The crackling of a microphone on a crisp August morning in 2014 brought a sea of people to attention inside the P&G MLB Cincinnati Reds Youth Academy. In the middle of the crowd sat a stage with several stars — Frank Robinson, Joey Votto, Jay Bruce, Brandon Phillips and Joe Morgan to name a few — alongside MLB, the Reds, City of Cincinnati, P&G and corporate leaders. Most, if not all of them, shared how baseball impacted their lives and how the building they sat in could do the same.

For many in attendance on August 22, 2014, it was the first time they’d seen the Reds Youth Academy. The multi-year project was finally completed, and it was time for Commissioner Bud Selig to cut a shiny, red ribbon with an oversized pair of scissors.

Tears filled the eyes of several in attendance — including Morgan — but it was out of happiness. They knew that the Academy was about to change Cincinnati for the better beyond baseball.

Recognizing a Need

In the early 2000s, Major League Baseball responded to the national decline of the game in urban areas after urging from Morgan. He believed that if MLB were to invest in the development of the game and training academies outside of the U.S., it ought to operate a domestic facility as well. Morgan’s concerns led to the construction of the first Urban Youth Academy.

The original Urban Youth Academy opened in Compton, Calif., on a 10-acre plot adjacent to Compton Community College in 2006. The four-field complex and indoor facilities have had a tremendous impact on the game already, producing diverse talent and providing a blueprint for other MLB teams and markets.

Within its first few years of inception, the Compton academy proved the need for more urban-based programming across the country. Youth, including Reds All-Star pitcher and former No. 2 Draft pick Hunter Greene, were thriving in the space, and for them, baseball became more than watching the Dodgers, Angels or their other favorite teams on TV.

There was something similar operating on the other side of the U.S. In partnership with Cincinnati Public Schools, the Reds and the Reds Community Fund (RCF) began hosting fall and winter youth programing in the former Cincinnati Academy of Physical Education (CAPE) in Cincinnati’s Winton Place neighborhood. It was their youth academy of sorts.

What the RCF hoped to find on the CAPE campus was a baseball and softball facility that could provide a year-round home with indoor and outdoor amenities. They enhanced the indoor area with LED lighting and installed a 90-foot pitching tunnel that could be divided into two workspaces.

However, the outdoor space wasn’t quite conducive to the RCF’s vision.

“CAPE was built for soccer and football fields and had a lot of elevation changes. You would have had to move a tremendous amount of earth to install another one or two (baseball) fields there,” Charley Frank, Executive Director of the Reds Community Fund, said.

When MLB visited CAPE, it agreed it wasn’t the most suitable location. The Reds needed to find a new option, so they turned to the Cincinnati Recreation Commission (CRC) for recommendations.

CRC suggested a handful of possible sites, including Roselawn Park. Two local high schools — Purcell Marian and Walnut Hills — already used the park for their varsity baseball teams. The 35-acre park had been remodeled around the turn of the 21st century into a baseball and softball park with four fields that didn’t require intense renovation. As an added bonus, Reds Hall of Fame Outfielder Dave Parker lives in the neighborhood and was already engaged.

Frank had a good feeling about Roselawn Park, so he took Phil Castellini, Reds President and Chief Executive Officer, and the selection committee there. As they sat on an old set of bleachers and stared out over the four fields, they envisioned a new facility perfect for Reds Country’s youth. Frank and Castellini knew they’d found the place.

“Roselawn Park had everything we were looking for: a central location in an underserved neighborhood with preexisting fields and enough land to build out a complex that would make Reds Country proud,” Castellini said. “Knowing that choosing to build there would immediately elevate this CRC property and directly benefit area high schools in addition to serving thousands of other youth made this the absolute perfect choice.”   

With the blessing from the City of Cincinnati and CRC, Frank and the Reds Community Fund led fundraising efforts across Reds Country. As the National League Central champion Reds opened postseason play in October 2012, the Reds and Reds Community Fund announced that 10 of P&G’s leading brands had committed $2 million to the Reds Urban Youth Academy project, with $1.5 million pledged toward the Academy and the remainder to brand activations within Great American Ball Park. The investment was P&G’s largest ever with the Reds at the time.

Other area sponsors and donors followed P&G’s lead, along with Reds ownership and Reds shareholders. Seeing themselves as stewards of the Reds, ownership believed that investing in a year-round baseball and softball facility for the community’s use delivered lasting impact.

“This never would have been possible without leadership from the very top,” Frank insists. “Every other MLB team would want a similar facility, but it requires a coordinated effort and a genuine investment from ownership. Bob and Phil Castellini made this a priority, which resonated with our limited partners, city officials, sponsors and players.”

With that promise in hand, the Reds Community Fund sought the team that could bring their dream to life before the Reds hosted the All-Star Game in 2015.

Ohio-based general contractor Kokosing expressed interest in the project, but with a slight change in plans. They wanted to complete the project in one phase, set to open in 2014, not in two like the RCF had originally planned. One phase would cost a little more, but the entire space would be ready before that Midsummer Classic in Cincinnati.

Breaking Ground

In the spring of 2012, Frank flew to Compton with Bill Daggy, a former P&G executive and the first director of the Academy. They strolled through the halls of the Urban Youth Academy with the director and former MLB catcher, Darrell Miller, and took notes.

The group stopped to view roughly 30 names hung on a wall inside the facility. They were all young men of color who had graduated from the Urban Youth Academy and signed a professional contract at some point. Miller called it the player progress wall.

Frank and Daggy were so moved by the gesture, it was the topic of their flight home. They knew that if Cincinnati was able to create a similar environment, a nearly identical wall would be installed. But the two didn’t just want it to be about baseball.

“As impressive as that is, that's not our vision. We're not about just baseball development. We understand and applaud their mission which makes sense for the original MLB complex,” Frank said. “But our focus is youth development in Greater Cincinnati. We're not going to have a program that doesn't celebrate young women and softball as well.”

The Cincinnati Academy was to house its Nike RBI program, which fields both baseball and softball teams. It was also to host free instruction for youth aged 5 to 18 years old. The RCF wanted to focus on building major league citizens, both young men and women, and it needed the right space.

To make that happen, the RCF and Kokosing modeled the indoor portion of the Academy after the Reds’ Player Development Complex in Goodyear, Ariz. The 34,000-square-foot indoor practice facility was to have a full-sized turf diamond infield and four batting tunnels to complement the four outdoor fields. The design also included classrooms to house educational programs in tandem with the University of Cincinnati’s School of Education.

By the spring of 2014, the sights and sounds of an active construction site were met with the scrape of plastic cleats. The RCF opened the four outdoor fields for use that season, one of which had a turf infield and another that featured a grandstand seating area.

When he arrived for his team’s first game on the new fields, longtime Reds Nike RBI coach Roosevelt Barnes didn’t quite know what to do with himself. The space didn’t require the manual labor other fields had before.

“Prior to (the Academy), if we had a game that maybe started at 1 p.m. on a Saturday, I would oftentimes have to get to the field right around 7:30 or 8 a.m. just for field prep,” Barnes said. “(The Academy) just made baseball so much easier. It’s made the game more enjoyable, not only as a coach, but also for the young men and women that participate there.”

The RCF was elated to see part of its dream in action. Even though there was a half-assembled building and construction fencing, Cincinnati youth were experiencing the joy of baseball and softball. As of 2024, over 500 games are played on those fields each year.

Teams, Uniforms, Equipment and a Place to Play

Nerves filled the RCF staff and board as they prepared to open the Academy’s doors to the public for the first time. They had grown to love the indoor field and concrete walls adorned by Reds greats, and it hoped the Greater Cincinnati community would too.

The RCF decided to warm the space with a giant cookout after the opening ceremony. Nearly 1,000 residents came to see what the Reds and RCF had done for their local park, and they were pleased with the results. Love, appreciation and the scent of barbecue radiated throughout the Academy’s grounds that day. Prior to the community party, the ribbon-cutting celebration was an iconic moment, with current and former Reds and MLB greats surprising Morgan with the renaming of the street leading into the complex as “Joe Morgan Way.” Reds legend and National Baseball Hall of Famer Frank Robinson, who helped secure MLB’s commitment, joined Morgan and Reds stars at the time Brandon Phillips, Jay Bruce and Joey Votto, along with local Reds Hall of Famers Dave Parker and Ron Oester.

“It’s still a goosebumps moment,” Robinson said.

Within its first few years of operation, the Academy became a hub for events both locally and nationally. It was tabbed as the host site for the 2016 Nike RBI World Series, in which the Reds Nike RBI program had a team participating. After a successful year showcasing its newest Academy, MLB returned for the 2017 Nike RBI World Series as well.

The Academy is also home to a variety of other programs, such as USA Baseball’s Fun At Bat, Home Base and the RCF Scholars educational program. Fun At Bat is designed to bring elementary-aged youth into the sport with an emphasis on character development. Home Base is an immersive college preparatory program tailored toward high school students and is partially held on the University of Cincinnati’s campus. The program provides student-athletes with leadership training and life skills development on top of individualized athletic training.

When the Academy isn’t hosting a large-scale event, there’s still plenty of hustle and bustle on its grounds. Over 2,500 boys and girls use the facilities each year, most of them at no charge. Student-athletes are always perfecting their craft in the classrooms and on the fields at the Academy. The RCF Scholars initiative is the required extracurricular component of Reds Nike RBI that focuses on school performance, volunteer service and personal development. It includes study tables, a variety of seminars and service activities for Nike RBI participants. The Scholars program is part of what makes the Academy unique.

It also involves community service, which is what led RBI alumna Alexis Dillingham to her career path.

“The Academy shaped me into the person I am today and taught me skills on and off the field. I learned so much more than just softball. We had seminars with guest speakers on topics such as confidence, communication, teamwork, etc.,” Dillingham said. “I was able to carry everything I learned throughout college and apply it to every aspect of my life. I also did a lot of volunteer work through the Academy, which is where I learned the love I have for helping others. I am now the Director of Community Service for my sorority and working with the children there is what led me to my career path of education.”

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“I can’t tell you how much I owe them just because of the opportunity it gave me,” said Nigel Davis, an RBI alumnus and current coach with the Reds Baseball Camps. “I didn’t necessarily come from the wealthiest background, so to be able to play baseball at a high level and have the access to facilities that allowed me to experience that, to go to out-of-town tournaments and regional tournaments, and experience the Major League spirit. It’s something that I would have never gotten.”

Davis was a member of the 2021 Nike RBI World Series championship team. That senior (18U) group was the first Reds Nike RBI team to win a title, and for many of them, it was their last-ever RBI game. All season long, they’d been mentored by Reds All-Star first baseman Joey Votto and other Reds players alongside their coaches. The night before the championship game, Votto recorded a video and shared it with the coaches, who played it on the bus before the team upset the previously unbeaten Austin (Texas) RBI team, 10-5.

When they returned to Cincinnati from Vero Beach, Fla., the team was met with a shower of congratulations that included a stop to Great American Ball Park for a ceremony in their honor.

“I remember the ring presentation,” Reds pitcher Brent Suter said. “I was here with a visiting team, and we saw them all getting these really nice rings. That was really cool.”

Despite the COVID-19 protocol of 2021 that prevented the team from celebrating on the field, Votto went into the stands to hold the trophy with the team.

Its Own Legacy

A similar sight to the one 10 years ago now takes place once a year inside the Reds Academy. However, instead of a stage there is a giant screen surrounded by red and white balloons. Rather than meticulously arranged rows of chairs filled with people in suits, there’s an array of rectangular tables filled by children of all ages in red polos and their families. The crisp sound of a microphone still brings the crowd to attention, but this time it’s not for a ribbon cutting and giant pair of scissors.

It’s for scholarships and awards at the Reds Nike RBI program’s annual banquet.

On July 23, 2024, the RCF and the Academy celebrated its three Nike RBI teams heading to the regional tournament and those teams whose seasons had concluded. The event itself and the scholarships ($1,500 to 18 graduating seniors) awarded each year are a growing tradition, as is the Nike RBI program.

Two of the awards given included a spot on the “Matteuci Family Player Progress Wall,” the Reds’ version of the one Frank and Daggy saw in Compton.

“Today our player progress wall is running out of room,” Frank said. “We're celebrating those that have won scholarships or earned scholarships to continue their careers at the collegiate level, those that have come back to coach, come back to lead, and come back to volunteer. It's a very diverse wall.”

Those names are only a fraction of the youth who found success once they passed through the Academy’s doors. 2021 championship coach Roosevelt Barnes remains in contact with several of his former athletes and seeing them blossom into their careers still brings him joy. It reminds him that the purpose he’s served for nearly 20 years as a Nike RBI coach goes far beyond the Academy’s footprint.

“I've been around long enough now that I'm getting to a point where I'm going to weddings and sitting down with some of our former players as they're having their firstborn. I still have conversations with a lot of those young men, even to this day. The conversations extend beyond baseball,” Barnes said.

Many of the athletes Barnes and other RBI coaches have mentored come back to volunteer at the Academy. A handful of baseball and softball coaches, including Davis and his 2021 World Series teammate Kameron Boggs, have had the privilege of seeing the Nike RBI program from both sides.

Some Nike RBI athletes even get to continue using the Academy through their collegiate years. The RCF and the Academy partnered with Wilberforce University, an HBCU (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) in Wilberforce, Ohio, to start its first baseball team in nearly eight decades in 2022. The partnership also creates opportunities for student-athletes to explore the Reds organization beyond baseball, which is something Barnes hopes to see his athletes do.

Over the past 10 years, the P&G MLB Cincinnati Reds Youth Academy has provided Greater Cincinnati with something that cannot be measured or replaced. Whether it’s helping paint a mural of Morgan on the side of the building or testing kids’ athletic skills during a PLAY BALL competition, the Academy continues to be a place where children and adults can come together to get better in sports and life.

“I want kids to experience what I experienced when I was in RBI because it’s not every day that you get to see and talk to certain players and go certain places to play regional games. On top of that, you get good training like you’re able to at the Academy. Not every kid gets to experience a turf field,” Boggs said. “I want to give that back to other kids and bring more kids into the game. People say that baseball is a dying sport. You’ve just got to show them this is not a dying sport. Kids still love the game of baseball.”

Save the date! The Reds Youth Academy will be hosting a 10-year anniversary celebration on Friday, October 4! More details to come.