E.A.D."  Ironically, this is good for Atlanta because the success of L.E.A.D. means that more young men are graduating from high school and college.  L.E.A.D.'s mission is to provide inner city at-risk youth males with access to higher education and civic engagement through baseball.

Did you know that...

• Atlanta Public Schools serve 52,000 students while 80% of those students live at or below the poverty level?
• Atlanta Public Schools graduates 34% of African-American males from high school?
• Students from zip codes 30310, 30315 and 30318 grow up to represent 80% of the Georgia State Prison population?
• Zip code 30314 is the 5th most dangerous community in America?

This winter when the temperature drops, over 10,000 swings will be taken by young men from Martin Luther King Middle School, Walter L. Parks MS, John F. Kennedy MS, B.E.S.T. Academy, Sylvan Hills MS, Charles L. Harper-Samuel H. Archer MS, Jean Childs Young MS and Joseph E. Brown MS at D-BAT Atlanta.  L.E.A.D. brought baseball to Atlanta Public Schools in 2010. Prior to L.E.A.D., baseball never existed in the district. It is truly a blessing for us to be able to partner with Atlanta Public Schools where I received an amazing education K-5th grade.  APS also educated my mother and fathers side of the family.  I love APS!

Since 2007, L.E.A.D. has...

• Graduated 100% of our Ambassadors from high school while 100% have enrolled into college.
• Prepared over 90% of our Ambassadors to enroll into college with baseball scholarship opportunities.

In 2013, L.E.A.D. will honor its first graduating class of Ambassadors from college! Let's go Atlanta!

We are going to wake up one day in the near future and college scouts are going to recognize the inner city of Atlanta as a "hot bed" for baseball talent in America.  Click here to join our L.E.A.D. Young Professionals Tailgate Club.