Elite Sports and Collectibles, a new indoor space for young athletes

Elite Sports and Collectibles, a new indoor space for young athletes

Elite Sports and Collectibles, is a new indoor space for young athletes in the Twin Ports. They will have their grand opening in two weeks, and offer a place for youth sports to train.

Here in the Northland, there’s no shortage of kids who love playing sports. But one struggle for local teams is finding a large enough indoor space to train and have fun. Elite Sports and Collectibles, is a new indoor space for young athletes in the Twin Ports.

More than 5,000 high school students joined athletic teams last year. That is according to the Minnesota State High School League. With over 200,000 students participating in sports across Minnesota, there’s a pair of local coaches wanting to provide a space to practice.

Aaron Larson is a co-owner for the upcoming Elite Sports and Collectibles complex in West Duluth. He says the athletic center is not just for local teams. It’s a space for everyone, including people who collect sports memorabilia like hockey and baseball cards.

“This is much, much needed in the area for all associations and all clubs, high schools, and there’s no indoor turf. We’re ten years behind the cities, and it’s time we start catching up,” Larson said. “From coaching traveling basketball to football in Hermantown. It was always a problem for us to find turf space.”

For high school teams who play in the spring, it can be a challenge trying to schedule outdoor practice if there’s still snow on the ground. Young athletes can thrive by training indoors instead of waiting for good weather to play outside.

Herb Gibson, the general manager of the Duluth Huskies, is the other Elite Sports co-owner. He says in his experience managing youth sports it’s about developing athletes into becoming mature young adults.

“Youth sports builds character and builds lifelong lessons. Whether it’s regarding teammates or as I always say, ‘It’s how to win with grace and lose with class,’. From an association standpoint, we’re holding some spots back for the high schools that haven’t reached out yet,” Gibson said. “We expect it to be fully sold out for the next three months fairly soon. So that’s soccer, lacrosse, baseball, and women’s softball.”

The renovations for the elite sports complex are nearly finished, says Gibson. They are in the final phase of building three different courts to play basketball, volleyball, and pickleball.

“Turf rolls out here this Saturday and Sunday. The nets will be done Friday. So we’ll hopefully be up and running sometime next week,” Gibson said. “A lot of things have to happen, but the big thing is the certificate of occupancy from the city of Duluth.”

The grand opening for Elite Sports will be in two weeks, on February 7th. They already have their website up and running for people wanting reserve spots.