This Paradise baseball school is proof that 'changing the culture' is helping kids get to college

A warehouse lined with turf, netting and a weight room tucked away in the corner sits mostly quiet on weekday mornings in an area of Paradise dotted by commercial businesses. 

But in the afternoons, evenings — and mostly over the winter — it's a bustling hub for kids of all ages, both boys and girls, honing their craft to get an edge on the baseball diamond.

Premier Sports Academy opened in February 2020, just weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic brought life mostly to a halt for many over the following couple of years. 

But the passion and the vision for owner Ryan Sweeney and the business's director of operations Noah Anderson wasn't swayed. 

The goal was always to get Newfoundland and Labrador serious about baseball. In the same way that millions of dollars is pumped into minor hockey programs over the winter, developing kids into the province's next Alex Newhook and Dawson Mercer, PSA wants to turn the boys and girls of summer into pros — while also keeping the game fun. 

"It's slow but sure. I think once people start to take baseball more seriously, we will have more results," Sweeney told CBC News while on the road to Atlanta with three kids representing Newfoundland and Labrador on a national team playing in an international tournament. 

"We're really big on routines with the kids, and once that stuff starts to permeate across everybody, you just see the elevation of play kind of raise."

But whatever the goal of the individual player may be, PSA's ability to show them the path to the next level has been working. It's something that never used to be as obvious, in the same way that hockey players know they have to play AAA and get drafted to the QMJHL or sign to an NCAA team for a chance to get seen by NHL clubs. 

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