{"id":22007,"date":"2013-08-23T11:11:21","date_gmt":"2013-08-23T18:11:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/?p=22007"},"modified":"2013-08-23T11:11:21","modified_gmt":"2013-08-23T18:11:21","slug":"team-usas-ty-mckinney-new-instructor-at-the-home-plate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/?p=22007","title":{"rendered":"Team USA\u2019s Ty McKinney new instructor at The Home Plate"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Click<\/a>
Click logo for original news story and photo.<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nBy J. Daniel Rollins
\nRegister-Herald Sports Writer<\/em><\/p>\n

Area softball players looking for a little added instruction, there is good news. One of the nation\u2019s top pitchers is at your service.<\/p>\n

Ty McKinney, a member of the men\u2019s U.S. National fastpitch softball team, is now instructing players from southern West Virginia interested in improving their game at The Home Plate on Route 3.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really wanting to give back to the game,\u201d McKinney said. \u201cSoftball has been super excellent to me. I\u2019ve been able to travel and see the country. I\u2019ve seen the world for free. I just want to give back.\u201d<\/p>\n

McKinney comes from a high level of competitive fastpitch softball. It\u2019s something he\u2019s wanted to do since he was a young boy growing up in Ashland, Ohio.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my hometown, we had two men\u2019s major fastpitch teams, and as a kid those guys were like major league players to me,\u201d McKinney recalled. \u201cI\u2019ve been in love with the game ever since I can remember.\u201d<\/p>\n

McKinney threw his first pitch in a church league game at 13 years old and never looked back.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust like I said, I fell in love with the game,\u201d he added. \u201cIn 1997, I made my first USA team and then from there I was on multiple men\u2019s teams and won a national championship in 2001. We won the 23-and-under (championship) four times. And then on the big stage I\u2019ve been on the U.S. team in 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012. I missed out in 2013 due to injury. My goal is to get back on that squad.\u201d<\/p>\n

The decision to bring McKinney to Beckley was an easy one for The Home Plate owner Phil Spurlock.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe actually just started building cages and started working with kids here to try to get more up-to-date in softball,\u201d Spurlock explained. \u201cWe have a lot of kids in the Beckley Little League program, high school programs, but a lot of the kids needed somewhere else to work and actually try to get better.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was a personal experience that brought Spurlock and McKinney together.<\/p>\n

\u201cI actually left Beckley and moved to Kentucky,\u201d Spurlock said. \u201cIt was when I moved to Kentucky, my daughter wanted to take pitching lessons. So we went to a facility there called Championship Fast Pitch, where I met Ty.\u201d<\/p>\n

And now McKinney is bringing top-notch professional level instruction where Spurlock felt it\u2019s needed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of kids in southern West Virginia that want to play, but there\u2019s no one really working with them,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s some great places like Jerry\u2019s Fastpitch and you\u2019ve got Marty Jones and Tim Curtis, but those guys can only handle so much. They mainly all teach pitching, so we wanted to setup something where they can get everything they need.\u201d<\/p>\n

For McKinney, it\u2019s all about fundamentals.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just the right way,\u201d McKinney said. \u201cIt starts with knowing the basics and working up from there.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Home Plate offers membership packages for $160 a month.<\/p>\n

For more information, call 304-237-0236 or 304-228-3336.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By J. Daniel Rollins Register-Herald Sports Writer Area softball players looking for a little added instruction, there is good news. One of the nation\u2019s top pitchers is at your service. Ty McKinney, a member of the men\u2019s U.S. National fastpitch softball team, is now instructing players from southern West Virginia interested in improving their game […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22008,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-22007","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-players","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22007"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22007\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22009,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22007\/revisions\/22009"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}