After spending nine years playing professional baseball, Wetumpka graduate Bradley Roney is giving back to his hometown.
The 2011 Wetumpka graduate has opened up a baseball and softball training facility named Ground Up Performance. The facility, located at 1755 US Hwy. 231, was a long time coming for Roney and his dream of staying around baseball.
He is taking all of his knowledge and skills from the last 12 years of playing high-level baseball and giving it back to the area’s talented baseball players.
“It’s always been a dream of mine to have my own place where I could stay in baseball and still have fun with it,” Roney said. “I think this area needs something where there’s a baseball home for guys who are going to junior college or Division I, and I’m trying to provide that place for guys to come and train and work on their craft.”
Roney’s facility has already hosted some of the best baseball players from around the county and surrounding area. Since it has opened, Roney has trained with players such as Kyle Morrison (Troy, Shelton State), Sam Silas and Colin Woodham (Jacksonville State), Drey Barrett (Southern Miss), Zach Stevens (South Alabama) and Fleming Hall (Auburn) among others.
Countless players either already committed or signed with college programs were taking live at-bats or pitching, while some of the area’s top younger players such as Stanhope Elmore sophomore Hayden Anderson took to the competition.
The talent level even brought in a few spectators such as Elmore County baseball coach Michael Byrd and AUM head coach Franklin Bush.
“When you surround yourself with good people who have the same mentality and the same goals as you, good results are going to come from that,” Roney said. “That’s kind of the idea of having these top-level guys here. They’re products of this area who are getting the chance to play at the next level and need somewhere to train in the offseason. That’s what I want to provide for them.”
Roney offers some insight that not many people can offer high school baseball players. After graduating from Wetumpka in 2011, Roney attended the University of Southern Mississippi for three seasons where he was a two-way standout for the Golden Eagles.
He was drafted in the eighth round of the 2014 MLB Draft by the Atlanta Braves, and he spent the next nine seasons playing professional baseball as a pitcher.
During his career in the minors, Roney reached as far as AAA. He had a successful minor league career and posted a 16-11 record with a 3.71 earned run average.
Now that his playing days are behind him, he wants to give the knowledge he learned over a long career back to players who have the same chance he did.
“I have 12 years of playing high-level baseball,” Roney said. “I have seen a lot of baseball and seen a lot of amazing athletes. I know what works and what doesn’t at that level. I can offer these guys who want to play at the next level the knowledge of how to manage their time and manage being a professional. I can show them a professional approach to training and show these kids what it takes to get there.”
Roney didn’t always know his dream would come true in his hometown. During his early years of professional baseball, he just spent his offseasons wherever he was playing.
After a few seasons, he started returning to Wetumpka to spend his offseasons and he fell back in love with the town and community.
Now Roney doesn’t plan on leaving.
“Being able to give back to people in my hometown is how I want to do business,” Roney said. “I want to take care of the people in this community and the kids around here who are going the same route I went. I love the fact I can have people in here and imprint on them in a good manner, and to do it in my hometown is just icing on the cake.”
For right now, Ground Up Performance is catered towards the high-leveled players in the community because that’s the brand Roney wants to build. He wants to build a place for guys who are very serious about their craft and very serious about wanting to get better.
That’s not to say he won’t help teach or coach younger players, as he said he is planning to host camps and do team rentals.
Along with other instructors, he will have individual lessons in the future, and he hopes his good relationships with the area’s coaches will help with that.
“There’s going to be a lot of stuff offered with our program, but that kind of 12-years-old and up range is where we are focused right now,” Roney said. “We will run camps for kids and teach them things, but our current focus is on people who are really, really serious about baseball.”
In one of the sessions last week, players such as Fleming and Woodham stepped up on the mound and pitched live to the batters from the county. Fleming, who can hit 90-plus mph on the mound, gave batters something they haven’t seen but once or twice during the regular season.
Roney even stepped on the mound and pitched live at-bats to batters.
“Having a place where kids can come in and see 90 mph or around that is an advantage that I can give them,” Roney said. “Some of them won’t see a pitch that fast until they get to college, but I can show them what to get ready for.”
Plus, it lets Roney have some fun and continue pitching himself.
“I get to compete and pitch and still have fun while doing it,” Roney said. “I’m not too old to get up on the mound myself. I can offer these kids and show them, ‘Hey, you think you can hit 90? Step in and figure it out.’”
