The Ball Game

A new football-tossing machine by Verdi-based Sports Attack LLC might just give the tiny 13-year-old company a leg-up in the sports throwing-machine industry.

Sports Attack last week introduced its "Snap Attack," a throwing machine that simulates the quarterback snap, as well as the passing and kicking aspects of football. The company introduced the machine at football clinics in Georgia and Florida, but Sports Attack co-founder Doug Boehner says it's too early to gauge feedback for future sales.

Sports Attack, a privately funded venture with 12 employees in 7,200 square feet at the Verdi Business Park, was founded in 1995 when Boehner retired from Sparks-based ATEC, one of two industry giants in the baseball and softball pitching-machine business. Jugs of Tualatin, Ore. is the other big player.

"They are the Coke and Pepsi of the industry," says Kurt Brenner, partner and vice president of sales.

Selling sports teams and leagues that have long used Jugs or ATEC equipment on the benefits of a tiny company located in Verdi hasn't been easy.

Sports Attack believes its throwing machines are superior because they use three wheels rather than two to impel baseballs or softballs. Boehner says this setup better simulates the arm action of a pitcher because the ball never leaves the batter's vision, whereas with standard two-wheel machines the ball is obscured from view until it is launched from the machine.

"We have a timing element," he says.

Baseball and softball are the company's biggest-selling machines, along with scaled-down equipment for youth leagues. Sports Attack sells its throwing machines throughout the country, with international sales, primarily of volleyball machines, accounting for about 3 percent of gross revenue. California and Texas are the company's major U.S. sales territories.

"It's where the sports are played, where the money is put into the schools, and where the people are," Boehner says.

When Boehner retired from ATEC he signed a five-year non-competition agreement, so the company's first venture was a volleyball-throwing machine. He says Sports Attack far outsells all competitors in that market segment.

"Volleyball was exploding, and there was a need, especially with Title IX, so that's where we went," he says. "We took over that market."

Also during that five-year non-competition agreement Boehner engineered a tennis machine. Both the tennis and volleyball machines can be raised to service height, another huge boon in marketing the products.

"We found a little niche there," Boehner says.

Future products include cricket and lacrosse machines, as well as computerized pitching machines that will automatically throw a sequence of pitches, which the company hopes to introduce in January.

"The electronics are the biggest challenge because we only have experience in the mechanical side," Boehner says.

Sports Attack manufactures and assembles all its equipment in-house and has re-invested a large portion of its profits in tooling, equipment and manufacturing over the years. Local parts suppliers include PDM

Steel of Sparks, Production Pattern and Foundry in Mound House for castings, R & E Fasteners of Reno,

Performance Precision Sheet Metal of Reno, and Fall Line Corp. of Reno for impelling wheels.

Hard choices have come with the decision whether to invest in new machines or spend money on marketing. The latter has suffered, and the company primarily uses word-of-mouth to gain acceptance.

"I think has taken little longer than we expected (to reach profitability)," says Bruehner, "and there is a lot of love labor involved. We put a lot in because we own the company."