DAPHNE, Alabama—They say great minds think alike. Well, it appears the same holds true for great arms as well, one belonging to a former All-American softball ace and the other to an active Major League pitcher with one World Series ring to his credit and room for more. In other words, the minds and arms of Coby Mackin and J.C. Romero teaming up to start a diamond-sports training center.

Add to the mix an experienced certified athletic trainer with physician-assistant credentials in Lee Mackin — Coby's husband — and a professional facility manager and marketing director in Erin Romero — J.C.'s wife — and you have the makings of a solid goal-oriented foundation and structure, a Fieldhouse, that is. A very family-oriented one, where students of the game can touch all the bases or concentrate on a favorite.

The indoor baseball and softball training facility will be called The Fieldhouse when it opens in Daphne on Capital Drive next month with batting cages and private lessons in hitting, pitching, catching, defensive skills, base running and more. Mackin and Romero played college softball and baseball at the University of Mobile during the 1990s where they met and became friends. The two stayed in touch and recently decided to go into business together.

"My husband Lee and I are excited to partner with J.C .and Erin — dear friends for 20 years," Coby Mackin said. "We believe God has been leading us individually in this direction, and then brought us together in this joint venture at just the right time. We all recognize the need for the services we are able to provide, and consider it an honor to make a difference in the lives of young athletes through baseball and softball. I have been teaching private softball lessons for many years and I feel compelled to help elevate the level of competition in our area. Now that we are opening this facility designated for baseball and softball players, it will allow us to provide our services to many more athletes."

Mackin, who has also stayed active coaching travel ball said she and Lee, who met at Spring Hill, wanted to focus on improving individual skills based from a central location that included both baseball and softball instruction along with in-house physical therapy, core-strength, weight-training and eventually nutritional supervision and — in the future — would also be a home base for competitive team activities like professionally coached travel ball.

"The organization that I'm starting is competitive travel ball with professional coaching," she said. "Softball players in our area are somewhat under-recruited compared to other parts of the country, and I believe this is due to lack of experience, not a lack of ability. It's my hope that through the level of coaching we are able to provide, the competition in our area will be strengthened, thereby giving more girls both in our organization and on other teams a stronger background of experience. In turn there will be more players from our area with the preparation to be impact players at the college level. Our instructors have competed and coached at the highest levels of the sport, and are ready to share their knowledge and expertise with young athletes.”

Some of those instructors will include former local high-school and college standouts like Haley Hopkins who played for Gulf Shores High and the University of South Alabama. Hopkins set a new all-time record for home runs for the Jaguars and pitched GSHS to a state championship.

Romero, who is now with the Baltimore Orioles, plans on rejoining the staff at The Fieldhouse after the 2012 MLB season which he hopes will not be until after another World Series win. Meanwhile, in an email, he said he was looking forward to working with younger athletes.

"We are trying to give the young kids an opportunity to learn from some very experienced coaches and instructors," he said. "I can give the kids valuable knowledge about the game that I have learned over my past 14 (Major League Baseball) seasons, but I can also give them valuable knowledge about my life and my experiences as a high school and college athlete. The decisions that you make as a young athlete will will affect your entire future.

"My wife Erin and I are very excited to be teaming up with Coby and her husband Lee and to be able to give the kids an indoor facility where they can practice and better themselves with the personal attention they need. We want to address not only the physical but also the mental aspect of the sport and combine those two with a very important ingredient which I call Christian faith."

The Fieldhouse has recently set up a facebook page with more information and will be online at www.trainatthefieldhouse.com in 1-2 weeks.

“J.C. will be back in town at the end of his season and will start offering lessons right away,” Mackin said. “We are opening in September and having our official Grand Opening following a short time later (After Romero returns). We will keep (those interested) posted on our progress and we also might provide a sneak peak on our construction progress.”

As a player Mackin was named both a First Team All-American and an academic All-American. As a coach she is not at all new to start ups having built the Spring Hill College women's program from scratch. Later she was also the head coach at her alma mater UM where she led the Rams to the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference Tournament title as well as the Region XIII Tournament championship. More recently, she served as pitching coach and an assistant coach on the University of South Alabama Jaguars coaching staff.

For her collegiate coaching career, Mackin holds a record of 309-159-3. She started the softball program at Spring Hill College in 1998 and led the Badgers for eight seasons, compiling a career record of 289-138-4 (.675). As head coach there, Mackin coached 10 National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) All-Americans, 26 NAIA All-Region players and 48 All-Conference players. She led SHC to a third place finish in the NAIA championships and was named Gulf Coast Athletic Conference Coach of the Year. From 2002-2004 she also served as director of athletics and recreation at Spring Hill College.

As a student-athlete at the University of Mobile, Mackin led the Rams to four national tournament appearances. She was named NAIA First Team All-American in 1996 and was a three-time NAIA All-America Scholar Athlete. She earned a bachelors degree from UM, majoring in communication and Spanish. After college, she played one season with the Durham Dragons in the Women's Professional Softball League.

Meanwhile Romero has stayed active in the Big Leagues. Most recently, with the Baltimore Orioles who reunited with him in a trade with the Cleveland Indians. The veteran left-handed reliever began his MLB career after playing for the UM Rams when he was drafted by the

Minnesota Twins in the 21st round of the 1997 Major League Baseball draft. He later won two games in the 2008 World Series for the Philadelphia Phillies over the Tampa Bay Rays including picking up the decisive Game 5 victory. A good hitting, switch-hitting pitcher, Romero's wife Erin said he was looking forward to teaching hitting as well as pitching at The Fieldhouse when this season is over.