By Marcus Green
The Courier-Journal

LOUISVILLLE, Ky. - No one promised John Marshall that if he built it, they would come. The former University of Kentucky and minor league baseball player opened Champions Baseball/Softball Academy in Louisville in 1994 with his father Jim. There were still no promises when Champions expanded by moving to Jeffersontown's Bluegrass Industrial Park in 1999. But the Jeffersontown location, in its fourth year, has become a winter haven for ballplayers getting in shape.

Word of its success traveled well in baseball circles.

When Beacon Orthopaedics & Sports Medicine, a leading Ohio sports medicine group, sought a tenant to split a brand-new 60,000 square-foot facility outside Cincinnati, it found Champions. After struggling for years to break even, the Champions management team - Jim and John Marshall and Ron Hinners - had steered the business into the black.

With its position in the Louisville area entrenched, John Marshall said there had been talk of branching out into other cities.

"We were ready to step outside this market, and it was such a unique opportunity to be involved with a group like that," John Marshall he said.

The lineup of investors in the new venture includes Cincinnati Reds shortstop Barry Larkin, former Reds pitcher Chris Welsh, former player and manager Buddy Bell, Philadelphia Phillies third baseman David Bell and Reds team doctor Tim Kremchek.

Champions launched its Ohio location in December. Steve Scheffel, administrator for Beacon Orthopaedics, said the partnership already is creating a buzz.

"It's a real unique center - probably the only one in the country like it - where you've got the marriage of a performance-enhancement (and) training baseball facility with a medical clinic," Scheffel said.

These visions of branding the Champions name and establishing multiple facilities were hardly in the realm of possibility in 1994, when Marshall opened the academy in a 12,000-square-foot location behind the Louisville Zoo.

In the early days, he now acknowledges, "it was a struggle to keep the doors open," he said.

Growth was slow but steady. Champions decided to build its own facility when demand squeezed the original location. Marshall told The Courier-Journal in 1999 that the Jeffersontown location would be more of a talking point than moneymaker. That's still the case - sort of.

"We're one of the few people in the country who have proven that we can build it and pay the bills and make a little bit of a profit," John Marshall said.

He gives the lion's share of the credit to Hinners, who brought more than 20 years of corporate experience at 3M, Automatic Data Processing and First Data Corp., to Champions in 2001.

Marshall's strength is in baseball instruction and daily operations. Hinners strengthened Champions' business side. His background was in financial forecasting, writing business plans and managing budgets.

With Hinners on board, talk of expansion began in earnest. Cincinnati was an obvious first step because of its proximity to Louisville and its reputation as a baseball hotbed.

In Louisville, baseball and softball players are using Champions to loosen up for their seasons.

The facility has indoor batting cages, a sports-medicine clinic and a sports cards store. Business does slow during the summer months before gearing up again in the fall and peaking during the winter season, Marshall said.