The Franks Family: Chico Bullpen Baseball Academy

How the Chico Bullpen came about.....

Lance was laid off from Hardesty and Sons back in August, 2009. He decided then that he definitely did not want to go back to construction work. His love is baseball and he had to do something related. He has always wanted to be a scout and still wants to be and decided to pursue a scouting job. It seemed as though every open door led to a dead end. He was becoming very frustrated. His buddy asked if he wanted to help coach some travel teams of kids aged 9-14. Lance was happy to do it, excited to do it, and thought, even if I don't get paid, at least his name was getting out there. He also started volunteering his time at little league fields maintaining them. He would go out almost every morning and work on them. During his time coaching the travel teams, he realized how much he enjoys working with kids and of course baseball...the perfect combination. The kids loved him, too and their parents noticed. They started coming to him asking for lessons. He decided that he should open his own baseball school, a dream he has had for a long time now. At first it was just dreaming out loud to me but the more we thought and talked about it, the more it became a reality. His unemployment was running out and my paycheck has been dwindling down so what did we have to lose? He wanted to try this new venture not only to pursue his dream but also to provide for us, his family. Once we decided it was a go, he/we started working non-stop until the doors opened on Feb. 16, 2010. It has been a lot of hard work so far and we still aren't done, but it's also really exciting. Unfortunately it's a little bittersweet at the moment, but hopefully everything with his "buddy" will blow over. Yay honey! Here's to a very exciting and fun (and maybe a little nerve-wracking and a bit stressful) year to come with the Chico Bullpen! I'm so proud of you!