The Vision:

A Pipeline for Professionals

Throughout Nicaragua, young boys play in the streets with whatever they can find to serve as a bat and a ball. Their enthusiasm reflects the national passion for baseball, but their talent, while substantial, remains raw and untrained.

IBACA will identify and develop this wellspring of talent, creating a much-needed infrastructure for training that will set the standard for the advancement of baseball in Nicaragua. Patterned after highly successful baseball academies in the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, the International Baseball Academy of Central America will be Nicaragua’s focal point for developing professional players.

Breaking ground in 2010, in a location adjacent to the Gran Pacifica Beach and Golf Resort on the Nicaragua’s Pacific Coast, IBACA will feature a dedicated facility capable of housing and training nearly 200 players at a time. In addition to multiple playing fields, batting cages, pitching mounds, practice fields, and a track and weight training gym, the complex will include player dorms, coach and staff housing, classrooms, a cafeteria, equipment storage and, ultimately a Minor League–quality stadium. At the same time, IBACA will improve the quality of and access to youth baseball throughout Nicaragua by teaming with local government and the Nicaraguan Federation of Associated Baseball (FENIBA) to hold regional clinics, spearhead field improvements, broker equipment donations and encourage the organization of youth baseball programs.

IBACA will mobilize a network of talent evaluators to identify young players with professional potential and channel them to IBACA’s training complex, where all participants will receive a general education and the most accomplished will gain the skills they need to obtain baseball scholarships or potentially build professional baseball careers. Under the direction of board member and player agent Dave Stewart, the International Baseball Association (IBACA’s parent company) will also establish an agency to represent Nicaraguan players once they arrive in the United States to play both Minor and Major League Baseball.