Two new basketball training facilities in eastern Maine will be opening this fall.
Matt MacKenzie and Mark Baxter, founders and co-owners of Results Basketball, are expanding the basketball program into two new facilities in Veazie and Ellsworth. The target date for the opening of both facilities is the first week of October.
The expansion of Results Basketball, which offers basketball clinics and small-group and private lessons, comes as the 10-year-old program has outgrown its previous spaces in Bangor and Ellsworth. The program coaches youngsters who come from as far away as Presque Isle and the Waterville-Augusta area, MacKenzie said.
“We are trying to help advance Maine basketball. There has been a need for this for a long time,” Baxter said.
MacKenzie and Shawn Demaray purchased a 28,000-square-foot warehouse in Veazie and are going to transform it into a multi-use facility with the primary emphasis on basketball.
Baxter is having his 9,000-square-foot facility constructed in Commerce Park in Ellsworth.
Each cost approximately $750,000.
MacKenzie and Baxter still travel to do clinics and private lessons, but these larger facilities will enable them to train significantly more young basketball players as well as people of all ages.
MacKenzie’s facility, which will be called the Eastern Maine Sports Academy, will include two full-size basketball courts, a half-court for training, a 2,500-square-foot weight room, a 4,500-square-foot artificial turf surface for the development of soccer and football skills, a health and welfare wing with offices for physical therapy, massage therapy, infrared saunas and nutritional drinks, and a spot for Shoot-A-Way rentals. A Shoot-A-Way is a machine that rebounds and passes to a player, allowing the player to take approximately 500 shots in 45 minutes.
“This will create a lot of opportunities,” MacKenzie said. “We’ll be able to have full team practices and games along with tournaments.”
He said they will also have men’s and women’s leagues, youth leagues and it will be available for after-school programs.
Baxter’s facility will be called the Forge Training Center and will include a regulation full-size basketball court with four extra baskets on the side. There will also be a 2,300-square-foot strength and agility training center and a second floor encompassing 3,500 square feet, which can be rented out or supply an area for future expansion.
Demaray, a former all-conference football player at the University of Maine who went on to become a football assistant at UMaine, Maine Maritime Academy and Husson University in Bangor, is the founder of Queen City Athletics and will handle the performance and weight training at the Eastern Maine Sports Academy.
Baxter said Bangor-based UBE Physical Therapy and Performance will rent space in his new facility. He also envisions a myriad of different uses for his facility.
MacKenzie and Baxter said their Results Basketball business has done very well and they continue to add clients.
They have both been involved in basketball throughout their lives and said they thoroughly enjoy watching their students develop and play for their high school and college teams, especially during the tournament season.
MacKenzie is from Warren and played at Medomak Valley High School in Waldoboro before becoming an all-conference player at Husson University.
Baxter is from Holden and played on John Bapst Memorial High School’s Class B state championship team in 1993. He went on to play at the University of Maine at Presque Isle and coach at Central Aroostook High School in Mars Hill and at Fort Kent High School.
MacKenzie and Baxter were assistant coaches at Husson University.
MacKenzie assisted Kissy Walker, his aunt, with the women’s program and Baxter worked under men’s coach Warren Caruso.
MacKenzie and Walker run and coach an 11-team AAU girls basketball program called Maine REACT that is three years old.