Frisco Athletic Network is set to open its very own sports facility May 21.
The facility, LoneStar Sports Center, is a 36,000 sq. ft. area that will include seven volleyball courts, a snack shop, pro-shop kiosks, offices and a conference room. It will be home to LoneStar Volleyball Club, Frisco Youth Volleyball League, LoneStar Academy and Smackdown Tournaments.
“I am very excited about the fact that we are going to be able to promote volleyball from a volleyball-specific facility,” founder and director Arneva Martin said. “The LoneStar Sports Center will bring attention to youth volleyball in a city that is nationally recognized as one of the best places to raise an athlete.”
The Center will host many of Frisco Athletic Network’s activities including club volleyball tournaments, youth volleyball games, volleyball practices, private lessons, skills training and open-play nights.
“We’ve got professional athletes coming in to conduct skills camps,” Martin said. “We are also looking at adding on other sports, such as wrestling and indoor tennis.”
Arneva Martin has been looking for a home to call her organization’s own for nine years.
“We started out as a group of parents with talented young athletes on a single team and as the visibility and popularity has grown in Frisco and the surrounding cities, the organization grew as well,” Martin said. “We started with ten kids and are now at somewhere around 1,200 members.”
Martin said that as the number of athletes grew, so did her want and need for the facility.
“Because we’ve grown so much in size, we have outgrown the facilities that we are renting now,” Martin said. “We are a year-round program and other seasonal sports took up our court space. This will truly allow us to be a fully functional, year-round training center.”
Martin credits her family of coaches and administrative staff for bringing this dream to fruition, most notably Technical Director and former UNT coach, Harvey Sanders, scouting expert and former South Eastern Oklahoma State University head coach, Skip Freeman, and financial director and USA Volleyball National Referee, Chris Mares.
“We have a phenomenal coaching staff who is completely dedicated to the sport of volleyball and sharing their knowledge of passion and the game,”
Martin said. “Not only are they coaches, but they are also an integral part of this overall organization.”
The new facility will also make it easier to control schedules, optimize the court time and the coaches availability to train more kids as the sport grows in the North Texas area.
“There’s a need for a focus just on this sport,” Martin said.
Parents in the programs have shown an overwhelming amount of support for Martin’s endeavors. They have been volunteering their time, their networks and their resources to help get the doors open.
“Before the announcement of the Sports Center, word got out that we were close to realizing our dreams and the support from the members grew faster than the facility itself,” she said. “Our club family has a pride of ownership before it is even open.”
Construction has started on the LoneStar Sports Center and will open the day of the Frisco Youth Volleyball League tournament.
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